HOP Stringing Competition: Hop stringers, the name given to men and women who every year weave the vast "spider's web" of cord yarn - some 300,000 miles of it - on which will grow the hops required to flavour the nine thousands million-odd pints of beer Britons can be expected to drink next year, had their own competition in Kent today- the weald of Kent Ploughting Match Association's annual hopstringing competition - held at Pattendedn Farm Harden, Kent, The stringers carry the yarn in baskets slung over their shoulders, and by means of poles, ten feet or more long and tipped with iron tubing through which the cord runs, thread it from pegs in the ground to hooks set on wires 15 1/2 feet above the gardens.The result is that from each site of a growing hop plant, called "a hill" arises a pattern of string resembling the spokes of an umbrella - the name is given to the type of stringing most frequently met with in the South East. The stringers who in the competition have to "string a cant of about 200 hills" , are followed by assistants - usually women who act as "banders-in" and tie each group of four vertical strings together about five feet from the ground. Photo Shows Competitors both "stringers" and "banders-in" assemble for the allocation of blocks ( or area in which they work), before the start of the competition today.
Photo measures 8 x 10.25 inches.
Photo is dated 4-9-1968.
Photo back:
