Beer

What are hops? How are hops used in The Brewing Process. ROLVENDENThe hop, Humulus lupulus (1753), belongs to the beer-making? 1. Malting Cannabaceae family of plants which also includes The brewing process starts with grains, usually barley (wheat or The ingredients of beer are simple... rye). The grains are harvested through a process of heating, drying hemp and is related to the nettle and elm families. out and cracking in an , commonly seen in the countryside. The main aim of MALTING is to isolate the enzymes needed for brewing so that it is ready for the next step, which is It is a herbaceous hardy perennial on a permanent Barley plus hops plus water plus yeast = beer mashing. rootstock and can root 12 feet into the ground. It Four basic ingredients: barley, water, hops and yeast. 2. Mashing HISTORY GROUP dies back to the base every year and can climb to a The idea is to extract the sugars from the grains At the brewery, the grain (grist) height of 20 foot. and hot liquor (water with (usually barley) so that the yeast can turn it into added minerals) are mashed alcohol and CO creating Beer. together, in the Mash Tun for The hop climbs with tiny hairs on the stem and the 2 about one hour. This activates enzymes in the malt that cause back of the leaves. Leaves are alternate, usually three it to break down and release its The lupulin in the hop cones contains alpha acid sugars – this sugar will ferment to seven lobed. The flowers are small and green. The the yeast. This sticky, sweet which bitters and helps preserve the beer so that liquid is called WORT. More hot male and female flowers are on separate plants. The liquor is then sprinkled over the grain to wash all the goodness out, it can be stored and transported without rapid a process called ‘sparging’. The wort is drained from the Mash Tun larger female cones, made up of many bracts give the into the COPPER. The grain, which is retained in the Mash Tun by a deterioration. perforated floor, is collected by a local farmer for cattle feed. Hopping fruit that is commercially important. An essential oil in the cones imparts flavour and 3. Boiling aroma to the beer. The Hop: HISTORY The WORT is boiled for about one hour in the COPPER while A cure for all ills...? the hops are added in stages. The variety of hop will affect the flavour of the beer. During the boil, natural resins are extracted from the hops and in Rolvenden Culpepper’s Herbal - Government and Virtues. bitterness is released, late hop additions impart more flavour and aroma. Boiling makes the It is under the dominion of Mars. This will open wort sterile and also removes

BRUNO DEL TUFO proteins which would otherwise obstructions of the liver and spleen, cleanse the blood, cause a haze in the beer. Hops, which are grown extensively in loosen the belly, cleanse the reins from gravel, and Kent, provide bitterness to balance out all the sugar in the Wort and provide flavour. They also act as a preservative, which is what they 2018 Exhibition provoke urine. The decoction of the tops cleanses the were first used for. blood, cures the venereal disease, and all kinds of scabs, itch and other breakings out of the body; as also tetters, 4. Fermentation ringworms, spreading sores, the morphew, and all As the male flower produces a lot of pollen, for Once the hour-long boil discolourings of the skin. The decoction of the flowers is over the Wort is cooled, and tops help to expel poison. Half a dram of the seed many years hop growers planted one male to about via a heat exchanger, from around 102 degrees to 18 powder, taken in drink, kills worm in the body, brings one hundred female plants in a hop garden. Hop degrees, and transferred to GROUP the FERMENTATION TANK down women’s courses, and expels urine. A syrup made cones bear glands which contain resins and oils; and the yeast is added. Yeast of the juice and sugar, cures the yellow jaundice, eases is added to the fermenter to the substance known as lupulin is one of them. The begin fermentation. The yeast the headache that comes of heat, and tempers the heat consumes the sugar from the malt to produce alcohol and carbon resins provide the bitterness and the preservative dioxide. Heat is given off as the yeast grows and the temperature of of the liver and stomach, and is profitable given in long the brew is carefully controlled to allow flavours to develop slowly. and hot agues that arise from choler and blood. The qualities, and the oils the flavour. After several days, when the yeast has produced the correct level of alcohol, the temperature is reduced. young hop sprouts, which appear in March and April, being mild, if boiled and served up like asparagus, are a Hops are widely grown for brewing. In the Racking wholesome as well as pleasant tasted spring food. They main brewing areas are: the Weald of Kent, , purify the blood, and keep the body gently opening. The beer is racked off into casks (or bottles) and left to condition Hereford and Worcester for several days in a cold store. Cask beer or ‘real ale’ carries a portion of yeast in it. Residual sugar from the fermentation is slowly Nicholas Culpepper (1616-1654) consumed by this yeast in the cask to produce a natural carbonation or ‘condition’. When the beer is racked, isinglass finings (made from the swim bladders of fish) are added, they sink to the bottom of the cask with any sediments, clearing the beer.

Below: Ed Wray, head brewer in The Old Dairy at Rolvenden, 2011 Information from The Old Dairy The Early Days Rolvenden Timeline How did hops get to Rolvenden? Where are hops in the history of Rolvenden? The first recorded reference to the hop was in the EnglandROLVENDEN exported considerable quantities of beer in The timeline below shows some key events in the life of the nation, in Rolvenden itself and developments in 6th century BC. In the 7th century AD, monasteries the sixteenth century. A successful year of growing the hop industry to provide context for Rolvenden’s hop history. in Germany and France cultivated hops and their an acre of good hops could yield more than 50 acres records made reference to the hops’ medicinal of arable land. Some farmers, however, would not 1400 1450 1500 1550 1600 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 properties as well as their value for flavouring and grow hops because of the erratic yield caused by preserving drinks. drought, wet periods and mildew.

