Hopper hut

A hopper hut was a form of temporary accommodation provided for hop-pickers on English farms in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Background

in September 1849. Hovels, huts & houses] A Pocketful of Hops] [http://www.buriton.org.uk/bhb/infosheet03.htm Buriton] ] [http://www.lgfl.net/lgfl/accounts/holnet/upload/lsb/pupils/hop.htm LGFL] ] [http://www.hants.gov.uk/scrmxn/c12761.html Hants CC] ] [http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/Collections/OnlineResources/X20L/Themes/1385/1145/ Museum of London] ] [http://www.hoppingdowninkent.org.uk/health.php Hopping down in Kent] George Orwell's account of conditions in September 1931]

In 1865, the Rev J Y Stratton began a campaign to improve the conditions of the hop-pickers. Also during the 1860s, the Rev J J Kendon, visiting Goudhurst, was appalled at the plight of the hop-pickers and began campaigning for improvements. This lead to the formation of the "Society for Employment and Improved Lodgings for Hop Pickers" in 1866. By the 1870s, the South Eastern Railway and the London Chatham and Dover Railway were running "Hop Pickers' Specials" to transport Londoners to the towns and villages at the start of the season. Similar trains were run to serve the pickers in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The first bye-laws covering hop-pickers' accommodation were adopted at Bromley in Kent under the Sanitary Acts Amendment Act, 1874. Kendon made his headquarters at Curtisden Green and by 1889 had a team of over a dozen missionaries.

In 1898, Father Richard Wilson, a priest from Stepney, London, became curious as to what his parishioners did when they disappeared so he persuaded one family to take him with them. He too was appalled by the conditions the pickers had to live in, but would go with them each year, gradually gaining their trust. From 1897 he rented a cottage at Five Oak Green for 2s.6d a week, furnishing it with cots and providing a nurse, thus the "Little Hoppers Hospital" was born. It was very busy that year, as there was an outbreak of smallpox. A few years later he was able to rent a larger cottage. By 1906 most of the districts of Kent had adopted similar laws and many farms had Hopper Huts by 1914. In 1910, Father Wilson bought the Rose and Crown public house in Five Oak Green and turned the building into the "Hoppers' Hospital". The building bore the legend "E and H Kelsey's Fine Ales, Stout and Porter Sold Here" over three lines. Father Wilson simply added the word NOT before the last two words. The Hoppers Hospital was in operation for over 60 years. The Salvation Army also used to visit the hop pickers in the fields and attend to their welfare. There was also a Hoppers Hospital at Marden, which was not connected with the one at Five Oak Green.Hops & Hop Picking] [http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/work/england/kent/article_4.shtml Hoppers Hospital] ] [http://www.mardenhistory.org.uk/2lev_hoppershospital.htm Marden Hoppers Hospital] ] Old Days in the Kentish Hop Gardens]

Construction

were also used as accommodation for hop-pickers. [http://www.blackcountrystories.co.uk/Hop%20pickers%20Accommodation.htm Hopper Huts] ]

The huts generally had an earth floor, and were lit by either candles or paraffin lamps. Water would be via a standpipe which had to be within convert|150|yd|m and sanitation provided by a dedicated toilet block, usually with an earth closet. There would generally be a dedicated cookhouse which the hop-pickers would use to prepare their meals. It was generally discouraged by the farmers for the pickers to have fires in their huts. A few brick built huts were provided with custom built fireplaces and chimneys. The interior of the huts was generally limewashed or distempered.

The furniture within the huts was provided by the pickers. Only very basic bedding was provided - hay and ferns, faggots and straw, then faggots and a palliasse. Some pickers built themselves basic beds of scrap timber with a palliasse. In the late 1940s and 1950s ex-army steel frame beds were used.

George Orwell

George Orwell tried his hand at hop-picking at Blest's Farm, somewhere near Maidstone, in September 1931, travelling down from London disguised as a tramp. He spent his time living in a Hopper Hut made of tin (corrugated iron), thus discovering that fruit and hop picking was not quite the idyllic life described by many scholars and writers of the time. Orwell earned 9/- in a week, and observed that a family of gypsies who had picked every year since birth earned 14/- each. His account was published in "A Clergyman's Daughter" in 1935. [http://members.lycos.co.uk/DerekBright/ Derek Bright] ] [http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/O/OrwellGeorge/prose/ClergymasDaughter/clergydaughter2_4.html Clergyman's Daughter] ] [http://www.hoppingdowninkent.org.uk/payment.php Hopping down in Kent] George Orwell's account of hop picking]

urvival, conversion, preservation and re-creation

.These were a row of six huts built of brick under a peg tiled roof, with integral fireplaces. [http://www.hoppingdowninkent.org.uk/gallery.php?collection=2 Museum of Kent Life] ]

References

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Further reading

Oasts
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Hop picking

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External links

* [http://www.hoppingdowninkent.org.uk/index.php Hopping down in Kent] All about hopping.
* [http://www.rowberry.org/hhhist.html Rowberry] hop picking
* [http://www.btinternet.com/~hunny.pot/homepage/hopping.html Hunny Pot] hop picking
* [http://www.wealddown.co.uk/Magazine/magazine-spring-2001-wagons-collection.htm Weald & Downland] hop wagon
* [http://www.doverpages.co.uk/hopping.htm Eastry] account of the arrival of the hop-pickers
* [http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/smith.htm Wiggy Smith] A gypsy's account mentioning hop-picking and entertainment at the camps
* [http://www.victorianlondon.org/mayhew/mayhew15.htm Victorian London] an account of a girl flower seller from London in the 1840s, hop-picking is mentioned.
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/voices/hartlake/hop_picking.shtml BBC] A Romany's account of the yearly cycle
* [http://poultrydiscussion.blogspot.com/2007/09/hop-picking-in-1940s.html Betty Manning] An account of the arrival of the hop-pickers
* [http://comp.uark.edu/~dsears/photos/Eileen54hop/ 1954 hop picking] A gallery of photographs of hop picking taken in 1954
* [http://wadhurst.info/wadhurst/trefoil/hops.htm Wadhurst hops] Hop picking in Wadhurst
* [http://www.froyle.com/hopgdn.htm Froyle] Hop growing in the 1900s at Froyle, Hants
* [http://www.teon.org.uk/contents/weald/hopping.htm Hopping Play] A play about hop-picking
* [http://www.invectis.co.uk/kent/kent.htm Invectis] Hop Gardens, Oast Houses & Farming, Hopper Huts illustrated.