Sound Recordings, Kent and London

Description

Bill Selsdon, recorded in Maidstone, describes hop picking in Headcorn (Kent) as a child with his family; accommodation in Hopper Huts; travelling from London (on the Hopping Train); hop picking season; sleeping arrangements; pay; mother and children picking - father working in London, visited at weekends; evening singsongs; attitude of locals to hop pickers; Gypsy Traveller communities; Tallyman; Tally Clerk; Bin Man; paid at end of picking; pay offs for leaving early/dismissal; rules and regulations; religious services for hoppers - local St. John's brigade Mission; 'complaints' (gout); describes hop picking day (visitors not allowed to pick during World War One - started again c. 1925); season's wage pre-World War One, £6-7; lists songs sung (Boer War songs); hop picking song (gives first line); occupational sayings/language; visiting tradesmen; preparations for hop pickers' arrival; machine picking and costs; thoughts on end of hop pickers and rise of mechanisation. Recorded 2 September 1969. [Tr. 1] Mr. A. J. Roberts, recorded in Stepney, talks about Guinness Farms, c. 1947, in Bodiam (East Sussex); the establishment in 1948 of a Mission for hop pickers, financed by the Guinness brewery; camps of hop pickers and their amenities; attitude of farmers to the Mission and its welfare work; attitude of hop pickers to the Mission; pickers from Hastings (East Sussex) working on a daily basis; Whitbreads brewers; work of the Mission on the camp - channelling grievances of workers; can't estimate number of workers; Borough Homes in Tower Hamlets and Stepney; population of Stepney. Recorded 26 September 1969. [Tr. 2]

Metadata

Identifier j3d41djv
IRN 414272
Class Mark LAVC/SRE/A222r
Level Item
Type of Record Archives - ISAD(G)
Peristent Link http://prototype1.library.leeds.ac.uk/j3d41djv
Collection(s) Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Category Archive
Parent Record Audiotape Sound Recordings
Creator(s) Kemp, P K
Date September 1969
Size and Medium 1 x 12.7cm open reel spool, Duration: 60' 39".

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