It was in the 15th Century that John the Fearless, Picking was costly for the farmer because many Spinning Jenny invented Count of Flanders, founded the ‘Order of the Hop’ men, women and children had to be hired. George by James Hargreaves in and encouraged hop growing in Flanders. Franklyn on 29th August 1603 arranged for 50 or 1764 Tim Berners -Lee invents 60 to meet at his hop-grounds at Chart Sutton: as in Battle of Printing Francis Drake Pilgrim Fathers Great Plague Jethro Tull died in 1741, First Forster’s the World Agincourt Caxton sets up begins his three 1620 sailing of the 1665 Great Plague invented the seed drill, the Railway Education Wide Web It is believed that beer first arrived in England in 1415 printing press in year voyage Pilgrim Fathers on the of precedes horse drawn hoe and seen as a Stockton to Act previous years they included poor and lame people, NATIONAL EVENTS 1990 NATIONAL EVENTS Westminster 1476 around the world Mayflower to Cape the 1666 Great Fire of key figure in the development Darlington 1870 puts 1400, at Winchelsea Harbour. The use of hops in ‘yea, many soe extreame poore that they did lyve upon in 1577 Cod Massachusetts London of modern agriculture. opened elementary Micro- 1825 education brewing beer was forbidden in some towns, and hops were Flying Shuttle within the becomes a the alms of the parishes and poore mens boxe where Lady Jane Grey invented by reach of phenomenon Queen for 9 days in 1553 blamed for inciting the men involved in Jack Cade’s John Key in 1733 every child in the 1970s they were resident’, suggesting that some may have (she was related to the was a major in Britain Guildefordes of Halden First Census Rebellion (1450). contribution to come several miles for work. Men were given 1s a Place) and was executed in Rolvenden the Industrial 1554 Population 889 day, women 6d or less. Revolution The tradition is that the first hop garden was planted HISTORY in 1520 in Westbere near Canterbury, but there is a South Chapel Rolvenden Church Tower The Windmill Hops in Rolvenden! John Wesley Emigration School built Infant school Hop Picking Protest Hop Picking In the first decades of the seventeenth century, hop- St Mary’s South Completed in 1480 The first post preaching under Ranter’s 1837 built 1876 Machine Halden mill built in Oak and at Wesley Farm Place installs strong alternative suggestion for a site at Chapel dedicated William Freeman of During 1830s some In 1908 a protest gardens were becoming widely established in the Rolvenden 1596 House in the1730s First game of Rolvenden’s in 1444, built Rolvenden in December 200 people from was organised in John Frankyshe cricket recorded first hop picking near Ashford. by Edward H 1645 had hops worth £21 Rolvenden emigrated to demand county, especially along the sandstone ridge and in Vicar of the parish, in Rolvenden machine around Guildeforde of 3s 4d in London, others in to Australia and a tax to be placed on was burned at the 1863 1956 ROLVENDEN EVENTS Halden Place ROLVENDEN EVENTS the central weald near Goudhurst. Most hop-gardens stake 1555 valued at £15 Canada imported hops. Kent was the earliest centre of Hop Culture because 15s, and more in Tenterden worth £35 15s. Great Maytham Railway opened Railway closed Last hop growers of this period were probably between half and two In 1831, Rolvenden Construction of Hilder family’s last the enclosed field system of farming was already population 1507 Great Maytham hop harvest 2004 at acres in size. key organiser of 1900 Rother Valley Railway Railway was closed in Hall begins 1721 Little Halden Farm established; the soils were suitable; good supply of the Mayflower opened from Robertsbridge 1954 although hoppers’ baptised in In 1841, Rolvenden to Tenterden. Tenterden specials still recorded as The Old Dairy Rolvenden 1577 population 1411 wood for poles and charcoal for drying; great deal of This brings us on to the earliest known reference station renamed Rolvenden running in 1958 Micro-brewery in 1903 when the line was established at expertise from the Flemish weavers who had settled extended. Line was extended Hole Park 2010 to hops and Rolvenden - a William Freeman of further in 1905 to in Kent to make the broadcloth. Rolvenden in December 1645 had hops worth £21 3s Beer arrives in England The Hops Instruction Manual Hop Tax Golden Age 4d in London, others in Maidstone valued at £15 15s, The taste for beer was growing and in spite of the It is believed that beer first arrived in England in 1400, at Winchelsea The first instruction manual on growing hops A Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe In 1720 duty was imposed on hops for the first time: 1d per The nineteenth century was the golden age of the hop industry: and more in Tenterden worth £35 15s. GROUP Harbour, in a consignment ordered by Dutch merchants working in England. Garden was written by Reginald Scot of Scot’s Hall in (near Ashford) pound on English hops and 3d per pound on Flemish hops. Large in 1878 there were 71,789 acres planted with hops, by 1900 it was link with Protestantism – originated in the low The terms of ‘kilderkin’ (18 gallon casks – 82 litre) and ‘firkin’ (9 gallon casks - in 1574 and it was reprinted in 1576, 1578, 1640 and 1654. The work was revenues were raised for the Exchequer. reduced to about 50,000 and by 1909 it was 32,000 acres 41 litre) are of Dutch origin. dedicated to Sergeant William Lovelace of . HOP HISTORY EVENTS HOP HISTORY EVENTS countries – by 1547 the importance of the hop The earliest identified site of hops in Rolvenden is Hop Training System Proposed Hop Marketing Board Hop Picking Machine industry was acknowledged when a decree stating Hops in Beer The First Hop Garden in a document of lands purchased by John Weller A Scottish gentleman farmer, H. Hulme, in 1776 advocated In 1932 the Hop Marketing In 1934 the hop picking that all arable land was to be dug up excluded land a system of hop training which would reduce the expense Board was created. The board machine was invented but it in 1743 where ‘Hopp-Garden Feild’ and ‘The old Customs of London The tradition is that the first of poling. He suggested preparing a line of poles running exercised a monopoly control did not begin to threaten hand set aside for saffron and hops. (published 1502) contains hop garden was planted east to west, 8 or 9 feet high and training them west to and was immune from the picking until after the Second Hopp-Ground’ are identified. ‘Hopp-Garden Feild’ a recipe for brewing beer in 1520 in Westbere near east to run at angles between the poles. It never became Restrictive Trade Practices World War. with hops. Canterbury, but there popular and it was at least another century before wire Act, thus ensuring a sheltered is located to the east of Mounts Lane roughly where is a strong alternative and string work began to replace the old poling system. market for producers. In 1982 Between 1549 and 1553 experts from the suggestion for a site at new legislation was passed to the oast now is at Upper Woolwich Farm. Little Chart near Ashford. Netherlands were brought in to advise English conform with EEC rules. farmers on the techniques of hop growing. Hops As part of this wider story, Rolvenden experienced were a very profitable crop and eventually legislation the same developments and changes throughout the had to be brought in to stop farmers abandoning four centuries or so of hop growing in the village. 1400 1450 1500 1550 1600 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 arable farming in favour of hops. A Year Growing Hops ROLVENDEN Timeline adapted from research by Sue Saggers on Beltring’s 1937-38 Farming Year

