The Hop Project

The Hop Project A contemporary art project that will tour Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Birmingham and the Black Country in 2016/17

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HOP PROJECT

The Hop Project is a contemporary art project that will tour Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Birmingham and the Black Country in 2016/17. Funded by Arts Council England’s Strategic Touring Programme, the project uses the historical migratory movements of hop pickers as the conceptual basis for a touring exhibition. The Hop Project is conceived and produced by General Public (artists Elizabeth Rowe and Chris Poolman).

The project’s starting point is an exploration of the social and political implications of hop production in the West Midlands. Hops are the flowers of the hop plant Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a flavouring agent when brewing beer, into which they impart a bitter, tangy flavour. In the West Midlands, the hop yards of Herefordshire and Worcestershire produce more than half of the hops grown in the UK. Historically, in the 19th and early 20th century, a mass-exodus from Birmingham and the Black Country used to occur every autumn as thousands of people travelled to Herefordshire and Worcestershire for the hop picking season.* The Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities also have a long history of participating in agricultural work and were a significant source of flexible, short term labour in the hop picking industry at this time. This all ended abruptly in the 1960s when mechanisation of the hop industry brought an end to the need for large numbers of workers to support the annual harvest.

Since this time dramatic changes have taken place in agriculture and in the workplace more generally.

One of the outcomes of these developments is that today Herefordshire has an ever increasing Central European community travelling to the county to fulfil agricultural demands.** HOP, HOP, HOPPING The project doesn’t seek to present a factual, social history of hops; rather it offers an interpretation from a number of different angles and perspectives.

It uses the verb ‘hopping’ as a working methodology to explore a number of tangential ideas connected to the history of hop growing. The phenomenon of ‘economic nomadism’ is a particularly important idea in the wider project. Indeed, an exploration of the historical and contemporary movement of people for the purposes of work is highly appropriate for a touring ‘moving’ exhibition. Movements of other types underpin the project. These include white van movements, Romany Travellers’ figure of eight movements and the mapping of premiership footballers’ birthplaces. Other ideas the project is interested in include the politics of geographical boundaries, representations/myths of the countryside, employment rights, the demise of railways, the building of motorways, the effects of mechanisation within agriculture, itinerant lifestyles and the relationship between rural and urban tribes with their different ‘languages’ and modes of communication.

TOURING EXHIBITION The touring exhibition includes: (1) Archival material relating to the history of hops and hop picking.

(2) The Hip-Hop Pickers’ Ball – a project by General Public – an amalgamation of hip-hop and the history of hop picking.

(3) Contributions from groups situated along the tour schedule’s geographical route.

These include a model of the final Hop Pickers’ Special train to leave Herefordshire in 1965, needlework depicting migratory labour routes inspired by Central European stitching patterns, watercolours of inner city graffiti and a ‘rustic’ exhibition display structure built by Romany travellers. You might also find documentation of ‘Agricultural Sculpture’, references to the cider truck system (receiving a third of your wages in cider) and prints of bird migratory routes.

MULTIPLE VOICES The artworks within the exhibition attempt to present a range of different voices involved in the history of hops and agriculture – landowners, Romany Travellers, today’s Central European economic migrants and Black Country hop pickers, specifically women. Indeed, the newspaper and website feature a newly commissioned essay by Professor Margaret Grieco that explores the roles played by women in hop picking. Women’s employment-based seasonal migration is greatly under-recorded in existing social history. Hopping is one area in which such underrecording took place.

Alongside the touring exhibition, other aspects of the project include a travelling billboard and a nomadic Hop Project ‘Mission Vehicle’ modelled on the mission wagons that used to frequent the hop fields at harvest time. This features the children’s Enclosure Act game – get them into land grabbing at a young age!

The Hop Project is an evolving project with a live period of 18 months. Certain contributions by groups will be launched at specific locations.

Please check the website for news, updates and unusual developments. www.thehopproject.co.uk

See ARTISTS’ MOVEMENTS (p. 39) for more information about the project organisers. * Hop Pickers also used to travel from South Wales. This project focuses on the West Midlands connection. ** Please see David Storey’s essay ‘New’ Migrants in the British Countryside (p. 30) for more information (included in both the newspaper and website).

The Hop Project

THE HOP PICKERS MIGRATION During the 19th and early-to-mid 20th century thousands of people from Birmingham, the Black Country and South Wales used to travel to Herefordshire and Worcestershire every year for the hop picking season. This was their annual ‘working holiday’ (approximately six weeks in September/ October). This migration ended with the introduction of hop picking machines, the standardisation of school holidays formalised in Education Acts, the demise of a local railway infrastructure, competition from foreign hops and the devastating effect of the hop disease, verticillium wilt.

Before the days of mechanised farming, hop picking was a labour intensive process, requiring a significantly greater number of people than were available locally. The Black Country and the Welsh Valleys, from where Herefordshire and Worcestershire farmers drew their workforce, were industrial areas where, despite the low wages offered, women, children and unemployed men welcomed the opportunity to leave the industrial areas where they lived and earn money in the open countryside.

Hop picking also attracted many Gypsies, Roma and Traveller people who would time their arrival in the hop growing areas to coincide with picking season.

Most growers built a long term relationship with their pickers, who would return to the same farms year after year. The larger growers would charter a railway train to bring their pickers to the farm and take them back home at the end of the season.

Workers were paid according to the quantity of hops they picked. The crop was picked in a ‘crib’, where a wooden frame held open a hessian-covered receptacle around eight by four feet long. The picked hops were measured in bushels and tipped into a sack for transport to the kilns for drying. The number of bushels picked was recorded by the picker on a tally stick. This was later matched to that held by the tallyman and a notch cut on the edge of both.

Cover: Photography by Paul Ligas Opposite: Hereford Museum and Gallery, Herefordshire Museum Service Above: Hereford Museum and Gallery, Herefordshire Museum Service

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Album reviews by Ted Zeppelin of the BME (Bromyard Musical Express) The only BME in Bromyard!

P H I O P H PICK E RS L A B L

1. The Plenum Chamber of Love A plenum chamber is part of a hop kiln, the chamber below the drying floor. This is an unusual fact and this is certainly an unusual album – a love album composed of a series of pared-down, rapped love ballads between unlikely characters in hop picking history. Class hierarchies are smashed apart as new social encounters are imagined. Rappers Zentner & MC Booker show their more tender side as they assume a number of contrasting positions – policeman serenading tramps, men tickling one another under the chin in the plenum chamber, Romany Gypsies and landowners holding hands.

Personal favourites on this album? A few actually.

‘Bobbies Blues’ is a candid exchange between a policeman and a local vagrant. Any song that contains the lyrics ‘You broke my heart/When you left with your tatting cart’ melts my heart. ‘Well Bruff ’ makes the link between ‘buff ’ (attractive) and ‘Bruff ’ (a hop picking machine). I’ll leave you to find out who is ‘Well Bruff ’ though. X-rated stuff. ‘Pillow Talk’ is a gentle meditation on the limits of love as two women from historical epochs three hundred years apart make hop pillows together. ‘I’ll be your Hurricane Lamp’, their take on ‘I’ll be your Mirror’

by The Velvet Underground and Nico, is beautiful.

Until the burnt skin bit. Love hurts. This is an album of fantasy, love and exquisite sayings. This isn’t an easy album, but give it a chance and you might just fall in love again. Je serai poète et toi poésie!

Straight Outta Bromyard

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igration between the rural and urban is conventionally thought of as a one-way process from the countryside to the city, exemplified by the industrial revolution.

