Kent is known as the “Garden of England” because of its abundance of orchards and hops gardens. Hops are the flowers of the Humulus lupulus plant, used mainly as a bittering, flavoring, and stabilizing agent in beer and imparting floral, fruity, or citrus flavors and aromas. They are also used in other beverages and herbal medicines. There are separate female and male hops plants, and only female plants are used for commercial production.
Kent was the earliest center for hop culture as it had good soil, an enclosed field system, and a good supply of wood for poles and charcoal for drying that contributed to the creation of the first English hop garden near Canterbury in 1520. Kent farmers were also among the wealthiest of their time to afford the initial capital outlay.
Henry Butcher invented simple yet effective training hops in Kent about 1875. Picking the hops in September required a lot of workforces in all hop-growing regions of England, as the crop’s value depends on it being picked quickly and at the right time. During the mid-17th century, some ‘strangers came a-hopping’ in Kent, indicating that there were few local workers. London mainly provided Kent’s workforce, and at its peak, over 80,000 people poured into Kent every autumn. – The British Hop Association.
Below are some fascinating black and white pictures of hop picker families of Kent from the early 1900s.
