Hop Picking on Buston Manor Farm, Yalding

The Medway c1960
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

My family name was Brewer and it seemed we went hop picking for ever. The last time was 1958. The following year my grandmother became ill and we could not go anymore. I was 12 the last time I went.  I have written a story of my time spent on Buston Manor Farm and I would love to share it with anyone who was there at the same time. This would be between 1945 and l958. My grandmother's name was Nan Brewer and my grandfather's name was Bill Brewer. We were a big family and my grandmother had gone hop picking from when she was a baby. I have wonderful memories and at this time of the year every morning is a "hopping morning" with the dew on the grass and the particular smells of the countryside in September with blackberries, plums, apples and pears on the trees. My cousin Dana and I visited Cob Tree Farm in Maidstone 2 years ago and the scene there transported me back in time. There were huts laid out just as we had them. We picked hops and talked about our time in Yalding and only wished it also would hold a hop festival. We have visited the old farm up on the hill but apart from derelict oast houses, all is gone. Memories are evoked as you stand in the familiar places where the huts stood and where the Salvation Army held services on a Sunday morning. The blackberries are still there as is the little bridge I fell off and cut my leg open when I was 5. The smell of woodsmoke always takes me back and I would love to get in touch with anyone who went to our farm. My email address is patricia.seymour@gmail.com.  I live in Rugby, Warwickshire now but I originally came from Camberwell, south London.