As Margaret Grieco’s essay outlines in this newspaper, an analysis of the history of urbanisation which focuses primarily on the singular movement of rural-to-urban (rural depopulation) is incorrect. Seasonal agricultural labour and the involvement of urban labour in rural harvests offered a disruption to this process for many years. Hop picking, and other forms of agricultural migration by an urban community, presented a break in the industrial rhythm as thousands re-versed the presumed one-directional rural-to-urban migrational path to travel to the countryside. Up until the 1950s, the migration from Birmingham, the Black Country and South Wales to Herefordshire and Worcestershire was extensive. For example, the population of Bishops Frome (a small Herefordshire village near Bromyard)

would swell from 700 to over 5,000 for the six weeks of the hop picking season.

In the 1950s and early 1960s, with the introduction of hop picking machines, the standardisation of school holidays and increased competition from foreign hops, the annual ‘hopping’ migration gradually came to an end and an important rural/urban interaction was permanently lost. The Hip-Hop Pickers’ Ball sees The Hop Project travelling back along this urban-to-rural migrational path by taking hip-hop, the original inner city urban art form, and relocating it to the countryside to explore the politics and history of hops. The Hip-Hop Pickers’ Ball is a fictional hiphop group based in Bromyard, the former hop capital of the UK, who take their name from the Hop Pickers’ Ball, an event that would historically occur at the end of the hop harvest. They are collaborating with different rappers and local groups along the tour route to produce a series of albums and music videos.

The Hip-Hop Pickers’ Ball Special Event Nozstock The Hidden Valley 22–24 July 2016 www.nozstock.com

2. Hop Pickers’ Mission to Mars As bizarre albums go, this one is out there. Right out there in outer space. Man. Too far out for this reviewer. Its premise is this: 100 hop pickers go on a mission to Mars in an Oasthouse shaped space ship; they are joined by 10 religious missionaries, you know the sort who used to frequent hop fields at harvest time. Just before take-off a seasonal worker from Bulgaria gets on. Their captain and pilot is a man who goes by the name of The Milestone Inspector (apparently a colloquial term for a tramp or vagrant).

As they travel to Mars in their oast house shaped space ship, the Milestone Inspector asks them to discuss the p-p-p-p-p-politics of hop picking. It’s pseudo-intellectual babble of the highest order. That said, some of the Milestone Inspector’s whimsical raps are memorable – ‘The Tiddly Winks’ is a rather cheeky song about a winking pub, and this is about as normal as it gets on the ‘Hop Pickers Mission to Mars’. Daft. Weird. Pretentious.

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PRODUCERS: SOUND COMMUNITY MUSIC/SCANNER MAN

The Hop Project

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3. Perfite Platform of a Hoppe Garden

4. The Tallyman & Scanner Man

5. Hopportunity Knocks

‘The Tallyman & Scanner Man’ represents the first real attempt by The Hip-Hop Pickers’ Ball to get to grips with what makes the world go round: money. Historically, the tallyman was responsible for keeping a record of how many bushels of hops had been picked. The tallyman’s modern day equivalent is the scanner man, who measures and records the amount of soft fruit picked by workers. The album’s treatment of the financial situation in seasonal workers’ accommodation camps is probably its best bit. ‘Tally, Ho!’ is a humorous take on the complexities of sending money home, ‘Hop Token Effort’ is a touch above average, whilst their cheeky cover of Ini Kamoze’s ‘Here Comes The Hotstepper’ (in which the line ‘I’m the lyrical gangster’ memorably becomes ‘I’m the accommodation inspector’) made this reviewer laugh all the way to the local history society. Overall though, this album fails to hit the mark. Patchy, like a foggy morning on the Bromyard Downs. Hey, where’s my dog gone? Jimmmmy!

A terrific investigation of the Eastern European invasion, or to put it correctly, the Central European influx. More history lessons I’m afraid. NO, NO, NO. YES YES YES! Since 2004, when the EU expanded, residents of the so-called A8 countries – Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia (along with Cyprus and Malta) – have travelled to the UK looking for work. In 2007, two more Eastern European countries – Bulgaria and Romania – joined the EU. On this occasion, restrictions were placed on the rights of Bulgarians and Romanians to work in the UK. Migrants from those countries could only obtain employment in sectors where there were apparent difficulties recruiting labour.

Of particular relevance in a rural context is the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS), a quota-based system under which certain

A misleading title, incongruous with the album cover, which is itself incongruous with the content of the album. ‘A Perfite Platform of a Hoppe Garden’ is the first English book to be written on hop growing.

It was written by Reginalde Scot, a hop farmer from Kent, in 1574. A History lesson: The 19th century ‘land grab’ in Herefordshire saw 20,000 acres of common land privatised by widespread and successive Enclosure Acts, legitimising a process which protestors, at the time and later in the century, found to be irreversible. In the 67 years between 1798 and 1865 over 65 parishes had most or all of their cultivatable common land or open fields enclosed, following 70 acts of parliament. And this is what

the album is really about – an exploration of rural hardship in the 19th century. The vaguely melodic ‘On the Club’ looks at the support networks offered

by Friendly societies, the early trade unions of their day, whilst the album’s outstanding musical moment is ‘Cabbage Stalks’. It’s a deceptively simple song about children collecting cabbage stalks to burn on the fire, but becomes something else entirely under the influence of DJ Bushel’s angry beats. A difficult, challenging album – although rewarding if you’re prepared to stick with it. Definitely not one for the Walkman though, especially when the Bromyard Light Brigade are installing the Christmas lights.

Ouch!

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jobs in the agricultural sector could be given to Bulgarian or Romanian workers for a set period of time. Herefordshire and Worcestershire have an increasing number of workers from these countries working in agriculture and ‘Hopportunity Knocks’ explores the opportunities open to these workers.

You really need to listen to this album. Stand-out tracks include the tortuously named ‘Seasonal Workers Liaison Officer’s Blues’, ‘Agri-Culture’ and the cryptic ‘Yellow, Red, Home’. A great return to form by The Hip-Hop Pickers’ Ball, who many feared had lost it with ‘The Hop Pickers’ Mission to Mars’. MCs Zentner and Booker in particular are on fine form.

6. Tunnel Maintenance

7. Straight Outta Bromyard

8. Hop Yardie

A classic in the soft fruit album genre. This reviewer’s album of the year. Who would have thought an album of covers and re-workings of classic fruit songs could be so rewarding? ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ is no longer a trippy exercise in 60s optimism, this is the trip gone wrong. Worse than the 1970s comedown, this is the nightmare of 2016. Literally strawberry fields forever. Everywhere. All year round. Under giant plastic polytunnels. And someone has to pick them. Ahhhhhhhh! Do you think Lennon and McCartney would be so idealistic if they were picking strawberries for twelve hours a day and sleeping in a caravan near Leominster? I’ll refrain from saying any more, just buy the album. Revel in the soft fruit and music fusion. OK, just one more – the cover of Frank Zappa’s ‘Watermelon’ in Easter Hay (on Wye) is cherry good. Cherry cherry good. Trying to grow watermelons in winter in Herefordshire? Has the world gone mad? UK Consumer is this what you really want? Yes, if it means more albums like this!

Taking its title from NWA’s seminal album ‘Straight Outta Compton’, this album offers a moody exploration of the complex relationships between hop pickers and the farmers who employed them. Its starting point is a strike in a hop field at Avenbury Court near Bromyard on a Thursday in 1905 when workers tried and failed to negotiate a rise in the picking rate. From here, the album goes on to explore the politics of temporary employment, class relations and land ownership. Basically, the whole caboodle. The multi-punned ‘Picker Picket Pocket (or two)’ is an alliterative tongue twister of a song, as is ‘Tin Town Thursday’. Tin Town was a well-known area of hop pickers’ huts near Bromyard, whilst Thursday’s were particularly prone to strikes because Thursday was Bromyard’s market day (there were bargains to be had!). Final track ‘Subbuteo’ continues this revelling in word play with an investigation of the murky business of ‘subbing’ money. Interesting. Earnest. OK.

Documenting one family’s experiences of the 1908 Foreign Hops Protest March in London when fifty thousand people marched to Trafalgar Square to demand a duty on foreign hops. Many of these people were from Herefordshire and Worcestershire, including the Cross family. Set over the course of one day, as they make their way up to London for the march, the album explores links between family finances, national politics and international trade.

Clever stuff. Buy your mum a copy for Christmas, she’ll be thrilled.

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9. Here’s Another One

10. The Politics of Bargaining

11. Burning Bines

12. Cannabaceae

An intriguing album this one; knowing, selfreflective and a little bit edgy. Told from multiple viewpoints, the album explores the relationship between Romany Travellers and the artists, writers and photographers queuing up to talk to them. Title track ‘Here’s Another One’ cheekily narrates the visit of ten ‘creatives’ to a Romany camp over the course of a day, each artist oblivious to the artist who was there before them. Likewise, the caravan-thumping ‘Strike a Pose’ delves into the murky territory of romanticisation. Probably their best album for two years. Looking forward to the next one, my Gorjer matey.

An ambitious album that attempts to tell the story of one Black Country family’s involvement in hop picking over seven generations, or more specifically the involvement of seven generations of women from the early 19th century to the 1950s. Opening track ‘Green Gold, King Hop’ establishes an unlikely parallel with the cotton picking empires of the Southern states of America (white gold, King Cotton). Never have Oklahoma and Bishops Frome been rhymed so eloquently. The quirky ‘School Uniformity’ looks at how money earned from hop picking used to pay for ‘luxury’ items such as new school uniforms, whilst ‘The Agency’ powerfully dramatises the significance of Black Country women in recruiting urban labour for the hop fields. Almost a great album, but not quite – just don’t tell ‘The Agency’ I said this.

Melancholic exploration of the seasons. Twelve songs, named after the twelve months of the year.

A journey into acaricides, hookers and burrs.

Wonderful stuff. Need I say more?

Indulgent, puerile. So what if hops are related to cannabis? Is it worth writing a whole album about this? Idiots.

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Alicja Rogalska, Untitled (Broni贸w Song) (2011) Video still

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O M B I LE

Brendan Jackson

Artworks by Daniel Baker, Tereza Buskova, Alicja Rogalska, Brendan Jackson and General Public.

The billboard will be appearing at exhibitions, events and popping up across Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Birmingham and the Black Country during 2016 and 2017.

ALICJA ROGALSKA Alicja Rogalska is an artist based in London and Warsaw. Her practice is interdisciplinary and encompasses both research and production with a focus on social structures and the political subtext of the everyday. She mostly works in context on projects that involve collaboration and creating situations. She graduated with an MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, University of London and an MA in Cultural Studies from the University of Warsaw. Recent exhibitions and projects include: Rehearsal, National Museum (Krakow, 2015), No Need For References, Kunsthalle Exnergasse (Vienna, 2015), Critical Juncture, Kochi Muziris Biennale (Kochi, 2014), Your City Is a Battleground, Museum of Modern Art (Warsaw, 2014), A Museum of Immortality, Ashkal Alwan (Beirut, 2014), Dreamed Revolution, Muzeum Sztuki (Lodz, 2014), Tear Dealer, Rewiry (Lublin, 2014), IMS, Flat Time House (London, 2013), Melancholy In Progress, Hong-Gah Museum (Taipei, 2012), To Look is to Labour, Laden Für Nichts (Leipzig, 2010) and No Soul For Sale, Tate Modern (London, 2010).

hidden histories, writing and mixed-media. He has undertaken significant projects in the museums and heritage sector, bringing together different voices, experiences and perspectives. For the past decade, much of his work has been in Eastern Europe, and he is currently developing projects in Georgia in the Caucasus.

BRENDAN JACKSON Brendan Jackson trained in visual communication, holding a Fellowship in Photography at the Photographic Gallery, Southampton University, and was part of the development of the John Hansard Gallery there. Since that time his interest has been in collaborative projects where his expertise intersects with photography and film, community arts and

TEREZA BUSKOVA Tereza Buskova (born in Prague in 1978) is a Czech artist who lives in Birmingham with her young family. She celebrates and reinterprets longestablished customs through performance, print and video. Her work is not built on existing facts of past folk practices alone – it is a personalised exploration of the feelings and fantasies bound up

DANIEL BAKER Dr Daniel Baker is a Romani Gypsy. An artist, curator and theorist, he holds a PhD on the subject of Gypsy Aesthetics from the Royal College of Art, London.

Baker acted as exhibitor and advisor to the first and second Roma Pavilions; Paradise Lost and Call the Witness at the 52nd and 54th Venice Biennales respectively. Baker’s art and writing examines the role of art in the enactment of social agency. Recent publications include We Roma: A Critical Reader in Contemporary art 2013 and Ex Libris 2009. Baker’s work is exhibited internationally. His work can be found in collections across Europe, America, and Asia. Former Chair of the Gypsy Council (2006-9), Baker currently lives and works in London, UK.

in our rich festive celebrations. Her performances depict an improvised portrait of rites of passage, which reflect not only the change of season, but also sexuality, fertility and the powers of rural mythology.

She completed her Fine Art Printmaking MA at the Royal College of Art in 2007. Since her graduation from the RCA, Buskova has been exhibited by David Roberts (Rituals, 2008), Anita Zabludowicz (A Tradition I Do Not Mean To Break, 2009) and the Newlyn Art Gallery (Rituals Are Tellers Of Us, 2013). She has exhibited, performed and lectured in a broad range of different spaces including Lincoln’s Chambers Farm Wood (2010), Islington High Street (2012), Kunstnernes Hus Oslo (2014) and the Whitechapel Gallery in London (2015). Buskova is currently working towards her new work Clipping the Church (2016), supported by Arts Council England and the Czech Centre London.

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V E A L L IN G R T

Daniel Baker, Gold Rose Looking Glass (2006) Enamel, silver and gold leaf on glass, 36cm x 35cm

L B L OARD I B

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Tereza Buskova

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E L I B O M

Image credit: Birmingham Museum’s Trust

A T S TI O N

PRINTI NG

Image credit: Nishkam Centre Archive

The mobile printing station travels across the geographical spread of The Hop Project, from inner-city Birmingham to rural Herefordshire, following the historical migratory routes of hop pickers. It develops the project’s interest in historical and contemporary workers’ movements by allowing the general public to produce prints relating to the history of work-related migration in the West Midlands. As the project moves from east to west, printing plates will be produced in response to stories in each geographical location.

Beginning in Handsworth, a location at the centre of the industrial revolution and a hub of contemporary migration today, printing plates include the ‘Black Patch’ Handsworth and the 18th century Soho Manufactory (the biggest factory in the world).

Come along to the mobile printing station and produce your own portfolio of prints.

