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A very brief outline of the hop-pickers work is provided below. This section describes how the work was organised and the various roles of those undertaking the work.
Sets, drifts, gangs and pokes The hops grew on bines which used to be trained on poles, but by the twentieth century most of the bines were trained on wires. The poles or wires were arranged in alleys and these would be divided up into 'sets' or 'drifts'. The pickers picked in gangs and each gang would work their own bin or basket in the set which they would be allocated by the farmer. Bin-men and Tally-men Each group or gang would have its own bin-man. The bin-man would be responsible for pulling the poles or tearing down the bines, enabling the pickers to then strip the hops from the bines and leaves. The bin-man was also responsible for moving the bin to the next set and loading the hops into the 'poke' after they had been measured by the tallyman. Due to the physical nature of the work, the bin-men were always male. Tokens, tally sticks and bushels The measurer or 'tally-man' would visit the gang during the day to collect the hops. The measurer was also responsible for calculating the volume of hops picked by each gang. Tokens or marked tally sticks were then given to the hoppers as a record of the volume of hops, measured in bushels, that each gang had picked.
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HOP-PICKING
Bin-men
on Berry's Farm Faversham (photograph donated by Mr Berry,
Berry Farm)
HOP-PICKING | Rural Conflict and Strikes | The Hop-pickers Work | Who were the Migrant Pickers | Work Place Regulation | The Payment System | The Dynamics of Conflict | Conclusion | References | Hop Production in the UK | Reading
Derek Bright walk@walkawhile.co.uk
Date Last Modified: 14/07/00