Many thanks Polly, They seem to have been a crop that required a lot of attention - Mary Horner seems to make it a year-round activity with the casuals for the picking: http://www.romanyroad.co.uk/#/hoppicking/4524168147 Which would not be so for the other crops you mentioned. My central concern is to find the name given to the people who made and tended the yard / garden! Mary's list seems to me to suggest more specialised activities - it almost seems more like growing grapes than the skills needed for oats barley wheat etc. Prune the plant wrong and you are in trouble ( though I guess this applies to most fruiting growths as with orchards) I'm after the correct term to be applied to the 'workers', that's all. thanks Polly, David On 30/05/2008, at 2:00 AM, Polly Rubery wrote: > Hi David > > As I said they are only called "gardens" in Kent. Here in > Herefordshire > they are grown in hop-yards. These were normally quite small and > enclosed > with tall hedges to help protect the hops from wind. In the past > they were > grown up poles, and you would not get much for your crop if they all > blew > over onto the ground. So I guess that the term (both of which come > from the > same origin and indeed to an American their "yard" is what we call a > garden > in England) indicates a smaller more enclosed plot of land rather > than a > larger, more exposed "field" - which in the 16th and 17th centuries > would > have been even more so than what we know as a tyical field today, as > they > would have been the "open fields" before enclosure. > > And yes we have a lot of "strawberry fields" in Herefordshire now - > mostly > covered by poly-tunnels to protect them from rain and to extend the > season > too. Now we import pickers for them rather than the hops and they > mostly > come from Eastern Europe. > Polly