The printing station will be appearing at all events and at the opening of exhibitions at The Courtyard, The Hive and mac birmingham.

Image credit: Indian Workers Association

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The Hop Project

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Hop Growing Parishes map Image credit: Worcestershire Archive & Archaeology Service

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Family skills, family space and the social organisation of hop picking

by Professor Margaret Grieco D. Phil. (Oxon.)

Edinburgh Napier University and Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Transport Group, University of Birmingham From a working class family, I had knowledge of the migratory labour patterns of the United Kingdom.

With a mother from the East End of London and a father from Inverness in the North of Scotland, I knew of the annual hop picking journeys made by whole families from the East End of London and the patterns of seasonal labour migration made by the sea-board communities of Scotland and the Scottish urban communities which serviced agricultural harvests. Labour was roving and urban working class families had agricultural skills in abundance, despite the stereotypes which saw their roving labour as unskilled, unorganised and very often as dissolute. My own family’s skill base and its knowledge of the skill base of other families provided me with the insight into the complex social organisation of working people as they pursued their skills in the pursuit of gainful seasonal employment.

The external world saw casual employment as a simple free-for-all arrangement and the academic world followed suit. My own Oxford doctoral thesis explored the role of social and kin networks in skilling labour and securing employment, but at the end of the process I knew that there was more to know about the social organisation of hop picking, so I set about researching the topic through oral histories, brewing company records and press reportage. I focused on the annual journeys from the East End of London to the hop fields of Kent and Hampshire and published a book entitled ‘Workers’ Dilemmas – Recruitment, reliability and repeated exchange: an analysis of urban social networks and labour circulation (Routledge, 1996). This book recorded the complex social organisation of hop picking from a range of perspectives including, most importantly, that of the hop picking families themselves. It showed that there was a mass migration of seasonal labour from urban London to the hop fields of Kent and Hampshire for the duration of the first half of the 20th century.

In researching these East End of London, Kent and Hampshire labour circulation patterns I came across evidence of comparable patterns of West Midland urban labour’s involvement in the hop fields of Worcestershire and Herefordshire and Dorset.

Evidence from Priory Street, the Gun Quarter, Birmingham: Personal communication from Len Holmes on the basis of information furnished by his mother, Mrs Holmes, whose childhood was spent in Priory Street, in the Gun Quarter of Birmingham, where both children and women were extensively involved in agricultural harvesting of potatoes locally (Tamworth) and further afield in the hop fields of southern England (Westfleet).

Recently, I have collated a wider set of materials which show evidence of the historic involvement of urban labour in the seasonal hop picking workforce in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The seasonal

migration of labour or urban families to agricultural space is also a major dynamic of West Midlands and Black Country life until the mid 20th century and it too is a dynamic which has been poorly recorded by the academic literature. My argument is that these patterns were an outcome of the family operating as a coordinating and skilling agency which provided organisational benefits to employers and an outcome of families taking the social space provided by hop picking – beyond the simple earning of a wage – to repair and to enjoy themselves.

The social accounts of hopping stress the fun that was had as well as the improvement in diet that occurred without denying the heavy discipline of the work that was undertaken. Hopping was viewed as a working holiday and social accounts of hopping are heavy with nostalgia. Children, although their labour was part of the hop-working package provided by families to the hop farmer, were encouraged in the view of hopping as a festival and a holiday by the social activities and the framework of humour provided by the adult labour force.

The evidence of Dennis Turner: My family lived in Netherton and each hopping season we would go with our mother Lily Turner to Bishop’s Frome and Farmer Parker’s Farm, which was known to us as The Five Bridges.

Our journey was by Midland Red bus and all our luggage would be taken by the farm owner’s lorry and delivered to our quarters. When we were bigger we were allowed to travel on the lorry with the luggage. What larks, what utter delight.

I can only ever speak and think of those days we spent hop picking with joy and affection.

Our mother Lily supervised my brother Lawrence and I picking hops doing mostly a full working day. Play deservedly came later on. What strong individuals it helped to make us!1 The evidence of Graham Paul Webb: In the 50s it was quite common for working class Brummie families to go hop picking, not only to earn a few extra bob, but as their main summer holidays in the country. We would get picked up in Sparkbrook by one of the farm hands in an open backed lorry, very open! I often wonder how we managed to stay on the back with the wind clawing at our frail, famished bodies and all the bumps in the road threatening to buck us off like a bronco. We were with many, Mum, sisters, Barbara & Margaret, brothers, Ronny and Ted, Auntie Liz, Uncle Fred, Cousin Fred, I, the youngest at 6 years old, and others from unknown back streets of Brum huddled together. Most of us had only got the clothes we stood in and a few brown paper parcels tied with string,

containing a few personal items. No one had a suitcase, we were not that rich! I had heard that some hop-pickers were transported to the farms in a ‘charabanc’ (these days we would call it a motor coach), but in our case that was a luxury we just couldn’t afford!

To us kids this was the thrill of our lives, our first real holiday, where we were being taken to, or what we going to do didn’t matter two brass farthings. For us the lorry had some wonderful new sounds and smells, a mixture of tractor diesel, fresh hops and pig swill, but it beat walking or cycling any day. The journey seemed to take a lifetime and we finally stopped in a very small Worcester village farm yard. This turned out to be Shelsey Walsh, famous (as we found out later) for its hill climb racing track. Shelsey Walsh was the first car racing track in the world and it’s still in use today.2 Hop picking appeared to the outside world as if little skill was involved, but in fact it required a highly skilled large labour force and the best recruiting and training agency for this was the large extended family and its extensive social and neighbourhood network. Each hop field had its own links with its source of urban labour and each family and social network had its own links with the hop farmer: year after year families returned to the same hop field bringing with them new labour to train. Inside this arrangement family insiders achieved skills and those without attachment to ‘traditional’ hopping families were placed at a disadvantage. Skills became normalised within families – both hop farmers and hop labour were aware of the shortness of the harvest and the dangers of unskilled labour spoiling the crop in such a short season. For farmers, securing their labour in advance of the short hopping season was imperative and, for families, securing the hopping employment which brought much needed income and a huge variety of social and health side benefits was equally important. The annual reactivation of the hopping contract between farmers and workers was a vital part of the annual calendar for both workers and employers.

At hop picking time, families from the Black Country, South Wales, Bath and Cheltenham came to Bosbury every year and stayed on the same farms. This was their annual holiday.

There are still six farms in the parish growing hops, with hop pickers from as far afield as Poland and Australia, as well as South Wales.3 The evidence of Richard G Mayer: It (September) was a month free from drudgery.

Folk harvested the hops and were paid for doing it. Nothing but sickness or death was allowed to interfere with the annual pilgrimage. Generation after generation, members of the same Black Country families became attached to the same farms, almost as though by hereditary right. Year after year since the railways first opened, on the first Saturday of the month, families of hop pickers, men, women and children with babies in washing baskets, with their tin trunks stuffed with palliasses (straw mattresses), blankets and pots and pans crowded the platforms to wait for the ‘specials’ that would convey them across the river to the hop yards.

I remember that one of these trains began its journey at Smethwick Junction, picked up passengers at the stations between there and Stourbridge Junction, crossed the river at Worcester and distributed them at stations along the line that ran through Bromyard and Leominster to end its journey at Presteigne.

Another train crossed the Severn at Dowles Bridge and went along the line to Tenbury Wells.

Both in the Black Country and in the hop growing districts, the school holidays extended over September so that the children could help with the work, no doubt a matter of Hobson’s choice as far as the education authorities were concerned for they would have played truant if they hadn’t. The week before the pickers’ arrival was one of feverish preparation on the farm. The large, freshly lime washed barn was freed from lumber, swept out and a heap of clean, fresh straw was piled into one corner ready for the pickers to stuff their palliasses4

The Hop Project Year after year neighbourhoods were transported from urban Britain to the rural hop fields – neighbours in low income urban Britain were neighbours in the temporary accommodations of the hop fields.

In east London, each year the matriarch of a hopping family network would receive a ‘hopping letter’ from the farmer she had worked for the season/s before contracting her and her network for the upcoming hopping season.

Employers’ ability to summon labour to the hop fields both depended upon and compounded the cohesiveness of social relations within kinship and neighbourhood structures. Like many employers in modern industrial society, the hop growers harnessed and depended upon existing patterns of social relations – ie social networks – in their recruitment dynamic. As a consequence and concomitant of this process, these social networks frequently came to ‘own’ sets or clusters of hopping employment vacancies; effectively they became the owners of occupational property. Whereas, in many cases where such occupational property can be observed to exist, there are no formal markers on this ownership of employment rights, in the case of hopping there were some formal markers on the extent of this occupational property. The hopping letter of East London was one such form.

Letter from WH Brownlow who had gone hopping from Martha Street, Shadwell, Stepney: The usual procedure was for the lady going hopping to apply by a letter to the farmer for accommodation and bins.5 This letter would be followed by a letter from the farmer offering the woman employment for her and her family for the hopping season. This exchange of letters would take place in the April and be followed up by a postcard from the farmer to the matriarch in the August to confirm the hopping employment was going ahead. Far from casual employment being unorganised, it was highly organised and highly calendared.

In the Black Country, West Midlands, Herefordshire and Worcestershire and Wales, hop farmers would come and make hopping contracts with labour that had worked in the hop fields the year before. There are examples in oral history accounts of women going to the farmer before the season to take the contract for providing the family labour for that year’s requirements. As with east London, the recruiting dynamics of the hop field fell on the shoulders of senior women in the family and in a context where there were particular links between specific rural areas and specific urban neighbourhoods that were annually renewed.

An excerpt from When I was a Boy, by Clifford Willetts OBE (1896-1980): The hop-picking season was the highlight of the year for the poorer families. This was in September. School holidays coincided with the hop-picking season, as otherwise the schools would have been half empty. Hundreds of Cradley families made the exodus to places like Leigh Court, Leigh Sinton, Bransford, Newnham Bridge, Tenbury, Knightwick, Whitbourne, Callow End, Bromyard and Hereford. These places were household names in Cradley.

Prior to the season, the hop grower paid a visit to Cradley to choose a woman whose job it would be to marshal the pickers. These were paid a shilling hiring fee, which morally bound them to the grower. There was no legal contract as such, but the agreement was always honoured.6 The evidence of Janet Faraday on The Moor Farm, Eardiston: When a hundred acres of hops were ready for September harvesting, a large and varied labour force had to be organised. Many of the pickers were comparatively local, but the majority had to be recruited from the Black Country and accommodated in crude, if fancifully named, barracks: Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square.

Earlier in the year my father would have driven round unfamiliar, unmarked territory in the hope of finding the ‘hiring women’ at home. These five formidable neighbourhood matriarchs undertook to bring down so many ‘head’ (payment was per capita). Formidable they certainly were, not least when leading the annual strike. This was traditionally held

17 when the price per bushel picked was declared. They would advance to the front door to negotiate, grim-faced, in their uniform of cross-over pinnies, but hatted as befitted their status, turbans being otherwise women’s wartime wear.7 One consequence of hop farmers recruiting their labour force through senior women in the family was that both the discipline of this labour was managed by the women and the payment of the work group or work gang was to the senior woman who would then disburse the individual payments. This provided these senior women with more income in their hands at the point of payment than any of their male counterparts would have at any point in the annual calendar of wage payment.

The evidence of John Akins on Coseley’s pattern: My grandmother, Sarah Davis, was the local agent and every year she would recruit workers and take them to Lanes Farm, Bosbury, near Ledbury. She did this well into her 80s.8 The Halesowen/Worcester pattern: After reading articles and letters in The Black Country Bugle about hop picking I thought I would tell you about how my mother and father met. She used to go hop picking with my grandmother and family every year from Halesowen. My dad was born and bred in Worcester and worked as a farmhand. He used to put the poles and wires for the hops to grow on.9 The evidence is that this lump payment enabled senior women in the family to manage familial resources in an effective way that has largely gone unnoticed in history and in sociological literatures. At the end of the hopping both east London labour and Black Country families celebrated festivals of renewal.

New clothes were bought, urban grocery debts were paid off and families got ready for the winter with the organising of provisions and the storing of foodstuffs – such as apples – brought back from the fields.

Hopping at Bromyard: At the end of the month, they returned home with apples, damsons, potatoes, bunches of hops for their chapel and church harvest festivals, sun tanned, fitter, and with extra money for the months ahead in their pockets.10 In the east London accounts of the hopping accommodation, there is substantial work undertaken prior to the hopping season by the hopping work force to shape their accommodation into its best possible form. Visits are undertaken to the hop field accommodation to whitewash it and generally to improve the accommodation which can have been used for other agricultural purposes in the intervening period.

The oral histories talk to quite elaborate routines of beautification – this may very well have been necessary to convert stabling into accommodation suitable for children and the sick and vulnerable who were often ‘sneaked’ onto hopping holidays to give them a chance to repair in the country air.

The strength of the informal organising processes of labour as demonstrated here must lead us to question the orthodox characterisation of working class behaviour as hedonistic and poorly planned.

The prevailing characterisation of historical working class planning competences as deficient and short sighted needs to be tackled at both a theoretical and an empirical level. This is best done by discussing the way in which families and neighbourhoods built into their annual budgeting, seasonal sources of employment. These sophisticated budgeting arrangements were not produced out of thin air but were themselves the product of the careful development, nurturing, maintenance and annual restoration and reconstruction of an impressive range of skills. The recurrent and repeated return of family labour to the same source of employment on an annual base ie labour circulation, simply can not be explained within the terms of the conventional account of the working class’s inability to strategise and plan.

In the West Midlands, Black Country, Worcestershire and Herefordshire so far I have found no mention of outside season journeys for preparing the accommodation though much mention is made of the ’hoppen’ trunk or box, which was filled with all the household goods and utensils that the family would need on the hop fields, and there is mention of the role of white washing the accommodation for

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the hopping season being undertaken by the hop farmers.

The Blackheath pattern: Each family took along the old tin chest, which contained everything they thought they would need.

However, the first priority was, how would they get the chest down to Blackheath railway station.

If they were lucky, someone would kindly take them along with the chest on an old lorry otherwise they used any form of transport available, ie an old clapped out wheelbarrow, pram wheels with a couple of pieces of wood across, perhaps an old heavy pram, or they would just have to drag it, going a few yards at a time, stopping for a breather, letting the straps hang on the floor for a while and then, in turn, carrying on pulling the valuables to the station.

Always packed first in the trunk was the treasured frying pan. This made sure they had their ‘fittle’ when they came from the hop fields. Everything went into the frying pan and, many is the time I have heard over the years from some of the ‘old uns’, “Nothing ever smelt so appetising nor tasted so good as Auntie Polly’s fry-ups at Walker’s Farm. It med yer feel ’ungry if yo’ wor.”11 Similar trunks or boxes – very often tea chests - were sent from east London to the Kent and Hampshire hop fields. Evidence for the Black Country shows some farmers being involved in the transporting of these household goods to and from the hop fields.

