Comments on: More Hop Picking Pictures

By: Sandra Ash

Sandra Ash — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 19:20:21 +0000

I went with my extended family to Old Hay Farm in the 1950s
and 1960s I would love to hear from anyone who was there at that time.
Family names include Waters, Gibbs, Flint,
We stayed on the “top common”, there was also a bottom common.
There was a mixture of corrugated tin and brick huts.

By: John stevens

John stevens — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 16:04:11 +0000

The Day family from Kirks Place, Limehouse, at Highwoods Farm in Collier St, Kent in the fifties

Hi Great picture I dont know who the other are but the guy with the baby and the cap is my Granfather George Pye and the old lady is my grandmother Matilda Pye

By: Michelle Yuzik

Michelle Yuzik — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 04:17:31 +0000

I had an aunt (my mother’s sister) whose name was Sheila. She went missing from the Kootenays (in British Columbia CANADA) in the 1950’s or early 1960’s.
This is the first reference to her name which was Sheila Tarling. My grandfather Ralph Harvey James Tarling (1891 – 1967) was from London, England, United Kingdom.
We have not heard from Sheila since she left.

By: Patricia Moore

Patricia Moore — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 19:05:28 +0000

Hi Julie Tyndall

Sorry but I meant to say that ” I didn’t remember the name Watkins ”

I wish I was going hop picking this year, happy days

Pat Moore Nee Harris.

By: Patricia Moore

Patricia Moore — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 19:41:45 +0000

Hi Julie Tyndall

I use to go to bull farm Cranbrook, from an early age , I’m 75. now, and was glad to get away from London Camberwell. I don’t recall the name Tyndall but probably because your grandmother was in the hop huts looking over towards the pond, we were the other side, my 2 brothers use to fish in the pond. My mum and grandmother are long gone so I can’t ask them, as maybe they would have known your family We last went hopping to bulls farm in 1958 when I was 13. such happy days.
Thanks for your reply Pat Moore nee Harris

By: Nicky Campbell

Nicky Campbell — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 22:28:43 +0000

Hi All

I have returned to this site after a few years and I am fascinated to read the replies regarding Ploggs Hall.

My husband Angus Campbell and I still own the Hoppers Huts and cookhouse that belonged to Ploggs Hall. They have been in the family since the early 60’s. The huts are still in use as stables, poultry housing and for storage.

If any of the ex Ploggs Hall Hoppers would like get in touch, that would be great. My email address is nickyc1963@gmail.com

Kind regards
Nicky

By: Allan Haynes

Allan Haynes — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 17:05:25 +0000

Greetings.
Just happened to find your website whilst looking for something completely different…..
Enjoying your Paddock Wood hopping pictures and comments.
From the other side of the fence … my grandfather Charles Norton was bailiff (manager) at Ploggs Hall hop farm from 1936 to 1945 or 1946. He never stayed on one farm for too long ! He and his wife Jessie had the house as their “tied cottage” Some cottage ! Sold away from the farm in recent years for £2.1 million !! Living with them were son Frank and daughter Violet (Vie), my mother. She was farm secretary, and I have a photo of her in the Ploggs Hall hop garden doing the booking at measuring out time. I would be delighted to send the picture if you can give me an email address to send it to. I was born at Pembury Hospital in 1943 and spent my first few days or weeks at Ploggs Hall, but of course I don’t remember any of it !
Miss Whitby in the photograph is listed in Mum’s old address book, at 28 Myrtle Street, Stepney. We went back to Ploggs Hall on a pilgrimage in 1954, and met up with the Mahoney family who she remembered from years before.
Our bit of the family had moved to Chatham in 1943 and Vie became a town girl, but she could never forget the hops. For many years she went hopping at Jack Clark’s farm at Meresborough, near Rainham, Kent. They paid 6d. a bushel, but the tradition was that there was always a strike at some point for more money ! In the mid 1960s they installed a picking machine at the farm. It seemed a bit strange that this huge tin monster was built by KEF in Maidstone, whose better known products were very expensive hi-fi loudspeakers ! Mum went on the machine, picking out bunches, leaves, etc., and I was by then old enough to drive the tractor carting the bines down to the shed. I had the charge of a brand new Massey Ferguson 135 tractor, one of the best things a boy like me could aspire to.
Some good times, and the memory of that wonderful smell will stay with me for ever. (The hops, rather than the diesel…). I say “memory” because – I have now completely lost my sense of smell.
Best wishes with the site,
Allan Haynes.

By: Julie Tyndall

Julie Tyndall — Mon, 09 Oct 2017 12:24:42 +0000

Pat Moore nee Harris: My grandmother Lilian Watkins and her family used to go to Bull Farm, Cranbrook hop picking.

Here are some notes she made from before she died – she was 93!

Hop Picking in Kent.

Each year the family would go hop picking at Bull Farm near Cranbrook in Kent. I went hop picking from about the age of 4 or 5 until I started work (Mid 1920s -Mid 1930s).

Three or four families from Mansion Street, London would all get together and hire a van and load it with old chairs and mattress covers.

They would go down to the farm which was in a hollow where there were huts set up for them around a pond. The water was not good enough to drink or wash in but the kids played around it. The farmer would cut loads of faggots which the families then took to make up their beds. They would then stuff their mattresses with hay or straw and lay that on the faggot beds.

There would be big open fires on which they would cook and make cups of tea.

Whilst the adults cut down the hop vines the children would pick the hops off the vines and then pick the leaves out of the barrels to ensure the bushels of hops were clean and got best price.

Hope this helps…x

By: Eva Miller

Eva Miller — Sat, 08 Oct 2016 16:53:54 +0000

Myself & mum ,dad, brothers sisters went to bull farm hoppicking ,1950s I think

By: jill Moon . I have a colored pictur framed and painters naee at the bottom of the frame it \t bottoonid yhe hop pickers working my father bought this picture

Thu, 22 Sep 2016 13:17:05 +0000

I have a coured framed picture of hop picking in Kent. painters name on boyyom of picture . my father John Francis Moon who sold your beer in our Store my father bought this picture in 1937 when amongst others he was invited down to your farm, I would like to know its value now please..