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Home > Agricultural History Studies in Regional and Local History > Out of the Hay and Into the Hops
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Out of the Hay and Into the Hops

Hop cultivation in Wealden Kent and hop marketing in Southwark, 1744–2000

Author: Celia Cordle

Price: £18.99 (free postage)

"

“This book is innovative in terms of its scale and content, and in drawing the connections between the two districts of Kent and London it is a fascinating and valuable addition to the literature on hop culture. Its methodological approach is also very impressive and the use of a range of both quantitative and qualitative source material acts as a model for what a local and regional study can achieve... this is a thorough and thoroughly pleasing study of one of England's 'alternative' agricultures.”

-Nicola Verdon,
Economic History Review

About the book

“Utterly fascinating” Journal of Kent History

“As an insight into an iconic rural landscape, this an excellent guide.” Rural History

“This strongly recommended book has enabled me to develop my understanding of this agricultural, commercial and social phenomenon.” Local History News

“[a] window onto a past age, now clearly lost to us.” Jonathan Healey, Local Population Studies

Out of the Hay and into the Hops explores the history and development of hop cultivation in the Weald of Kent together with the marketing of this important crop in the Borough at Southwark (where a significant proportion of Wealden hops were sold).

A picture emerges of the relationship between the two activities, as well as of the impact this rural industry had upon the lives of the people engaged in it.

  • More about the book

    Dr Cordle draws extensively on personal accounts of hop work to evoke a way of life now lost for good. Oral history, together with evidence from farm books and other sources, records how the steady routine of hop ploughing and dung spreading, weeding and spraying contrasted with the bustle and excitement of hop picking (bringing in, as it did, many itinerant workers from outside the community to help with the harvest) and the anxious period of drying the crop.

    For hops, prey to the vagaries of weather and disease, needed much care and attention to bring them to fruition. In early times their cultivation provided work for more people than any other crop.

    The diverse processes of hop cultivation are examined within the wider context of events such as the advent of rail and the effects of war, as are changes to the working practices and technologies used, and their reception and implementation in the Weald.

    Meanwhile, in the Borough, an enclave of hop factors and merchants, whose interests sometimes conflicted with those of the hop growers, arose and then suffered decline. A full account of this trade is presented, including day-to-day working practices, links with the Weald, and the changes in hop marketing following Britain's entry into the European Economic Community.

    This book provides readers with a fascinating analysis of some three hundred years of hop history in the Weald and the Borough. Hops still grow in the Weald; in the Borough, the Le May façade and the gates of the Hop Exchange are reminders of former trade.

  • View the table of contents

    Contents


     List of figuresviii
     List of tablesviii
     List of appendicesix
     General Editor’s prefacexi
     Abbreviationsxiii
     Acknowledgementsxiv
     Introduction: ‘… into the hops’1
    1Land and location5
     The Weald5
     Changes in hop acreage9
     Woodland and the hop11
     The hop and employment12
     Southwark13
    2Fringe farms: the early days of hop cultivation18
     A farm at Ivychurch: 1789–181219
     Ruffins Hill Farm, Burmarsh, Kent, 1696–1720 and Forestall Farm, Burmarsh, Kent, 1764–7524
     Forestall Farm25
     Tatlingbury Farm, near Tudeley, Kent, 1744–5828
     Biddenden Farm 1849–6032
     Organisation of the work33
     The plough team34
     Hop work38
     Hops in the economy of Biddenden Farm48
    3Continuity and change: Combourne and Harper’s Farms 1897–950
     Issues of the time53
     Ernest Wickham and hop cultivation58
     Manure59
     Washes and sprays64
     Hop poles, wirework and creosote68
     The harvest77
     Endings80
    4The twentieth century: futures82
     Varieties91
     Dwarf hops93
    5Hop factors and hop merchants: buying and selling hops in the Borough96
     Middlemen97
     Direct selling and the Waddington case101
     Hop factors106
     Hop merchants110
     People and places118
    6The last hurrah? Tithe commutation and the repeal of hop duty127
     John Nash and the repeal of hop duty133
     Conclusion: gathering up and moving on138
     Appendices143
     Select bibliography167
     Index177
     Figures 
    1Geological map of the High and Low Wealds with approximate farm locations8
    2Diagram of potential rail access to hop markets from Biddenden Farm46
    3Plan of the Borough High Street and neighbourhood119
     Tables 
    1Wealden parish and English hop acreages at intervals between 1866 and 198810
    2Average prices of Kentish hop bags and hop pockets in relation to English hop yields 1787–9722
    3The numbers of hop factors and hop merchants in the Borough at selected dates97

  • About the Author/s:

    Celia Cordle

    Celia Cordle studied English Local History at the University of Leicester and was awarded her PhD in 2006.

    Her doctoral thesis won Kent Archaeological Society's inaugural Hasted Prize in 2007.

ISBN: 978-1-907396-04-5 Format: Paperback, 200pp Published: Sep 2011

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Any questions

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