Lorries were hired or farm vehicles used to connect the urban workforce up with its rural accommodation. Some families had to organise their own transportation of goods and children’s prams found their use in the transportation of household effects. Mobility was synchronised through families, through neighbourhoods, through local lorry services and through the employing farmers. Trains played an important part and added levels of excitement for children and many adults as well. The images of the hop pickers as an army of women and children abound in the popular press and it is not surprising that the label ‘barrack’ was applied by some to the hopping accommodation.

The accommodation arrangements at Newnham Bridge: Prior to the arrival of the pickers, the barracks were prepared. This was a large brick building adjacent to the Talbot Hotel car park, which could be entered from either end. The central area inside was open and was for cooking and eating meals, being provided with tables and benches. The side walls were where the living accommodation was situated, consisting of two storeys with individual rooms.12 The wholescale movement of social neighbourhoods to the hop fields was accompanied by the movement of the grocers and small businesses that serviced them in the urban community. Weekends saw the arrival of relatives who had remained behind in the cities and towns to work, and they also saw the arrival of grocers and other traders. The hop workers received credit against their end of season wage and women were very much in charge of the household finances at this point in the annual calendar of assets and responsibilities. The urban neighbourhood was recomposed in the hop field right down to its normal commercial activity.

Dudley traders in agricultural space: One of the really good things I remember about hop picking during my young days was the arrival of vans from Dudley and other places, selling all sorts of things we could not get in Newnham, especially all kinds of good foodstuff.13 This Dudley pattern mirrors that found between east End of London traders and their urban/seasonally rural clients. The neighbourhood pattern of trading was re-established in the hop field: hop pickers represented a major custom base for the annual calendar of trading. In Herefordshire the custom base provided by the ‘army’ of hop picking women and children at one time produced a form of ‘hop picking coinage’ where payment tokens provided by farmers were used in the payment of local tradesmen.

Hop pickers portraits: Hereford Museum and Gallery, Herefordshire Museum Service

The Hop Project The evidence of Miranda Greene: By the late 19th century Herefordshire hop growers had changed to the hop check or token scheme. Tokens were coin-like metal discs of various sizes, all stamped with the farmer’s name. The smallest represented a single bushel and these could be exchanged for ones marked 1, 3, 5, 10 and £1, indicating the amount earned by the picker in shillings and pounds. These tokens could then be exchanged for cash at the end of the picking season or, if strapped for cash, at the end of the day. The tokens could be spent at the local pub or shop and were accepted by most local tradesmen.

The token system was later replaced by the booking system whereby each picker and busheller was given a book and the amount picked was recorded by the busheller in both books. If you wanted to have some of your earnings early then the bushellers would enter the amount paid out in both books.14 Hop wages not only provided a budgeting resource when they were paid out but also when the matriarchs and their social networks had the commission for hop picking employment in their hands. The hop wage could be borrowed against within the local community of traders in the home residential area, it could be borrowed against with local traders in the hop fields and it provided a source of income which was controlled by the community of women. It provided a source of respectability and trust which functioned for a much greater duration than the four weeks in the hop fields. Whilst from current perspectives, three to four weeks employment might not seem very much of a guarantee of payment to interests owed, if the size of household unit and the volume of earning power it represents are taken into account, then the equation is substantially changed.

The letter or promised employment no doubt provided a base for the organisation of transport in many cases, for this letter was already a proof of respectability and trustworthiness as existing between employer and source of labour. The probability of trustworthiness being transferable to the hiring of transport for the making of the hopping journey and other related activities, such as the preparing of the hopping chest, was therefore high. What we have here is the development of a social dynamic in which the ‘trust space’ or, put in commercial terms, the extension of credit, is enlarged over time. Interestingly, such considerations of trust rarely feature in market descriptions of contractual relations. Repeated exchange over time is likely to produce such a ‘trust spiral’, with accompanying substantial increases in the ‘credit’ or ‘ debt’ space, where the experience of both parties to a set of transactions has been positive.

On the basis of oral history archive, it can be readily seen that such a relationship existed between matriarchs, traders and hop farmers through the first half of the twentieth century.

The oral history accounts of the hop pickers of east London and such written records as exist speak to the substantial presence of religious agencies on the hop fields attending to the moral welfare of this workforce and providing services such as tea tents, social activities for children and first aid assistance.

Hopping was an activity in which there were many minor injuries not least that of the bines creating cuts on the hands. The oral histories around the Black Country hopping patterns do not in the main make much mention of the religious personnel active on the hop fields but there is some mention – and that of nuns.

The evidence of Graham Paul Webb: For the hop-picking I had no clothes or shoes that were worthy of that name, and certainly no underpants. My ragged shorts, that were handdowns from my older brothers, were only held up by string that was normally used to train the hop vines. My mum, a war widow with five kids and a pride that was bigger than her family, only accepted help once in her life and that was a pair of army hobnail boots for my bare feet. They were far too big for me and I had no socks to fill them up. I would traipse up and down the hop fields all day and the boots rubbed all the skin off my sock less heels. The inevitable happened, some bug got into my bloodstream and inflamed the back of my leg, and it was like a fire burning in my calf and travelled up my leg into my knee. I imagine that this was the same kind of thing troops had to put up with in the WWI trenches.

19 At the hop pick there were always nuns going up and down the fields, trying to convert us ‘heathens’ from our evil ways. I think it was one of these nuns that realised how serious my condition was as I was rushed back to Brum for an emergency operation. There they put me to sleep with laughing gas and cut the back of my leg open and scraped my knee joint clean of infection, I suppose it was something like gangrene. After the operation I was shipped back to Shelsey Walsh as my family were still there hop picking. The nuns would come round daily to look at my knee. The first time that they renewed my dressing I nearly fainted, they pulled yards of draining wick out of my knee and had to stuff yards back in. For comfort and compensation the nuns would give me what looked like cigarette cards, not with footballers on them, but scenes from the bible and necklaces with a crucifix to protect us.15 Most of the formal records that accompanied hop picking in Worcester and Hereford have disappeared: the records which survive now are the very many photographs taken of the hop picking armies of women and children in the hop fields and the oral histories provided by those who were involved in hop picking either as labour or as employers. The last major migration of urban workers to the hop fields was in the 1950s/1960s when mechanisation of the agricultural activity took place. The oral history record is thinner than it might have been with the voices of the older members of this work stream being lost through lack of academic attention to what had surely been a major British social phenomenon.

These voices are marginally captured by the recorded memory of the children that accompanied the final workforces of the highest and most social form of hop picking. The living images of hop picking in Hereford and Worcestershire can be found very conveniently on the internet. Here is one place that is worth visiting: http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-hoppicking-1966/ For images of hop pickers organising for their annual journey from the East End of London visit: http://britishpathe.com/video/hop-pickers-1 The task is now to recompose and reconstruct an online archive of hop picking and the Black Country which showcases the agricultural skills of the urban Brummie. The harnessing of hopping employment for an annual holiday and festival of social repair by the urban working class is a social project of great social skill which has been ignored, sidelined and rendered invisible from British social history. The communal synchronisation of families, streets and neighbourhoods of the urban environment of Birmingham and the Black Country on their annual hop picking ‘working holiday’ is a great social saga well worth preserving. Time for a correction, time for a Davenports.

