Fantastic video albeit too short ,showing post war Londoners in the Kent hop gardens . This was typically an East End of London annual tradition where whole families would decamp to the hop farms with all the necessary cooking equipment etc and temporarily live in huts provided by the farmers. The straw bales are broken up and stuffed into sacks etc to provide warm and comfy sleeping mattresses.
I worked the picking season tractor driving between the hop alleys on a farm in Selling , East Kent . The pickers were still down from London and were continuing their family tradition
West London Chiswick , Devonshire Road/William Street. A relation had an open backed lorry, he and his wife would take us all down to Paddock Wood, leaving his wife with us. Open fires spuds on a stick, black pot cooking rabbit stew. Cant wait for the Fish and Chip van. Tucked up, on the straw the rain bashing off the corrugated roof. Outside the Pub, bottle of Lemonade and crisps. Our own kids gang, didn’t know that East London existed, but kids are kids we all mixed, even with the Gypsy kids , our Chiswick heritage, Hawkers etc . Off scrumping. Being told off for putting leaves in the bin. Whats that your cooking? On the Gypsy fire? First you gut it son , then roll it in clay and when its cooked pull off the clay and off comes the spines? It was an hedgehog. I was not offered any. Mum said if your hungry enough. Off down to Paddock Wood summer 2023, down memory lane.
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Fantastic video albeit too short ,showing post war Londoners in the Kent hop gardens . This was typically an East End of London annual tradition where whole families would decamp to the hop farms with all the necessary cooking equipment etc and temporarily live in huts provided by the farmers. The straw bales are broken up and stuffed into sacks etc to provide warm and comfy sleeping mattresses.
I worked the picking season tractor driving between the hop alleys on a farm in Selling , East Kent . The pickers were still down from London and were continuing their family tradition
It was heaven 💝👌🇬🇧
🌞🌳🍴🍺 Hop picking in the Kent countryside, enough to keep everyone busy, & build up an appetite. This is the year my dear mum was born.
Voluntary?
A good bit of lost British social history there…
West London Chiswick , Devonshire Road/William Street. A relation had an open backed lorry, he and his wife would take us all down to Paddock Wood, leaving his wife with us. Open fires spuds on a stick, black pot cooking rabbit stew. Cant wait for the Fish and Chip van. Tucked up, on the straw the rain bashing off the corrugated roof. Outside the Pub, bottle of Lemonade and crisps. Our own kids gang, didn’t know that East London existed, but kids are kids we all mixed, even with the Gypsy kids , our Chiswick heritage, Hawkers etc . Off scrumping. Being told off for putting leaves in the bin. Whats that your cooking? On the Gypsy fire? First you gut it son , then roll it in clay and when its cooked pull off the clay and off comes the spines? It was an hedgehog. I was not offered any. Mum said if your hungry enough. Off down to Paddock Wood summer 2023, down memory lane.
Thank you for sharing that memory..read like a passage from an HE Bates novel