The Eradication of Manual Hop Picking as a Rural Tradition Due to the Brewing and Economic Crisis in Post-War Britain

Manual hop-picking during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries represented far more than a form of agricultural labour; it constituted a significant seasonal activity that connected urban working-class communities with rural economies. In the hop-growing regions of Kent, in particular, hop-picking developed into an important cultural tradition that served simultaneously as seasonal employment, a temporary escape from urban life, a working holiday, and a source of supplementary incom