Hopping

Click on " View All" below the postcard to see a selection of posts on one of the major sources of Wateringbury's wealth, Hopping. At present according to The Food Programme on Radio 4 (13th October 2013) it is believed that only 60 hop farms, with 2,500 acres under hops, operate in UK which has just over 1% of the world market. Hereford is now largest growing county in UK rather than Kent.

The Parish magazine started in 1883 and includes many articles about hop picking in Wateringbury. From 1895 until 1920 the vicar was Greville Livett and most of the articles between those dates would have been written by him. Greville Livett's interest is not confined to spiritual matters.

Articles of earlier date are mainly sourced from newspaper articles.

Some of the parish magazine articles were published in 2009 in the Souvenir programme of "From Sunrise to Candlelight", a performance by the Wateringbury Players in the Village Church.

See also Leney's farm (1870) under the topic of Farming. See also Orwell's stay in 1931 hop picking in Wateringbury under George Orwell in Wateringbury (1931).

The postcard shown below, kindly contributed by Jan Briggs-McGowan of Ontario Canada, is postmarked 25 Oct 1937 Tonbridge, and sent by his mother to George Manser, Croydon