A pale echo of Kent's hop-picking past: Country diary, 25 September 1970

25 September 1970 The few hands doing the sorting process are the only remnants of that great parade of hand labour that once signified the end of summerKENT: One of the odder contributions to the vernacular architecture of rural Kent is to be found in spartan huts of brick and corrugated iron tucked away in solemn rows behind hedgerows. They have a military look. Most of them are empty but some still sport a washing line, a pram, and other signs of the nomadic life. But the annual confrontation of two cultures, the London East-ender and the Kentish farmer, has diminished into a very pale echo of the traditional hop-picking. One farm alone, of over 1,000 acres of hops, reckoned to face an invasion of more than 40,000 people, seeking their annual quota of fresh air, for many their only holiday and for all the method of gaining the money to buy winter clothes for the family. Continue reading...