Notes 1. http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/shy-speak-prettygirls-hop-picking-holidays/story-20478077-detail/story. html 2. http://www.birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=11231 3. http://www.visitoruk.com/Ledbury/bosburyC592-V13238.html 4. http://www.genealogyforum.co.uk/forum/images/ richard_g_mayer.pdf 5. Hackney Gazette, 23rd December 1977 6. http://www.cradleylinks.com/hop_picking.html 7. http://www.temevalleynorthparish.co.uk/local-history/ memories-of-the-war-years-at-the-moor-farm/ 8. http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/memories-hoppicking-Ledbury-60-years-ago/story-22970431-detail/ story.html 9. http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/parents-metmum-went-hop-picking/story-20706010-detail/story. html#ixzz3uaRhFwrK 10. http://www.bromyardhopfestival.co.uk/history.html 11. http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/Halesowenfamilys-hop-picking-memories/story-20156339-detail/ story.html#ixzz3uaruU3KL 12. http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/Black-Countryhoppicking-invasion-Newnham-Bridge-thirties/story20119817-detail/story.html#ixzz3uaTW6KdT 13. http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/Black-Countryhoppicking-invasion-Newnham-Bridge-thirties/story20119817-detail/story.html#ixzz3uaXg1lmc 14. http://www.htt.herefordshire.gov.uk/568.aspx 15. http://www.birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=11231

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MAP & TOUR SCHEDULE

Ironbridge

Church Stretton

PSHIRE O R SH

Kid

Ludlow 6

14

Tenbury Wells 7

Leominster

Kington

5

6

3

Bromyard

11

9

Hereford

Exhibitions & Venues The Hop Project will tour for 18 months across the West Midlands. The tour schedule corresponds to both the historical movements of hop pickers and hop growing areas. Throughout the tour, small community venues, libraries, museums and established art centres have equal billing on a shared cultural platform. Local libraries are of importance within the project, particularly within the context of ongoing cuts to local library provision. Herefordshire Libraries are currently facing the prospect of having all of their libraries either closed, or made self-service or run by volunteers, which would leave the county with just one central, staffed library.

2

2

E F R ORDS E E H HI R

Hay-on-Wye

1

WORC

Clifton upon Teme

7

10

Ross-on-Wye 3

Tipton Library 5 Apr – 2 May 2016 Owen House 17 Unity Walk, Tipton DY4 8QL

Oldbury Library 4 May – 30 May 2016 Jack Judge House 10 Halesowen Street Oldbury, B69 2AJ

Wednesbury Library 1 June – 2 July 2016 Walsall Street Wednesbury WS10 9EH

Mon: 9.30am–6pm Tue–Wed: 9.30am–5pm Fri: 9.30am–5pm Sat: 10am–2pm

Mon: 9am–6pm Tue–Fri: 9am–5.30pm Sat: 10am–2pm

Mon: 9.30am–7pm Tue–Fri: 9.30am–5.30pm Sat: 10am–4pm

4

5

West Bromwich Library 5 July – 28 July 2016 High Street West Bromwich B70 8DZ

Haden Hill House Museum 4 Aug – 25 Aug 2016 Halesowen Road, Cradley Heath, B64 7JU

Mon: 9.30am–7pm Tue–Fri: 9.30am–6pm Sat: 10am–4pm

Thu–Fri: 10am–5pm Sat–Sun: 2–6pm

6

7

8

The Conquest Theatre Bromyard (Foyer) 27 Aug – 28 Sept 2016 Tenbury Rd, Bromyard, HR7 4LL

Leominster Library 4 Oct – 28 Oct 2016 8 Buttercross Leominster HR6 8BN

The Hive 3 Nov – 13 Dec 2016 Sawmill Walk The Butts WR1 3PD

Please check venue website for details: conquest-theatre.co.uk

Mon–Tue: 9.30am–5pm Thu: 9.30am–7pm Fri: 9.30am–5pm Sat: 9.30am–1pm

Mon–Sun: 8.30am–10pm

The Hop Project

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E R I H DS R O F F

Events Supporting the touring exhibition, will be a mobile touring set-up that will pop up at events across the West Midlands. This will include a condensed version of the exhibition, a travelling billboard, a printing station and games such as the ever popular Enclosure Act children’s game.

Tamworth

ST A

1

Wolverhampton 4

1 3

Wednesbury

1

4

Tipton

WE ST

7pm onwards (door charge applies)

2

Oldbury

5

M Birmingham ID LA ND S

2

15

Halesowen

12

Wolverhampton Workers’ May Day Festival Sun 1 May 2016 The Pegasus, 4 Jackson Street, Wolverhampton, WV6 0QQ

Solihull

Tickets available from website: nozstock.com

Coventry

dderminster

3

Bromsgrove 4

Warwick

13

W R A ICKSHIRE W

CESTER SHIRE 8

Worcester

Bromyard Hop Festival Sat 27 Aug 2016 Bromyard Town Centre Herefordshire, HR7 Free

Redditch Droitwich Spa

Nozstock The Hidden Valley Fri 22 July – Sun 24 July 2016 Rowden Paddocks Bromyard, HR7 4LS

Tipton Canal and Community Festival Sat 17 Sept 2016 Neptune Health Park, Sedgley Road West, Tipton, DY4 8PX Free

Stratford-upon-Avon

5

How The Light Gets In Festival Fri 26 May – Sun 4 June 2017 How The Light Gets In, Globe at Hay, Newport Street, Hay on Wye HR3 5BG Tickets available from website howthelightgetsin.iai.tv

Evesham 6

Tenbury Countryside Show Sat 5 August 2017 Tenbury Wells Worcestershire Tickets available on the day

7

Clifton Upon Teme Horse and Dog Show TBC Sept 2017 Clifton upon Teme Village, Pound Lane, Worcester, WR6 6DR. Small charge applies

9

The Courtyard Centre for the Arts 13 Jan – 19 Mar 2017 Edgar Street, Hereford, HR4 9JR

10

11

Ross on Wye Library 28 Mar – 29 April 2017 Cantilupe Road Ross on Wye HR9 7AN

How The Light Gets In Festival 26 May – 4 June 2017 Globe at Hay Newport Street Hay on Wye, HR3 5BG

Mon: 9.30am–5pm Tue: 9.30am–7pm Thu–Fri: 9.30am–5pm Sat: 9.30am–1pm

Check website nearer the time for details: howthelightgetsin.iai.tv

Mon–Sat: 10am–9pm

12

13

14

15

Kidderminster Library 6 June – 29 June 2017 Market Street Kidderminster DY10 1AB

Droitwich Library 4 July – 27 July 2017 Victoria Square, Droitwich Spa WR9 8DQ

Tenbury Library 1 Aug – 26 Aug 2017 24 Teme Street Tenbury Wells WR15 8AA

mac birmingham 9 Sept – 12 Nov 2017 Cannon Hill Park Birmingham B12 9QH

Mon: 9am–5.30pm Tue: 9am–7pm Wed: 9am–5.30pm Thu: 9am–7pm Fri–Sat: 9.30am–5.30pm

Mon: 9.30am–5.30pm Tue: 9.30am–7pm Wed: 9.30am–5.30pm Fri: 9.30am–5.30pm Sat: 9.30am–4.30pm

Mon–Tue: 9.30am–5.30pm Wed: 9.30am–1pm Thu: 9.30am–6pm Fri: 9.30am–5.30pm Sat: 9.30am–1pm

Mon–Sun: 9am– 9.45pm

16

Wyspa Institute of Art 2018 Doki 1/145 B, 80-958 Gdansk, Poland

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THE HOP PROJECT DICTIONARY

Graffiti by Cradley, Mathon and Storridge Art Group

T

HE HOP PROJECT DICTIONARY includes a number of words and phrases that might be useful to know before visiting the exhibition. These words and phrases relate to the multiple voices within the project and include hop-related terminology, Romany Traveller vernacular, Black Country dialect, urban slang and ‘Ponglish’, the linguistic cocktail of English and Polish spoken by people bilingual in those languages.