Stringing Weeding Tying Hops Weeding Getting Ready Picking Planting Repairing

Digging unploughed strips each side of the hills prior to Dressing and stringing finished Clearing up after picking. Oast houses Continue with ploughing, weather permitting. Clearing out ditches. Tying hops (training selected bines and pulling out surplus Hoeing and general Cleaning and whitewashing the Picking the hops took place around main cultivation in March. Stringing started by women. mid-month. Continued cultivation, and hoppers’ cleaned out and Trimming poplars (grown to the Hop Gardens also known as growth, also known as firsting). Finished by the end of cultivation to prevent oast houses. General preparation of September and the duration String made from coconut fibre used for hops to grow up. now done four times to prevent rubbish destroyed. Delivery of manure Lewing). Wire work, poles and hooks renewed and repaired. All very May. Continued cultivation with horses and tractors also weeds. Screening hop bins and bin cloths. Straw and depended on the season and weed growth. (This sort of activity and shoddy (wool and fabric waste labour intensive but little to show for the work involved. Brushwood chopping - moving soil around the hills with plate hoes. exposed areas around bines for huts. whether more than one variety of was undertaken to keep farm from northern mills). Mild weather cut for pickers, also cordwood for charcoal. the gardens. hops was grown. labourers continuously employed ploughing started. Wire work repairs and throughout the year which pole replacements as necessary. Some Preparing Dressing avoided laying off employees Earthing Once picked hops were quickly bedded sets (plants for replanting on during winter months. This moved to the oast house and dried dead hills – hop growth emerges from a Outside work when weather permits. practice was discontinued after in order to preserve them. central hill). Some bines (growing stem Dressing the hops i.e. cutting All gardens given a last dressing of Lump lime delivered, carted and the Second World War.) until hops are harvested) retained for back the first growth in the manure. Then earthing - covering spread on gardens due for treating. pickers’ bedding, others burnt to prevent the crown of the hill. Spring each hill with two shovelfuls of earth, One ton per acre spread on a third spread of disease. Bordeaux spraying cultivation by tractor and sometimes four, to control growth. of the total acreage each year. All machines thoroughly overhauled due to horses. gardens treated with sulphate of corrosive nature of the mixture. Continuous cultivation to prevent weeds. potash to encourage foilage, also steamed bone flour to stimulate root development. January February March April May June HISTORYJuly August September October November December

Hop Dressing & Stringing Shimming Striking Up Courtesy of KATHCourtesy BALKHAM

Spring time was when ‘Hop dressing’ took place. This ‘Shimming’ –the cultivation and caring of the hop bine Finally in autumn for around 4 to 6 weeks intense was choosing the best and strongest hops to encourage. took place during the growing time in summer. hop picking, (Striking Up) gathering, measuring ‘Stringing’ was training the hop bines up the ‘wirework’ and drying took place. which was already in place. Hop training Bines were pulled and the hops picked into bins. Two or three times a day the hops were measured into bushel baskets, put into ‘pokes’ and taken to Stringing the oast.

I used to have an acre to string up. I used to go three times, string them up, make sure they were neat and tidy. My dad used GROUP Extract from a project by Joan Austen 1945 to come and help me sometimes. I did that for two or three Extracts from a project by Joan Austen years, then I worked on the machines at Bates’ again. I’ve done it 1945 all really and all field work, when the kids were small. It was the

only thing you could do really and take the kids with you. We of KATHCourtesy BALKHAM were picked up and brought . The stringing up you had to do it about right, so many strands on so many strings. We didn’t have to go far – we’d go down Friezingham Lane to it, walk there. It was worth it. When you first do it it’s the hardest part, when you go over it again it’s just making sure they’re on the right strings and the third time you’re just tidying up. Used to always be on my knees the first time. There are a lot of hills in an acre!

From a conversation with Jenny Glover Nipper Austen on Hole Park. From an exhibition by Brian Hodgson. 1984 After picking, the clear up operation begins The Pole Puller Hopping Holidays

Memories of Hopping In the early days, we had pole gardens. You used to have It is difficult to find entries for September in the the pole puller – he’d come in and lift the pole out, with Rolvenden School log books. From the beginning hops on it, lay it across the bins, and the people would be of the logs until the 1960s, the five weeks around picking into the bins, or half a bin. You had a moveable

Native labour September were the summer/hop-picking holidays. of JOANCourtesy EDMONDS

bin and rows of hops. Later the hops were on wire work BUCKLEY of KITTY Courtesy ROLVENDEN above you and you’d pull the bines down and hang them The term stopped at the end of August when the Hop Picking the neighbourhood, found hiding whom there is what they call a hard a substitute for that luxurious over the bins. I remember getting showered by water hops were ready and resumed at the beginning of places for their goods; and it is here, house bin), appears to take a turn article. Each pocket is then marked off the bines. You’d start very early in the morning and it in 1878 should need be (this is between at the picking. I was introduced with large letters with the name October. ourselves), that I would seek a into the mysteries of drying, of grower, place, weight, date and was horrible, wet and cold. Miserable. Bob Austen (September 1933) hiding place. pocketing, and sampling, also consecutive number. Joan Brown and Kit Collins in a hop A Hop Picking Trip. garden in 1936 charcoal burning, all very interesting Graham Tiltman processes. The oast houses are Rolvenden, through which we Here – as I supposed through the The next process is the sampling, circular brick buildings, about 16 ft Hop Picking Holiday drove, as I next day found it to be, is hop district – hops were “to the fore.” which is very ingeniously done in diameter. The hops, to the depth a large, well-built village, beautifully Their weight, colour and marked by ripping open a short length of of about 15 inches, are spread upon I’m not sure what age I would have been, quite young I situated. It is in two parts; the price were constantly discussed, the seam of the pocket about the

a hair cloth laid on open joists and should imagine, because I’ve got two older siblings who of JENNY Courtesy GLOVER smaller, a kind of hamlet, being at so that I am now not satisfied with middle; then, with a sharp specially battens, about twelve feet above took me down there and I had a box to pick hops in and I some distance from the principal my Daily if it does not quote the made knife (I cannot attempt the price of the article I have learned the fires, which are of charcoal, with technical terms) and tongs, a square part, which includes the church. of KATHCourtesy BALKHAM was allowed after [picking] to go and wander around and to take an interest in. In the hop more or less brimstone, according solid block is taken out, trimmed, Left: Cutting the bine in a pole garden play… wherever I wished to spend my time. I think I had garden I picked with an old man, to the fancy or experience of the criticised, neatly wrapped in brown Arriving at our destination, I to do a few boxes in the morning and a few boxes in the who told me that he had picked dryer, generally an old experienced paper, numbered to correspond Below Far Left: The Weller family readily recognized the quaint, old, afternoon. for seventy seasons in the family hand. After being in the kiln for 10 with its pocket, and placed in a rack. comfortable looking, half-timbered of my host. It speaks well for the or 11 hours they are raked out and The waste is then put back and the Below Near Left: Bette Poole house which I had already seen in passed through a coarse sieve. They We used to start about, from home, about seven in the

