“Hopping Down in Kent”
Description
"Some say hopping's lousy. I don't believe it's true," but then the singer describes the hoppers' hard life, poor wages, and bad food. And when the money's spent "don't I wish I'd never went A-hopping down in Kent"
Notes
Hops are picked in September. Most hoppers in Kent were the poor and unemployed from London. "At the hop industry's peak more than 80,000 people poured into Kent every autumn. Whole families came and there are many records of families visiting the same gardens for several generations." (source: "History of Hop Picking in Kent" in _A History of Hop Growing in Kent and the South East_ at the National Hop Association of England site; the article describes hopping and some of the terminology used in the song) - BS
Recordings
- Mary Ann Haynes, "Hopping Down in Kent" (on Voice05)
References
- Roud #1715
- BI, RcHoDIKe