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Tallymen and a group of binmen
© Richard Filmer
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The hoppers of Kent |
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In the 20th Century, conditions improved and hop farmers began to provide decent accommodation and hot and cold water. By 1914, the Local Government Board in Kent decreed that there was no longer any serious overcrowding and unsanitary conditions, despite a booming hopper population. In 1907, the number of hopper pickers from outside the area was estimated at 74,748 by Kent’s County Medical Officer, Dr William Howarth.
Picking hops
© Hop Farm Country Park, Kent |
Although living conditions improved, the prejudice with which hopper families were viewed by local people in Kent took far longer to diminish. Until the 1950s it was common to see signs in Kent’s rural public houses saying: No dogs, no gypsies and no hoppers. However, according to Richard Filmore, the hopper families accepted this as cheerfully as they had earlier accepted squalid accommodation.
But the future of the hoppers looked to be threatened by more than just discrimination from locals - in 1934, the first hop-picking machine was built. By the middle of the 20th Century half of Kent’s hops were being picked mechanically, and the appeal of sleeping in a barn for a working holiday began to lose its appeal for the London families who now lived in modern homes. Hopping was a dying industry, a victim of encroaching machinery.
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