healthiness of the occupation and pocket re-sewn, when it is ready for of GEOFF BLAIN Courtesy photograph. There is evidence of it is generally recognized that the are then shovelled through a round the London market, as can now be RIght: Minnie Kedwell in a pole garden morning. We’d be there about half past seven and then the house being in existence in the numerous families who come for hole in the floor into the mouth of a seen by waggon loads daily in the we’d stay there, I think, all day, until they’d got enough 17th century, if not earlier, and, with the season from the worst parts of pocket already placed there, and, by Old Kent road and Borough. The hops for two dry kiln loads. Then we’d go home, which modern appliances for comfort, London go back much invigorated an ingenious combination of wheels aroma pervading all the processes would be roughly around five o’clock, and on the next Jenny Glover’s mother and brother Terry Wright hop picking in Sept 1951 combined with good taste, it has a and improved in health by their and cranks, are very tightly pressed, is very agreeable, and sharpening day carry on the same until you came to Saturday and far greater air and feeling of comfort by which means about 1¾ cwts, few weeks’ life in camp. Most of the to the appetite – a rather expensive POOLE MATTHEWS of BETTE Courtesy than can be obtained with the then it was only half a day… [We were] all regulated picking in this neighbourhood is equal to many bushels, are got into luxury to the large families of poor HISTORY by the amount of hops that had been picked and the stiff formality of modern houses. I a single pocket. The mouth of the Picking as a child

done by native labour, the growers children who come to the picking. WELLER of BETTY Courtesy was afterwards shown throughout amount they could dry in the oast at the time. preferring that when obtainable. pocket is then sewn up by men on the house, and found numerous Nearly everybody, including the the lower floor and it then looks like From the Sussex Advertiser, 9th I was brought up in Lambsland Cottages so we just had places where, no doubt, smugglers, an enormous bolster, but much too October 1878 … the youngsters had what they called a half bin, which farmer’s family and servants (for to go across the road to Stuart Bates’ hops. You had all who formerly much frequented was a full bin divided in the middle so it was two half bins and you’d… two different families would pick one the Londoners there as well. I was going on for about one side and one the other. As I got a bit older, of course, 8 I suppose; there was about 9 years between me and I would have had to have picked in the bin… [You] had a my brother. I didn’t pick as a child, but he had to, all day lunch break of about an hour. Hops had a very pungent smell and when picked left long. We loved it. You had lovely weather, you met such brown/black stains on the hands which had to be

Courtesy of Mr R F Monk of Mr Courtesy a lot of people. When I come to the age of 11 my mother There was later in hop picking some very cold mornings washed off at the end of the day. Everything smelled of and I can remember anxiously watching the sun come thought I was old enough to have half a bin. I was hops – bags, cups, clothes – nothing escaped. up over the trees so you could get a bit of warmth, you allowed a couple of hours off in the day to go and play know it was rather cold to your hands. You didn’t wear but she said “All you pick, the money at the end, you can Graham Tiltman gloves much in those days and of course … continually have.” Pam Monk, Mrs Hemsley and Mrs Monk at Divall’s, 1954 picking hops … stain[ed] your hands … The hop stain … was always a job to get off. GROUP Jenny Glover Painting The reason for going hop picking was to earn some money to buy clothes so that when we went back to Rolvenden school after the hop picking holiday, because that’s what we called it… we had about four weeks off in September William Gilbert Foster (1865-1906) was a senior member of the Staithes Group of artists, he had so that we could go hop picking and so then hopefully a studio at Runswick for many years. He painted we’d got our hop picking money and some new clothes landscapes and rural genre in oil and watercolours. to go back to school in for the new term… If they hadn’t Born in Manchester. A self-taught artist, apart from some instruction from his father, a portrait painter. got the holiday right, you’d carry on picking until, you know, you’d finished and then you’d go back to school. Courtesy of DOREEN MOORE Courtesy Scenes of the Yorkshire coast were his favourite subject. Exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy Extract from an interview with Peter Austen on his (forty times) and at the Royal society of British. memories of hop picking in the 1930s A painting of a hop garden scene at Rolvenden by Foster sold at Sotheby’s, New York in 1994 – estimate was £2,500 - £3,500. Wendy Farris, Roger Farris, Geoff Monk, Kath Tiltman, Judith Farris & Doris Farris,1961 Roy and Doreen Moore in a hop garden Harden and Hemsley hop picking children Eastenders From Canning Town

Rolvenden’s farming workforce multiplied in hop In the mid to late 1930s, then during the Second World picking season as many families travelled down from War and for some years after that my husband’s Aunt and her family, who lived in Canning Town very close to London, particularly from the East End to pick the the London docks and were typical ‘East Enders’, used hops. They stayed in ‘hopper huts’ on the farms. to come down every year for about six weeks to go Courtesy of PATRICKCourtesy ALLEN hop-picking in Kent. They went to various farms, one I Courtesy of RON SAXBY of RON Courtesy

