Hop Picking

Derek’s extraordinary images of life in the hop fields in the 50s and 60s have evoked many fond memories, including those of Claston Farm hop pioneer Peter Davies, and Instone Court’s Barry Parker, whose stories were recorded before their recent deaths. The early autumn period of high intensity, sweat, toil and laughter, changed with the appearance of the Bruff machine (a mechanised hop picking machine), bringing to an end the annual migration of pickers from the Black Country, South Wales and the Gypsy communities. Of those farms that have survived, some are several generations strong, and, with a fresh crop of new farmers investing in the business, there is renewed vigour in the industry.

A requisite of British beer, with their evocative aroma, hops have been an integral part of county life for centuries. Listen to stories of days past and present, from pickers, farmers, traders and brewers; from families arriving for a working holiday by train, cattle lorry or charabanc; dinners cooked over open fires; children picking hops into upturned old umbrellas, while mothers worked at the cribs.