Hopping (1905):departure hideous with drunkeness

Post date: Feb 27, 2012 10:12:29 AM

Extract from Parish magazine of October 1905:

THE HOPPING-1905

HOSPITAL STAFF: — Sister Katharine Kerr, Nurse Hewlett, and Miss B. Montefiore. The hospital was open for four weeks and a day. Nearly 1,100 out-patients were treated in the dispensary, and 10 cases were received as in-patients. The majority of the former came from Wateringbury, a considerable number from Teston and Yalding (Bow Hill), and a few from Nettlestead, Mereworth, and two or three other parishes. Of the in-patients one baby from Court Farm, West Peckham, was sent on to the Infirmary on the day of its arrival; a 6 year old lost girl spent one night at the hospital before it was claimed by its parents from East Malling; while the detention of the remaining eight averaged nine days each. Two lads, each 10 years old, one from Bull Farm, Mereworth, and the other from Canon Court Wateringbury, suffered from pneumonia; a young woman of 18, from Bull Farm, Mereworth, had bronchitis; a girl of 10, from Canon Court, Wateringbury, was operated on for abscess; a woman from Baron Place, Mereworth, was left at the door (the conveyance being immediately driven away) and was soon afterwards confined; a little girl of 2, place not recorded, was detained only two days; and there were two little babies, one from Nettlestead Court Farm, who died after twelve days' careful nursing, the other from West Peckham, being restored to its parents after a like period. Drs. Southwell-Sander and Black kindly acted as honorary medical men. The Hospital was situated on the New Road, in a cottage kindly lent by Sir George Donaldson. For three years in succession we have used hospital furniture lent by the Rector of Mereworth; for next year we have to provide fresh plant. A detailed estimate suggests that the-balance-in-hand [£41 4s. 3d.], shown over-page, will nearly meet the cost.

VICARAGE COFFEE-STALL AND CLUB ROOMS.—Workers :—Mrs. Riches and Miss Dixie. Mrs. Riches has now worked with us for seven successive hoppings, and Miss Dixie for four. They were constantly helped by resident ladies, but the responsibility which they take upon themselves affords great relief to the Vicar; and the work which is done is of great advantage both to the pickers and indirectly to the residents: it is greatly appreciated on all hands.

LANTERN MISSION.—Paid Worker:—Church Army Captain Halliwell. The Missioner has held services in the Church Rooms each Sunday evening, and in the Gardens on four nights in each week during the long picking. He has also visited the gardens during the day time, spent his spare time during the evening in the Club Rooms, given a hand now and again at the station coffee stall, and generally assisted in any way possible. I cannot speak too highly of his willingness and of his good influence among the pickers.

GENERAL. — We have six farms: on two of them the growers run their own stalls; on two others we supply stalls in the shape of covered carts which are lent by the growers and served by paid labour under the Vicar's supervision; and on the remaining two farms there are as yet no stalls. Our Canon Court Stall, in its fifth year, has for the first time practically paid its own way, under the excellent management of Mr. Locock and his wife. Our Home Farm Stall has been a first year's venture, with results that are distinctly encouraging; but next year we should like to have the influence of lady-workers in connection with the stall in this garden. Our Station Stall does not pay its way, and will never do so if we keep it open during the whole period of the arrival and departure of the pickers who use Wateringbury Station. This year, opening the stall 8 nights out of 10, we met 51 out of 58 hoppers' trains arriving from midnight onwards. The work is invaluable and must be continued. The people arriving are very quiet and well-behaved: it is not so on departure, which takes place in the afternoon, the pickers, if paid early in the day, having to wait a long time for their trains, and a certain section of them making the scene hideous with their drunkenness. However, we are satisfied that our presence is beneficial: the stall is fairly well patronised and we are able now and again to stop a fight, and to render many a little service of more pleasant character to the departing pickers. The picture must not be drawn too black: occasionally, in cases in which the paying-off has been well-timed, whole train-loads of pickers have gone off with scarcely any sign of drunkenness or rowdyism. And it is interesting to note that Father Cuthbert, the head of the Roman Catholic Mission, whose presence in the district for the first time has been most welcome, speaking in the midst of one of our worst crowds, told me that with a long experience of the slums of London he felt he could truthfully say that the people are more orderly when in the hopping district than they are when at home. It has not always been so; and we want no better testimony to the value of the Church of England Mission to Hop-pickers.

Speaking for Mrs. Livett as well as for myself, I have to thank most sincerely all who help us in this work, whether by their time or by their money. The subscribers' names appear in the statement of accounts: possibly I might inadvertently omit some of the names of our other numerous helpers were I to attempt to give a list. Everyone would desire me to express the gratitude which we all feel towards the volunteer nurses and other lady-workers who come among us year after year at this time, and also to the Rev. F. G, Oliphant, the Hon. Sec. of the Association, the funds of which make their presence possible. Our appreciation of what Mrs. Riches and Miss Dixie have done for us has this year been shown by a small presentation made in the presence of a few friends at the Vicarage one afternoon. And lastly, we must say how much we have been encouraged to go on with the work by the visit of the new Bishop of our most recently restored diocese of Rochester. Bishop Harmer, who stayed at Teston Rectory, delivered a stirring address to the workers in our Church on the occasion of the annual Conference, and, after luncheon at the Vicarage, his Lordship visited the hospital and Canon Court farm. G.M.L.

The detailed accounts appended show a balance carried forward of £41, some £12 more than brought forward. The chief items of expenditure were the hospital £20 and the expenses (£83) of the various stalls (Vicarage stall: £35; Station stall: £18; Canon Court stall: £16; Home Farm stall: £14) and the lantern mission £13. The takings of the stalls were £51; 27 local people made subscriptions totaling £42 (Sir George Donaldson £5; R.H. Fremlin and A. Leney £3 each); and the grant from the CoE Mission was £32).

Extract from New Zealand tablet of 23 November 1905:

Mission to Hop-pickers

The mission to Catholic hop-pickers, undertaken by the Capuchin Franciscans at the special request of the Bishop of Southwark, has come to an end (says the Catholic Times Two Franciscan Fathers, accompanied by two Sisters of and a band of layworkers, mostly Franciscan tertiaries, attended to the spiritual needs of the Catholic hop-pickers in the mid- Kent district. Besides the spiritual work, the mission had a nursing tent at Paddock Wood, where more than 150 cases were attended to by a trained nurse. At East Farleigh, a nurse gave her services for part of the time. At Wateringbury great distress prevailed at the beginning of the season, owing to an overplus of applicants for work, and the Fathers on one occasion to feed 40 literally starving Catholic children, besides helping individual cases. It is hoped to extend the boundaries of the mission in future years. The Bishop of Southwark was unfortunately unable to make a visitation of the district this year, as he had intended, owing to his absence in Spain. It is pleasant to record that the mission met with a most cordial reception from the Anglican Hop-pickers' Association.