Courtesy of SUE DYER Courtesy ROLVENDEN remember the other side of Goudhurst, where not that Preparing to travel long ago you could still see some of the hoppers’ huts in a field on the left. I don’t know the name of that farm, it Courtesy of PATRICKCourtesy ALLEN To start at the beginning: it is 1948, Dagenham Essex. London pickers at Friezingham might have belonged to the Henley family, I’m not sure. Bessie Britcher mum left and daughter on right Winifred Saxby (centre) This evening outside a terraced house in First Avenue, I think they probably came down from London by lorry the grown-ups, watched by an inquisitive young to this farm and I know they would bring everything audience larking about and making plenty of noise, are down at the start of the children’s summer holidays and The Measurer loading up a lorry. Household effects: furniture, blankets, The hopper at Friezingham where Patrick’s family stayed leave the mums, aunts and kids down there and the men bed linen, food, all the paraphernalia needed for a long would go back to their jobs in London during the week, Here were the measurer of hops and his booker who stay away. The family is readying for another yearly returning at the weekend. recorded the tally of hops picked. Picking started at 7am of PATRICKCourtesy ALLEN journey to the magic of Kentish countryside. The huts and by 9 there would be enough hops in bins for the The farm that I know of nearest to me now is Friezingham measurer to start. His basket held a bushel of hops, a Then into the hut goes a small chair or two, two chests of Farm – I don’t know whether the Tompsett family were Patrick Allen measure of volume, not weight. Measurer and booker drawers with a board across as a table top, some shelves there then. The Aunt and her family (Aunt Min was her Courtesy of GEORGE BABBAGE of GEORGE Courtesy would make their way along the lines of hop bins which are fixed to the walls using existing fittings. A paraffin name!) came to this farm during the war and were joined the pickers had been filling, working alone or as a family by my husband’s parents and Alan (my husband), who Left: Geoff Blain and primus stove provides inside cooking. Paraffin lamps unit. The measurer would lay the basket in the hops and Joan Kedwell with Singing in the dark are hung against a wall for light. Water containers are was born in 1943. They would travel down from London Mrs Kedwell behind. come up with a basketful for pouring into a poke, one of filled from an outside standpipe. I have a memory of wall to Robertsbridge by train, change to the K&ESR train to those squat sacks used for carting the hops to the oast Above Right and We had a mixture of local people and the pickers from coverings of some kind, to keep out the cold nights to Road, then walk up the road to Friezingham Ethel Babbage, Mrs King, Mrs Sinden and Olive Babbage Below Right: the East End … Londoners came down and the same Lane, pushing children in prams and all their belongings where they would be tipped out on the floor above the Friezingham Pickers come, some sort of sacking. fire, spread out and dried. Each poke held 10 bushels HISTORYfamilies used to come down each year… and usually go for their stay. When I first moved to , more than twenty years ago, my parents-in-law were still and was held open by the poke boy who would tie it of GEOFF BLAIN Courtesy to the same farm. There were huts on the farms for them Patrick Allen alive, and were living near Faversham, then latterly in up once it was full. When he had completed a bin, the to stay in… the huts at Rawlinson, the farmer would Tenterden. When they came to visit me, we would walk measurer would call a number to the booker; this was just supply them with straw to make a bed and they round to Friezingham Lane and the hop huts that they the number of baskets taken out and it was recoded in lived there, and … they had an open fire outside to do stayed in were still there, on the right, more or less where the book against the name of the picker and written on cooking and that sort of thing and they spent the hop the tarmac road ends and becomes the track to the the picker’s own tally card. picking there as their living accommodation. farm. The huts gradually deteriorated and are not there Collecting the Hop Pickers Peter Cyster anymore, but I think you can still see the concrete base. … Quite often the husbands would come down at the They knew the Ewe & Lamb, although were not frequent When I worked on Hole Park in the ‘50s, I’d go up and weekend and then … they’d visit the local pubs and There would always be a shout as the measurer was customers I was always told, and the general store on the collect the hop pickers. They’d pile on with their boxes have a few beers and it used to get a bit jolly when coming round, when he was two or three bins away. He corner and they also often walked up to the village. and old prams and the kids in the back of the lorry and they was going home because they weren’t used to the would shout out “Get your hops ready,” so you would I’d take them up to Halden Place to the hopper huts. countryside being [so] dark [at] night … so they used to Ann Cole know within ten minutes the measurer would be there, Then next day I’d go up and get another lot to take down sing on the way home back from the pub… so you had to stop picking and get your hops ready and to Rawlinson. Then at the end of hop picking I used to GROUP clean out the rubbish – pick all the leaves out and shake takem all back to London. Had to stop here and there at Extract from an interview with Peter Austen on his them up one end so he could get the basket in and do different pubs on the way... memories of hop picking. the measuring. He could refuse to take them if they were

bad. The hop pickers used to go up The Bull on a Saturday

Ron F. Monk night - there was usually a punch-up. Porters had The Bull then. The hop pickers used to have to go in the back I loved hop picking. Mr Monk used to be the measurer. door and get a jug of beer and pay a shilling for a glass. POOLE MATTTHEWS of BETTE Courtesy We went down Bates’. He would say to my mother “I can’t When the pub turned out they’d find a way back to Courtesy of KATH Courtesy BALKHAM Courtesy of KATH Courtesy BALKHAM take Shirley’s hops, she’s got cheese rinds and everything Halden Place through the old lane. They used to do a lot

in there. I used to have the crusts and cheese rinds and of singing because they were afraid of the dark. of PATRICKCourtesy ALLEN chuck them in there. Words from Geoff Blain (Rolvenden Recollections) Shirley Howlett Extract from a project by Joan Austen 1945 London hop pickers outside Ewe and Lamb (Ann Cole recognised her Aunt & The pokes on their way to the Oast Uncle in the photo). Where were the hop gardens and oast houses in Oast Houses Rolvenden? Rolvenden’s Oasts

This map shows the location of oast houses, hopper huts and just Why were the oast houses built? some of the many hop gardens which have existed in Rolvenden. The oast house is everywhere in Kent. 28 oasts have ROLVENDEN been identified in Rolvenden of which 21 survive in all or part, 2 are ruins and 5 have been lost entirely.

Hops need to be dried quickly after picking in order to maintain their quality and prevent them from Photo © Oast House Archive (cc-by-sa/2.0) decomposing in storage. When picked, the moisture content of the green hops is 75-85%. When dried, this is reduced to around 6-10%.

In the early years, hops were dried in the sun, in The Oast at Little Golford between Cranbrook, and Sissinghurst Forsham Oast, Rolvenden - Postcard by Fiona Pragoff 1992 lofts or in malt drying kilns. None of these methods is a remarkable survival from around the 1750s but reusing earlier structural components from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. provided sufficient control of the drying process to ensure that optimum moisture content could be achieved consistently.

