"A Pocketful of Hops"

Most hop pickers in Britain came from the Black Country and South Wales. In the first part of this book, we learn about the lives of such pickers. In the second, we learn about traditional hop-growing and tending.

By way of further background ... The Bromyard Historical Society tells us that nineteen-hour-days were split into two shifts - from 6am - 3.30pm, and 3.30pm – 1am. Such long hours were needed to get the hops picked and dried.

"Going hopping," for children, meant they would sleep on straw pallets, eat rabbit stew, stay away from wasps (as best they could), pick hops (into an old umbrella) all while their mothers did their own work at the cribs.

It was not an easy time to be a working-family child.