common with most other big hop growers, put in some picking machines in the mid '50s. They kept hand picking going, on a reducing scale for advertising purposes. Also, the London Education Authority clamped down on children missing school, which had been tolerated until 1948. Cheap holidays abroad drew thousands away from "Hopping".
But on September 15th 1968, very heavy rainfall caused unprecedented flooding in the Medway valley, devastating hopper camps especially at Beltring and East Peckham, where pickers had to be evacuated. This disaster prompted Whitbread to decide that they could not accept responsibility for pickers in camps.
Thus the incentive to mechanize and dispense with hand labour became imperative. In due course, other hop growers became reconciled to the fact that the annual invasion of "Happy Hoppers" would never return. So, 400 years of hand-picking ended. As with any farming practice, "progress" has inevitably brought about change in the farming year, but as long as hops are still grown (sadly in ever decreasing acreages), crisp September mornings may still conjure up memories of those “hopping mornings” that now belong to another era.
More excerpts from The Diaries of the Reverend Coker Egerton [of Burwash] (edited by Roger Wells) - sent in by Gwyn Skae
25.02.1878 Called on Mrs. Weston. She told me that she and Master Weston were married at Mr. Tournay's (the Civil Registrar) at Ticehurst, and that when they went over there they didn't go together but were to meet there; however Master Weston on his way picked up a rabbit, and went back home with it! And never turned up to be married at all! The ceremony did not come off for another 6 weeks
28.03.1878 Mr. P. told me that he had lately sent two consignments of rams to the Falkland Islands.
21.04.1878 A flock of Mr. Jesse Piper's sheep 1438 in number, cam thro' obliged to travel Sunday because they cannot get food enough for more than night at a place.
06.07.1878 Called on old Mrs., Vigor. She told me that when Lord Ashburnham, who is just dead, was married, he had in his employ a man who squinted very badly. It was thought that if the Countess when in the family way should happen to see him the children might squint, so the man was sent to London, and had his eyes turned right!
1 1.07.1878 A large black strange dog came on to the lawn whilst I was fiddling in the drawing room. I went out and treated him to some vigorous consecutive fifths, imperfect I dare say, but powerful. The effect was ludicrous; the dog bolted as if all the bagpipers in Scotland were screaming behind him.
09.03.1879 Called on Mr. Bawmer, Brick House, out. His mother in law explained his absence from Church by saying that he had got into the habit of sitting in the house with his hat on, and he was afraid he should catch cold if he had to sit without it in Church!
26.04.1879 Mr. Gregory wrote to ask me to nominate a Keeper of the Post Office on Burwash Common at a salary of £4 per annum.
25.06.1879 Mrs. Weston showed me an apron of linen, the flax of which were grown, bleached, spun and woven in Burwash in 1815 or 1816. Also a blanket in constant use over 50 years and still serviceable.
06.10.1879 Discovered my first grey hair!
18.1 1.1879 I called on Maskell at the Forge; poor man, wife dead, and cannot yet get a housekeeper though his son (15) at home. I asked him how they got their cooking done. "We don't have none" was the answer.
27.01.1880 In afternoon funeral of old (farmworker) Edmund Hilder 84. Kept me waiting some time owing to the family discussion in the Bell yard, whether the old gentleman should be shifted from the parish coffin into a better one prepared by Tom Brook. It was at last ruled that he should be left undisturbed.
06.02.1880 Buried Mr. John Stevenson of Salehurst, late of Bateman's. Enormously heavy coffin, bearers hardly up to the weight.
13.03.1880 ... Lovely day. Fetched out all the old cripples in the village .... (!!)
07.04.1880 Mrs. Baitup and her husband turned out of their cottage at a weeks notice. After working for 25 years on Mr. Vigor's farm to make way for Balford and his wife. It is really hard. [continued on p. 124]
122
The Morning Chronicle : Labour and the Poor, 1849-50; Henry Mayhew - from Letter XV
“After flowers, I goes a-hopping: can then earn 1s. or 1s. 6d. a day, according to crops and times; but that only for a short time; and there's goings and comings back to pay.
The very night that she came home from gaol her father sent her out in the streets again. She continued in this state, her father and mother living upon her prostitution, until about nine months ago, when her father turned her out of his house because she couldn't bring home money enough to him. She then went into Kent, hop-picking, and there she fell in with a beggar, who accosted her while she was sitting under a tree. He said, "You have got a very bad pair of shoes on; come with me, and you shall have some better ones." She consented, and walked with him into the village close by, where they stood out in the middle of the streets, and the man began addressing the people, saying, "My kind good Christians, me and my poor wife here is ashamed to appear before you in the state we are." She remained with this person all the winter, and travelled with him through the country, begging their way. He was a regular beggar by trade. In the spring she returned to the flower-selling, but scarcely got any money either by that or other means. At last she grew desperate, and wanted to get back to prison. She broke the lamps outside the Mansion-house, and was sentenced to fourteen days' imprisonment. She has been out of prison nearly three weeks, and is now in training to go into an asylum. She is sick and tired, she says, of her life.”
“The bone-pickers belong mostly to this class. The "pure" pickers, however (or those who make a living by collecting dogs' dung in the streets), are generally to be found in London all the year round, with the exception of the hay season. the corn harvest, and hop-picking time, when a very large portion leave London.“