Rolvenden’s Oasts L. LANGHAM Courtesy The writer, Reynolde Scott in 1574 championed the Oast Kiln type Current Status virtues of an ‘oste as they dry their hoppes upon at Rawlinson 2 Round Survives HISTORY Poppering’, (Poppering being Poperinghe, Belgium). Halden Place 2 Round Survives Halden Lane Farm 1 or 2 Round Stowage survives Halden Place Oast This ‘oste’ as he described was a purpose-built Little Halden 2 Square, 1 Survives Round rectangular building with three rooms - a room Strood 2 Square Lost (Exact location uncertain) for receiving the green hops next to a room with New Barn 1 Square Survives Puddingcake 2 Round Stowage survives boarded floor and furnace below for drying the hops Winton 1 Round Survives and a room for cooling the dried hops. Lower Murgie 2 Square Survives Cornhill Oast Beechingland 1 Round Survives Upper Woolwich 1 Round (C19) Survives A remarkable building at Little Golford represents 1 Square (Late American style cowls C20) the closest survival to this early design. Bull Farm 2 Round Destroyed by Fire in 1960 Friezingham 2 Round The traditional oast was lost before 1940, but hop drying continued The early oasts were generally an adaptation of the until recently at the farm Gate House 1 Round Survives traditional agricultural barn with added furnace, (Frensham) GROUP Wesley House and oasts drying floor and hole in the roof. Wesley 2 Round Survives (The Oast House) Thornden 4 Round 2 kilns and stowage survive As time progressed the advantages of taller kilns Hillgate 1 Round (C19) Survives 1 Square (C20) Upper Woolwich Oast with greater draught became evident. Likewise brick Lambsland 1 Round Ruins of kiln remains or ragstone kilns with their reduced fire risk replaced Maytham 2 Round Survives Forsham 1 Round Survives earlier timber framed, lathe and plaster designs. Great Job’s 1 Round Survives Hexden 2 Round Destroyed by Fire in 1928, ruins remain Both earlier (1700s) and later (1900s) kilns are Little Probably 1 No trace survives Square square in form, but throughout the early and middle Kensham 2 Round Survives part of the nineteenth century a great number of Cornhill 1 Round Survives Merrington (Bayard’s 2 Round Survives round kilns were built. Oast) Regent St 1 Round Lost, site redeveloped before 1898 Windmill Farm 2 Round Survives, now offices Ordnance Survey, (c) Crown Copyright 2017. All rights reserved. Licence number 100022432 Rolvenden’s Lost Oasts In the Oast 7 Oasts have been identified which have been lost from Rolvenden, some quite spectacularly due to fire, others probably as a result of change in farming The vane enables the cowl to turn with the wind and There was a hop dryer and his mate in the oast all the allows the ‘reek’ and hot air to escape whilst keeping Courtesy of ERIC LAVELLCourtesy COLLECTION patterns or their unsuitable location. the rain out. time. For the month or more it was on, they only cat

napped all that time. They’d go home on a Sunday BABBAGE of GEORGE Courtesy ROLVENDEN Oast Kiln type Current Status and have a night at home but Monday morning early Strood 2 Square Lost (Exact location uncertain) The Drying Floor Bull Farm 2 Round Destroyed by Fire in 1960 The hops were laid out here. A slatted floor with they’d be back down the oast and get the fires going for hair cloth allowed heat to pass through. Friezingham 2 Round The traditional oast was lost before Monday’s hops coming in about midday to put on the 1940, but hop drying continued dryer. until recently at the farm The hop dryer’s bedroom at Hole Park Postcard of Little Halden Farm with John and Jonathan Walt Funnell, Joe Hoad and Ted Swift loading the pokes at Merrington. Lambsland 1 Round Ruins of kiln remains Stowage Hilder Hexden 2 Round Destroyed by Fire in 1928, ruins The cooling floor was where the The hops had to be tipped out of their pokes onto the remain green hops were brought in their Little Kensham Probably 1 Square No trace survives ‘pokes’ and where the dried hops ‘air’ as they called it – the drying floor – and they would Sulphuric Acid and were laid out to cool. have to be loaded on there. When they’d got all these Diesel Engines Regent St 1 Round Lost, site redeveloped before 1898 lumps of hops all over the floor, Will would get in there with a rake, up to his knees in hops and he’d have to On arriving at the oast, the hops were placed on the kiln Courtesy of GEORGE BABBAGE of GEORGE Courtesy level them. When he’d finished those hops were as level of KATHCourtesy BALKHAM of KATHCourtesy BALKHAM floor, sulphuric acid ‘bricks’ were included to purify the in that kiln as you’d ever get them. They really were hops and over the next 6 to 8 hour period the hops were level. He’d turn the rake round, just with the handle, and dried and put into hop pockets ready for delivery to the poke each individual hop almost to get them dead level brewery. because if they weren’t level they’d get uneven drying. Frank Sinden testing hops for moisture Pressing the hops Sewing the pocket The drying of the hops was a continuous process where As far as I can remember, the hops would come in late Walter and Gerald were available for 24 hours each day afternoon, after the hop pickers had finished – they’d be continually drying the hops and getting them ready for measured out about 4 o’clock in the afternoon and the delivery. At this time the Kiln was fired by a diesel engine Draught door Hop Press hops were brought to the oast, they’d be loaded onto HISTORY and Gerald remembers sleeping by the engine so that The door outside The dried hops were was partly used pressed into pockets the air through the evening time and the burners would BABBAGE of GEORGE Courtesy BABBAGE of GEORGE Courtesy he was on hand to monitor the drying process. Getting Kiln to control the air which were sewn and the drying process correct was an exact science as it was The drying part supply to the fire lowered through a be lit and they’d be drying ‘til 4, 5 o’clock in the morning. of the oast. and therefore the trap door. It may be less than that because they’d be taken off the critical to quality of the finished product. Known as a heat produced. ‘roundel’ when air when they were cooked, dried, and spread all out on round. Information from an interview with Gerald Funnell. Gerald Fire the cooling floor – usually down a couple or three steps Originally timber and charcoal, later coke or Welsh worked with his uncle, David Hook and father, Walter anthracite (a clean burining coal) was used to heat from the kiln floor –and when they were cool enough Stacked pockets 1990 Unloading hops at Paddock Wood warehouse the air which moved up the kiln. Eventually these at Cherry Garden Farm and Merrington Farm (which were replaced with diesel and oil heaters. they’d start pressing, 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning. was tenanted to them and formed a part of the Duke of As I got older, 14 or 15, and had left school, I’d go down Bedford’s estate). They worked together until 1972. Oast House Memories the oast with Tony and stay there Friday and Saturday

