Paddock Wood
Paddock Wood photos (21 available)
Paddock Wood maps (2 available)
Map of Kent
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Paddock Wood books (30 available)
- 8 photos on Paddock Wood appear in 4 Frith books - View photos of Paddock Wood
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Paddock Wood and Kent
Paddock Wood memories
Read and share memories of Paddock Wood and Kent inspired by Frith photos
Hop Picking
I too remember as a child visiting Paddock Wood with my nan, every year we would all pile into the back of a lorry and set of to the hop field. What wonderful memories, days I will never forget. We all came from Chiswick. Is there anybody else out there from the Chiswick area who went hop picking? If so, get in touch, thanks.
Contributed by brian faulkner
Hop Picking
Paddock Wood, in particular Beltring, the home of the famous Whitebread Oasts, was the centre of the Hop Gardens of Kent.
The Gardens were set out with rows of elevated wire tressles which were supported at intervals by poles.
In the spring, from each hop plant, which was cut back to ground level every year, the shoots were trained up, known as "twiddling". A new hop twine which was tied to a metal hook in the ground up to the overhead wire. There were usually four shoots per plant. By midsummer's day the shoots would reach the wire and flop over the top.
In early September the hops would be ready for picking.
Hop picking in Kent was carried out ...read more here
Contributed by Michael Willcocks
My road
The year i was born in this road. 119 Maidstone Road, the Woods residence. Side by side next to my granparents fish & chip shop. I always remember that the house to right of the phone box was always deralicet? Did something happen in that house?
Contributed by Patrick woods
Kent memories
Hop Picking
I too remember as a child visiting Paddock Wood with my nan, every year we would all pile into the back of a lorry and set of to the hop field. What wonderful memories, days I will never forget. We all came from Chiswick. Is there anybody else out there from the Chiswick area who went hop picking? If so, get in touch, thanks.
A memory of Paddock Wood contributed by brian faulkner
Extracts From Paddock Wood & Kent books
popularity; this led to the
establishment of the Kentish
hop gardens, mainly in a
triangle formed by Maidstone,
Tonbridge and Tenterden but
with others around
Sittingbourne and Canterbury.
The first green climbing shoots
appear in May, winding
clockwise up strings attached
to an overhead gantry of wire,
and the pendulous yellow-
green cones are usually
harvested in early September.
Up until the Second World
War, this work was undertaken
by entire families who came
from South London and the
East End to stay on the farms
and supplement their income
with this casual labour, but ??
An extract from from"Kent Living Memories".
Pokes are being
unloaded into the oast
house from a truck; the
hops will be given some
ten hours drying over
the furnace.
An extract from from"Kent Photographic Memories".
This village was the hop picking ‘capital’ of Kent. At one time, every September hordes of workers with their families would arrive and camp out for the season. As well as earning some money, it was a way for some families to have a cheap holiday. Hop picking is today largely mechanised.
An extract from from"Villages of Kent Photographic Memories".
The hops are being
measured the traditional
way. The bags are called
‘pokes’, and each holds
12 bushels. The man in
the centre is probably
the tallyman, who was
responsible for
recording the harvest.
An extract from from"Kent Photographic Memories".
These two photographs of the village High Street give some indication of the constantly-flowing stream of traffic
which passes the small, half-timbered Black Horse pub with its adjacent wine merchant and the large petrol station
on the right-hand side of the picture.
An extract from from"Kent Living Memories".