The lowly hop is all around in Kent, in the fields, on pub signs, on linen and on all manner of things in souvenir shops. Its origins seem a little uncertain, some soures saying that it is indigenous and originally used as a herbal remedy, while others tell of it being brought from Flanders. At one time, the new shoots of "wild" hops were sought in the hedgerows to be used as a vegetable on the table of local labourers. Wherever it came from, it found its home here in Kent and has prospered as a cultivated variety since the time of Henry VIII. There were concerns about its introduction into brewing at that time although it seems to be fairly widely accepted by the reign of Elizabeth the oneth. The City of London made an appeal to Parliament at the beginning of the 17th Cenury against the use of hops claiming that, "this wicked weed would spoil the drink and endanger the lives of the people". There were also complaints about hops during the Commonwealth period but then there seems to have been complaints about most things during that time. There were even suggestions that the production of cider would be more healthy than the growing and addition of hops into ale. That would have turned Kent into another Somerset - heaven forbid!! However, like most things that produce income and make people wealthy, the hop had its foot-hold and remains to this day, still endangering the lives of people like me! One of the main benefits of growing hops in Kent is not only the soil but the fact that the sweet chestnut grows abundantly and quickly in Kent. As the hop is a vine and needs to be trained up something to grow at its best, the fact that there are ample supplies of sweet chestnut trees that can be cut for hop poles is an added benefit in Kent.

These days hops are cut and picked by machine but it was not so long ago that all this was done by hand. I rather think that the change came about in about 1960 when the machines started taking over. Prior to this hopping was very labour intensive from planting to harvesting. From the cutting of the poles, "stringing" of the actual field, at one time done on stilts, to the harvesting, all manner of local and casual labour were employed. With the coming of the railways, more and more Londoners fed into Kent during the picking season and lived in camps of wooden huts adjacent to the fields. At one time the railways would actually put on special hop-picking trains to distribute all these casual labourers and their families into the Kent countryside. I have often wondered how many baptisms of London children took place in Kent over the years. It might not be a significant number but possibly an area to investigate for those genealogists who are missing a connection where the family is known to have lived in a poorer area at one time and the birth would have taken place in late Summer. There's some that might say that baptisms would have waited until the workers returned to London but the "Victorian" way of doing things, especially if a child was sickly, was to have the baptism completed as soon as possible. Following WWII, when life started to become more prosperous (or perhaps train travel became more expensive!), the exodus of Londoners to Kent dwindled and the slack was taken up by local Kent families until the machines arrived.

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