nights. When we slept in the oast, we used to chuck Bull Farm, Rolvenden Oast Fire 1960 One of the things that Tony and I used to do was harness down a layer of two or three empty pokes to make Drying the Hops up the horse and wagon and go up the hop garden to a mattress, then we’d get a pocket and get in it like fetch the hops in. The bushels had been counted up and It takes about twelve hours to dry a kiln of hops. The first load would a sleeping bag. That wasn’t half warm! We used to come off somewhere about lunch time depending on how they dried GROUP put in a poke, 10 bushel into a poke, tied up and carried sleep on the oast floor on a bed of pokes, fully clothed to the edge of the hop garden and we’d come up with - some loads dried quicker than others and usually the later it got in of course. Cold frosty nights in September, but those the wagon and load them up, then take them to the oast. the hop picking, the less time it was required to actually get them to pockets were very warm. And how we used to have a They were quite big – not exactly heavy but soft and dry. When the hops were ready to come off, you’d get a handful of good old fry up in the morning. Had an old frying pan floppy – we had to unload them off the wagon, cart them hops and rub them in your hand and then you’d decide whether they down there and oil stoves that had two burners. up the steps into the oast, stack them on the cooling were far enough along. And in 1973, when I hadn’t had anything to do with hops for several years, a farmer approached me and [asked] floor to start with, and when they were all there they’d be Each pocket had to be sewn up when it was fully pressed Courtesy of RON F. of RON Courtesy MONK would I be able to take on the drying and I said I would, so I dried the untied and each one would be carried up the steps into and then by about 10 o’clock you’d get the next lot hops at Maplesden Farm in 1973 and that was in an old fashioned the roundel and tipped out onto the air, and Will would of hops come in from the garden, from the morning’s oast with two kilns with cowls on top and obviously we found the oil M. Lowrie of Mrs Courtesy be in there with his rake levelling them. The pokes were picking. They would be loaded onto the air during the burners instead of a fire. all shook out, folded up and put on the wagon to go afternoon and the fires would be started up and the back up the hop garden for the next measuring in the same process would happen. Mr Bill Monk, Maytham Farm Peter Austen afternoon. Ron F. Monk Hexden Farm Oast Fire, 1928 Hexden Farm: Showing Oasts before destruction by fire. Tools & Machinery Mechanisation Hop Picking Machines The rise of the machines By Hand From the early days until the The first hop picking machine in Rolvenden was installed at Halden Place For centuriesROLVENDEN hand tools were the mainstay of the twentieth century growing and around 1956. It was a new technology which revolutionised the picking Hand picking was the method of gathering the hops before hoppers’ work and a variety of intriguing tools and especially picking hops was a process. Other machines in the parish were at Halden Lane Farm, Little Richard went into National labour intensive job requiring a Halden, Friezingham, New Barn Farm and Upper Woolwich Farm. implements were developed to assist in the process. Service and when he returned large work force. in 1954, machine picking was Perhaps one of the most bizarre sights of all in the introduced starting with one hop garden were the stilts which were used for While general advancements like machine. In 1955 another stringing the wires several feet in the air. the tractor played their part, it was machine picker was added and the hop picking machine (invented by 1956 there were no hand 1934) brought about the most pickers employed. In the early 1950s many of the hand pickers The Scuppet radical changes. came down from the East End of London, and were mainly The Oasts had slatted floors covered with coconut 1. Upper Woolwich Farm: This photo shows track to 2. View towards oast house. George Luker ready with take the bines from trailer to stripper part of machine. long stick to clear blockage. Eileen Collett on right. dockers. At this time the hours of matting, sulphur or brimstone was added to aid the Mrs Eileen Collett, Doreen Moore’s sister in white. work were from 5 in the morning ‘cooking.’ A ‘Scuppet’ ( a large bladed spade) was used until 10 at night and was quite

to put the hops into the kiln. Hop presses were used to BABBAGE of GEORGE Courtesy intensive, lasting for around four compress the dried hops in order to get them tightly to five weeks - depending on the packed, the first presses were hand driven and looked ripeness of the hops. (The picking like large mangles. season could be extended by Syd Brooks HISTORY planting different varieties which Cutting the bines at Hole Park ripened at different times.) For

Extract from a project by Joan Austen 1945 some people in the early 50s and 60s, the hop picking was a

3. George Luker keeping watch on machine. 4. George Luker attending a problem. Note track holiday venture but with cheap at top to take bines outside once they have been package holidays abroad, the Courtesy of ERIC LAVELL Courtesy stripped of hops. influx of Londoners declined alongside the introduction of mechanisation.

Cutting bines at Little Halden Farm Bringing the Hole Park hops in. This was a major change from earlier years when the Hop picking was a valued source of

The modern working oast income for the poor families from East London. The following photos show the modern working oast at Nicholas’ farm in Sandhurst. The hops arrive at the oast on a GROUP trailer and are hooked onto a conveying system which takes them to the picking machine. The hop flowers or cones are stripped from the bines and separated from the waste which is blown into a pile outside the oast. The hops are dried Richard thought that prior to the in the oast and pressed into bales. Malcolm Noble has been awarded the accolade of Knight of the Hop for his services 5. The hops and leaves are separated in this section. 6. Left facing, Mrs Weeks, Rt facing Mrs Elliott, Left introduction of machine picking over the past 50 years. back facing Mrs Tolhurst, right back poss Mrs Hook. Picking out missed leaves. there were around 1000 people employed and so in around

Photo of Sequence Courtesy TERRY MOORE five years the change from an intensive labour industry to virtually no labour was extreme. Extract from a project by Joan Austen 1945

From a conversation with Richard Coleman who farmed in nearby Hawkhurst and worked as a director of English Hops 7. The track to take the hops to the oast. 8. The blower and track taking out the unwanted leaves and stems. Packing Up Remains Reuse Death of a Hop Picking Machine Hoppers Huts Nostalgia for the hopping age Friezingham Farm was one of the last farms to finish growingROLVENDEN hops. The hop wires and hop poles have now You won’t have to go far in Rolvenden to be reminded of Rolvenden’s once thriving hop industry. There are a The primitive outdoor life of the hopper seems to have had been enjoyed especially by those who came been removed and the hop picking machine has now gone. The steady decline of the hop industry goes back number of derelict hopper huts and tar pits in farmyards and in the countryside around the village. Hopper down from London year after year. The desire for a simple life in the countryside hasn’t gone away and so the a long way - over a century ago there was an organised protest against cheap imports. Huts remain at a number of farms in the parish in varying states of disrepair. hopper huts at Little Halden Farm have a new use - a bit more of the holiday and less of the hard work!

