A recorded sound picture of a tour of the hop-gardens of Kent
Produced by Laurence Gilliam
The present season of the year sees one of the most characteristically English occasions in the whole calendar. By bus, bicycle, car, or cart, 'Arry, 'Arriet, and their families take themselves off from London's East End for the hopping season in the Kentish hopfields. Here for the next few weeks they will be living under canvas, or in hutments, working by day, and singing and making merry by night.
A couple of years ago a BBC recording van travelled with the hoppers to Kent, took records of scenes on the road, of work in the hopfields themselves, and of the spare-time life of these cheerful Cockneys. The whole was woven into a programme that tonight it being repeated in its entirety.