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Our first post was 8th November 2008 since when we have had 42,000 different visitors from 107 countries.

This website is yours and you have made it the interest it is by sharing your memories with us all.

Please continue to send us photos and memories of Wateringbury for new generations to enjoy and see how the village once was.

Please send us your memories no matter how small. Either send them by the contact form or directly to me by email at john.gilham@mail.com

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Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Hop Picking Time

September each year the village would come alive with the smell of Hops being picked and dried.

Until the 60's the hops were picked into a bin by hand, then the Mill Farm introduced a Hop picking machine. I can remember the working Oast Houses at Mill Farm and the farm behind the Post Office, there are also Oasts in Cannon Lane farm and Pelican Farm but I am not sure when they stopped being used. Tractors would be seen running from the Hop Garden to the Oast Houses constantly.


This is a photo of my Mum & her Mum Hop Picking at Mill Farm in the 40's. Behind them is a large Victorian greenhouse installed by  Richard  Fremlin who lived in the house then called May Lodge, later Broomsdown.   By the 1940’s  I think Canon Keys lived there.
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My brother Brian Gilham and Elizabeth Marchant Hop Picking in Wateringbury around 1967/8
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