Hopping (1850): annual hop dinner; AGM of Hop Planters Company

Post date: Jan 23, 2012 6:45:36 PM

An annual hop dinner seems to have been a standard event in many local villages and the newspaper from which the following report comes, the Kentish Gazette of 20th August 1850, also carried reports from Tonbridge, East Farleigh and Rolvenden about similar dinners and sweepstakes held there. Richard Filmer in his Hops and Hop Picking notes that gambling on the amount of duty was a sport throughout the preceding century as well ever since a duty of 1d. per pound on English hops and 3d. per pound on Flemish hops had been imposed for the first time in 1710.

WATERINGBURY. Hop Dinner. —The annual hop dinner at the King's Head took place on Wednesday last, I. Woodbridge, Esq., in the chair. The winner of last year's sweepstakes was Mr. S. Monckton, of East Peckham; the set for the present year ranged from £137,000 to £307,000! The average was from £179,000 to £200,000.

If there was to be a sweepstake on the value of the crop that year, the annual hop dinner had to be held before the crop was ready. Elsewhere in the paper the report was made from Wateringbury that

We have the mould most preciously; and how the rain and thunderstorm of today will affect us, we cannot yet surmise.

The King's Head was the usual venue reported for big celebratory dinners and had been used the previous year for a very big dinner- see Christening followed by 780 for dinner). The King's Head stood at the south-east corner of the cross-roads. Formerly a private house it opened as the King's Head Inn in 1785. It was subsequently owned by Augustus Leney (one son of 'Frederick Leney & Sons' the brewers). It ceased trading in 1938. For details of other events held in The King's Head see Wateringbury hero and Wateringbury salutes its war heroes.

The I. Woodbridge in the chair at the dinner may have been James Woodbridge, the owner of The Lodge (now occupied by Karen Millen) on the south side of Tonbridge Road. James, although not recognised as a hop grower, was a local man of substance: a Justice of the Peace and a Churchwarden, who had accompanied Matthias Lucas in meeting the first train to stop in Wateringbury in 1844 on the opening of the railway line.

The London Standard reported on 2nd October 1850:

Wateringbury, Teston, and Nettlested.— Several of the large planters have finished picking, and, in consequence of deterioration of quality, there is a deficiency of quantity. The general opinion of the duty is from £205,000 to £210,000

Extract from the Kentish Gazette of 27th August 1850:

THE HOP PLANTERS JOINT STOCK COMPANY,

CALVERT'S BUILDINGS, SOUTHWARK.

Directors: Mr. P. L. Punnett, of Chart Sutton. Mr. Thos. Abbott, of Aylesford. Mr. Thos. White, of Wateringbury. Mr. James Hatch, of Ulcomb. Mr. George Cobb, of Bredgar. Mr. Gabriel Kennard, of East Farleigh. trustees. Sir Edmund Filmer, Bart., M. P., East Sutton Place. John Whitehead, Esq., Barnjet. Barming. Charles Gustavus Whittaker, Esq., Barming.

Manager—Mr Johnson.

AT the THIRD ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING of the SHAREHOLDERS, held on Wednesday, tbe 7th day of August, 1850, at the Mitre Inn. Maidstone; Mr. P. S. PUNNETT, in the Chair; The following report was laid before the Shareholders, approved and adopted :— ,

"The Directors have the satisfaction of being able to state, that during the past year, the position of the Company has materially improved, that the number of its supporters has steadily increased, and that the surplus profits realized from the business transactions amounted to £1,039 5s 11d.

"Although the crop of hops in 1849 was unusually short, the total number of bags and pockets sold by the company considerably exceeded the number sold in either of the preceding years, and the quantity now hand for sale, is much the same as usual at this period of the season." The fact having become more generally known that the company does not purchase hops on its own account, and therefore has no hops, the property of the company, to place on its own boards in competition with hops consigned for sale commission; planters, merchants, and speculators have availed themselves of the agency of the company to a much greater extent than in former years.

"The commission in the Borough for the sale hops, the growth of 1849, has been higher than that charged the company, to the extent of Is. per bag and is. per pocket when sold at more than £5 and under per cwt., and to the extent of 2s. per bag and 2s. per pocket when sold £8 and upwards. By adhering to the lower charge of 4s. per pocket and 6s. per bag for all hops sold at and above £3, the profits of the company have been rendered less by £435. and which sum has thus been a saving in commission to those planters (whether shareholders or not) whose hops have been sold by the company. The Directors having in view the permanent stability and usefulness of the company, rather than the division of large dividends, recommend that dividend of 10s. per share (free of income-tax.) being equivalent five per cent. per annum upon the paid up capital, shall be declared, and that the same be made payable on and after the 31st of this month. And that out of the remaining surplus profits, the sum of £600 be invested in the purchase of stock in the Consolidated Bank Annuities, to be set apart fer the purpose of forming the 'reserved fund,' pursuant to the tenth clause of the Deed of Settlement, and to be applicable to the purposes therein provided.

Mr. Thomas White and Mr. James Hatch, two of the Directors, and James Woodbridge, Esq., one of the Auditors, retire by rotation and offer themselves for re-election. It will also be necessary to elect a new Director in the room of Mr. John Taylor, who has resigned his seat at the Board. The Directors have much satisfaction in informing the shareholders that Sir Edmund Filmer, Bart, has accepted the office of a trustee of the company, in the room of the late Thomas Martin, Esq.,deceased. "The Manager and Secretary continue to discharge their respective duties with their accustomed zeal and ability; and in conclusion the Directors respectfully remind their fellow shareholders, that the flourishing condition of the company can best be maintained by a continuance of that increased support which it has received from the proprietors during the past year, who, by their own personal example and local influence, have it in their power to add materially to its permanent success."

(Signed) By order of the Board, P. S. PUNNETT, Chairman.

Mr. Thomas White and Mr. James Hatch were re-elected Directors, and Mr. Gabriel Kennard, of East Farleigh, was also elected a Director.

James Woodbridge. Esq., was re-elected one the Auditors, and a vote thanks to the Board of Directors, for the important services rendered to the company during the past year, was proposed and carried by acclamation.

James Woodbridge, the auditor re-elected as such to 'acclamation' was also a Wateringbury man, as well as Thos. White a director.