Hi David Hops were a farm crop like any other (wheat, oats, barley etc) and so someone who grew them was called a farmer, and his farm labourers would have done most of the work concerned with growing them throughout the year. However they used to require a large labour force to hand pick them, so as the acreage rose and the number of farm labourers employed fell over the Victorian period, the tradition of "hop-pickers" coming to pick them from the neighbouring industrial areas (in Herefordshire the West Midlands and South Wales and in Kent, London) arose. Where they did differ from other farm crops is that they were perennial crops, and so did not have to be sown every year like those grown from seed (such as the grain crops). Instead the fields of hops (in Herefordshire "yards" and in Kent "gardens") were planted up from time to time either with dormant root-stocks ("sets") during the winter and the spring, or cuttings. It is quite possible that this may have been done by someone with specialist knowledge who called himself a "hop-planter" but the only reference in my own research to someone so described, is very early on in the period when hops first started to be grown, and he seems to be a "farmer" and so perhaps a "planter" in the same way as those with overseas plantations were so called. Also most hits in a Google search on the term seem to refer to the person growing the hops, rather then someone working with them. If anyone else can offer a definitive answer on this I'd be very interested too! Polly ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Daniell" <ddaniell@woosh.co.nz> To: "Herefordshire Rootsweb" <eng-hereford@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 1:17 PM Subject: [HEF] Hops Can anyone tell me the correct description in the old censuses of people whose main occupation was growing hops? Or was this perforce a seasonal occupation? (so at census time they would not have been doing that?) Would they have been classes as ag-labs or would it have required enough skill to be regarded as a separate 'trade'? I notice in a recent message someone is described as a hop-planter. Might this have been someone who owned a plantation as distinct from an employee who planted them and trained them onto sticks etc? Thanks for any advice, David "14th October 1793, Sun Newspaper, London A few days since, at St. John's Worcester, Mr ROLLASON, Printer & Bookseller, Coventry, married to Miss OVEN, daughter of the late Mr James OVEN, Hop-planter and Grazier, Dilwyn Herefordshire Diane J." ---- ENG-HEREFORD Mailing List ---- A genealogy and local history list covering the County of Hereford ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-HEREFORD-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Polly, Thank you for your kind and informative response. Its a while since I read the Wikipedia item and yet I am sure i did not take on board that they were treated as a perennial plant. One thing I had noted is that they seem to be grown in hop-gardens. Now, why the word garden? A choice piece of land? Hmmm, isn't there a song about strawberry fields . . . Thanks, David On 30/05/2008, at 1:37 AM, Polly Rubery wrote: > Hi David > > Hops were a farm crop like any other (wheat, oats, barley etc) and so > someone who grew them was called a farmer, and his farm labourers > would have > done most of the work concerned with growing them throughout the year. > However they used to require a large labour force to hand pick them, > so as > the acreage rose and the number of farm labourers employed fell over > the > Victorian period, the tradition of "hop-pickers" coming to pick them > from > the neighbouring industrial areas (in Herefordshire the West > Midlands and > South Wales and in Kent, London) arose. > > Where they did differ from other farm crops is that they were > perennial > crops, and so did not have to be sown every year like those grown > from seed > (such as the grain crops). Instead the fields of hops (in > Herefordshire > "yards" and in Kent "gardens") were planted up from time to time > either with > dormant root-stocks ("sets") during the winter and the spring, or > cuttings. > > It is quite possible that this may have been done by someone with > specialist > knowledge who called himself a "hop-planter" but the only reference > in my > own research to someone so described, is very early on in the period > when > hops first started to be grown, and he seems to be a "farmer" and so > perhaps > a "planter" in the same way as those with overseas plantations were so > called. > > Also most hits in a Google search on the term seem to refer to the > person > growing the hops, rather then someone working with them. > > If anyone else can offer a definitive answer on this I'd be very > interested > too! > Polly