1908 Hop Protest. The huts

Courtesy of Courtesy TENTERDEN MUSEUM The hoppers’ huts would be ready in accordance with the regulations: one shared cold tap, a large supply of dry straw and a couple of latrine pits in a convenient wood, draped with canvas awnings, the men and women’s thunder boxes! The huts were about 10’ square with a door and a slatted bed attached In May 1908 a large crowd gathered to the back wall. Typically there would be at Tenterden’s recreation ground A Hop Picker’s complete with marching band, 3 or 4 adults and a lot of children in each carriages and placards in order to hut. Cooking was done over an open fire Lament demand a tax on all foreign hops. outside.

No more the cockerel starts my day 50,000 people gathered in London that same month on this issue. Peter Cyster of MISS Courtesy THOBURN As down through lanes I’d wend my way Past hedgerows with their spidery traces

Covered in dew like Breton laces of Courtesy TENTERDEN MUSEUM HISTORY

Now harvests gone from all endeavour A way of life has passed forever Above and Top Right: Derelict hoppers huts. Mount Le Hoe Farewell to faithful bin and stool You served us well, we picked you full Reusing Oast Houses

Good byes to songs from London stage

Courtesy of Courtesy TENTERDEN MUSEUM As with Kent’s oast houses generally, a majority Sung by the pickers, were the rage Chesnut Poles Tar Pits No more the call becomes a winner of Rolvenden’s remaining Oast Houses have been “Pole” “Bin off” and “All to dinner” Creosote became available The development of tar converted to or offices. pits in the nineteenth in 1862 and was used for As last breath from the cowl exhales century was met with And evening light grows dim and pales objections from the dipping the end of the We too will fade and pass away established chestnut pole producers . Longer chestnut hop poles to I hope there’s hops where we will stay lasting poles would mean fewer new poles would be help prevent them rotting Above: Tompsett’s Hop Picking Machine at required each year. L.S.F. Friezingham Farm in the ground and so GROUP Below: Tompsett’s stacked hop poles in 2016 Thornden Oast, before conversion and right as it is today. prolonging their useful life. Specially designed pits were constructed to treat the poles.

At least three of these tar pits or tanks remain. These are located to the west of Little Halden Farm, at Halden Place and

at Kensham Farm. The oast at Windmill Farm, before and during its conversion to offices.

The tar pit at Halden Place The Future The Last Oast Have hops gone forever Little Halden Farm was the last of Rolvenden’s hop gardens, their final hop picking was in 2004. It also has ROLVENDENthe honour of being the last anthracite fired oast house to operate commercially in England. from Rolvenden? Little Halden has been farmed by the Hilder family since the 1850s. Jonathan Hilder’s great-great- Hops are still an essential part of the beer brewing grandfather began the farming of hops which, at the time, were as exciting and profitable as vineyards are process, so you never know! today. This wonderful collection of black and white photographs taken by Mr Lawrence Funnell of the final hop picking is a fitting closing chapter to Rolvenden’s rich hopping history. The man is in what is called the crow’s nest, it’s a ladder with a platform The hop industry has declined over the course of on top. He cuts the bine at the top of the wire. The tractor is driven slowly the twentieth century to the point that there are no up the rows and the hop bines fall down on the trailer and they’re laid straight. current hop growers in Rolvenden. John Hilder

However, the local distinctiveness of micro-brewed The Old Dairy Brewery in 2011 at Hole Park and craft beers presents an alternative to the global production systems which flavour the majority of It started in Rolvenden... our beers with hops grown around the world. The Old Dairy Brewery was started in an old dairy on the The Old Dairy Brewery whose beers are now a Hole Park Estate, Rolvenden and is part of the resurgence familar sight in Kent started in Rolvenden and uses of brewing in Kent over the last few years. Lionel Fretz, local hops. They are now based in Tenterden. an investment banker from London, was living locally and wanted to own a brewery. He located the old dairy HISTORY Hops are still grown locally in , , at Hole Park and as is said ‘the rest was history’. The original brewery was set up in 2010 and within four years Bodiam, Sandhurst, and Lamberhurst. had outgrown the dairy and needed to move to larger premises. They are now housed in two Second World War Perhaps, the small number of remaining growers will Nissen huts. They have retained their Rolvenden roots by preserve something of a traditions of hop growing in keeping their Old Dairy range of labels and have recently Kent until such time as increasing production again introduced their ‘Cattle ’ range, which is aimed at becomes viable. gastro pubs and continental outlets.

Around eight years ago there were eight microbreweries/ breweries in Kent, there are now forty-seven. From a conversation with The Old Dairy Brewery GROUP

We would particularly like to acknowledge the Rolvenden History Group is a recently celebrations which has special relevance to Rolvenden as We hope you have following for their generous contributions to formed local history society running Robert Cushman, one of the chief organisers of the 1620 events, lectures and local research voyage, was born in the parish. making this exhibition possible: ROLVENDEN enjoyed this exhibition HISTORY GROUP projects. Rolvenden Parish Council If you are interested in knowing more about our local This is the Group’s first exhibition and is just one of a History Group or contributing to our memory archive St Mary the Virgin (Rolvenden PCC) The Committee of Rolvenden History Group number of areas of local history in which its members please talk to one of the committee; Bruno Del Tufo, Bibliography have shown an interest. Sue Hatt, Matthew Hopkins, Jackie King or Sue Saggers would like to thank all those who have Tenterden and District Museum Chalklin, C.W., Seventeenth Century Kent, John Hallewell Publications, 1978 and for membership please contact Judy Vinson (01580 contributed to the exhibition through photos, The Old Dairy Brewery Filmer, R., Hops and Hop Picking by Richard Filmer, Shire Books, 1982 Topics which are hoped to become a focus in the coming 241504, [email protected]). King, J., Rolvenden Recollections, 2016 memories and artefacts. Major, A., The Oasthouses: Their Life and Times, S.B. Publications, 2006 months are History of Gardens and the Mayflower 2020 Vernacular Homes Ltd Phillips, R. and M. Rix, The Botanical Garden, Volume Two Perennials and Annuals, Firefly Books, 2002.