Thank you to Bromyard and District Local History Society and Roma Piotrowska for their help in compiling the dictionary. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the words and phrases included within the dictionary, they should not be regarded as authoritative or definitive statements. We recognise that language is contingent, open to interpretation and that there are different ways of spelling words (particularly those associated with local dialects).

The Hop Project

23

KEY H R BC U P

Hop-related terminology Romany Traveller vernacular Black Country dialect Urban slang Ponglish

D

L

T

didicoy (H) a travelling scrap dealer.

landlordka (P) Landlady (original Polish:

tally (H) 1 The split wooden slat used to record

dzwonic´ na sika (P) to call in sick (original

Polish: dzwonic´ z˙e sie˛ nie przyjdzie do pracy).

włascicielka mieszkania).

lukna˛c´ (P) To look at something (original Polish: popatrzec´).

M

Tin Town (H) A slang term for the area of hop

N

tiddly (H) A colloquial term for the pub.

O B

F

bagster (H) the person who stamped or trod hops

Fejs (P) Facebook.

P

fizzog (BC) The face.

plenum chamber (H) Part of a hop kiln; the

barban (R) wind (as in the wind blew through the trees).

barmpot (BC) a silly person. bayden (U) rich, financially stable, solvent. bine (H) the stem of a hop plant. blether head (BC) someone who talks nonsense, a fool.

bob (R) money.

showing a marked tint of reddish brown due to over maturity, disease or decay.

fresh (U) A term used to describe someone who

has recently arrived in the country; someone who acts as though they do not understand the local customs. Similar to ‘tourist’.

G game (U) Everyday life; the game of life.

Gorjer (R) Non-Gypsy.

booker (H) 1 person responsible for keeping

H

bushel (H) 1, a measure of capacity equal to eight

hop pickers’ hut (H) A shelter or outbuilding

records of the hops picked by each picker 2, the name of a rapper in The Hip-Hop Pickers’ Ball.

gallons (36 litres) 2, the name of a DJ in The Hip-Hop Pickers’ Ball.

Black Patch (R) the ‘Black Patch’ was an area

of land in Smethwick/Handsworth during the mid 19th to the early 20th century. During this period, the ‘Black Patch’ was the camping ground for a large community of Gypsies, Roma and Traveller people who lived on a deep, barren layer of furnace and factory waste. Each year, members of this group would travel to Suckley in Worcestershire to go hop picking. The Gypsies were evicted from the ‘Black Patch’ in July 1905 as the land was repossessed for future redevelopment.

Bruff (H) Bruff Engineering of Suckley in the

heart of Worcestershire’s hop growing country produced hop picking machines that were exported all over the world.

C

ova happs (U) A slang term meaning very happy.

chamber below the drying floor.

poke (H) A sack of loosely woven material

capable of containing up to ten bushels of green (undried) hops.

pookering (R) Speaking.

R riffy (BC) Dirty or unclean. rinse (U) 1, To over do a particular activity 2, To mimic to an extreme level.

twiddling (H) The process of winding or training hop stems around string.

W waggin (BC) Playing truant from school. wag mon (BC) The council official employed to round up errant children who were ‘waggin’.

wannabe (U) A person who tries too hard to be someone they are not.

wirework (H) A framework of permanent wires

hop token (H) A metal disc used instead of

money to guarantee payment to the hop pickers.

HMB (H) Hops Marketing Board.

I is´c´ na drinka (P) To go for a drink (original

S

Y

is´c´ na toka (P) To go to a talk (original Polish:

scanner man (H) 1, The modern day equivalent

yard (H) A hop yard is the West Midlands name

Polish: is´c´ sie˛ czegos´ napic´).

is´c´ na pogadanke˛).

J

of the tallyman; the person who monitors and measures the quantity of fruit picked 2, The name of a producer in The Hip-Hop Pickers’ Ball.

Judy Garland (H) A slang term for a hop

sharra-bang (BC) Motor coach – ‘derived from

cog-nocker (BC) a thick sandwich.

K

shesti (R) Nonsense.

cribs (H) (U) 1, The wooden structures that hop

karpety (P) Carpets (original Polish: dywany).

pickers worked around and into which they deposited the picked hops 2, Urban slang word for home.

and 19th centuries, the ‘Cider Truck System’ was widespread. A truck system is an arrangement in which employees are paid in commodities or other currency substitute rather than with standard coinage. This limits employees’ ability to choose how to spend their earnings, generally to the benefit of the employer. Workers on Herefordshire farms would receive a large part of their wages in cider, often as much as fifty percent.

long, in which dried hops are pressed and stored.

Contains up to 80 kilos of hops.

joobus (BC) Suspicious, dubious.

coconut fibre.

truck system (H) In Herefordshire in the 18th

hop pocket (H) A sack, approximately six feet

sharkin (U) Giving someone dirty looks.

coir yarn (H) cordage and string made from

tourist (U) See ‘Fresh’.

provided by the hop grower for the hop pickers.

scuppet (H) A wooden shovel used for moving

of flowering plants. The family includes about 170 species grouped into about eleven genera, including Cannabis (hemp, marijuana) and Humulus (hops).

pickers’ huts and accommodation near Bishops Frome.

to support strings for hops to climb.

Jest teraz bardzo bizi (P) It is very busy

cannabaceae (H) cannabaceae is a small family

tatting cart (H) A rag-and-bone man’s handcart.

milestone inspector (H) A colloquial term for

nextman (U) Someone you don’t know.

foxy (H) A term used to describe dried hops

carrying the hop tallies.

tikety (P) Tickets (original Polish: bilety).

a tramp or vagrant, a ‘gentleman of the road’.

bait (H) food for break time at hop picking.

tallyman (H) The person responsible for

megger (H) An electronic instrument used to

measure the moisture content of pocketed hops.

into the pocket or bag before the hop press was introduced.

the number of bushels of hops picked 2 = The agreed rate of payment; traditionally the number of bushels picked for one shilling.

(original Polish: Jest teraz duz˙y ruch).

garland.

kiln (H) The building used to dry hops in a current of warm air.

dried hops around the oast house.

charabanc (a horse drawn wagon).’

shoddy (H) Shredded rag, a waste product of the

woollen and carpet industries, used as an organic fertiliser.

szukac´ flata (P) Looking for a flat (Original Polish: szukac´ mieszkania).

for a hop field. In Kent it is called a hop garden.

Z zentner (H) 1, A measurement used in the hop

industry. 1 zentner = 50 kilos, 20 zentners = 1 tonne 2, The name of a rapper in The Hip-Hop Pickers’ Ball.

zoop zoop (U) To big up, to compliment.

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B O A L R L AT ION S O C

G R O UP S

O O L H S C AND S SCHOOLS Two schools – Bosbury Primary School in rural Herefordshire and Grove Primary School in Handsworth, inner-city Birmingham – are undertaking a series of exchanges as they explore stories of migration through the medium of vegetables. Even the humble carrot and parsnip, staple ingredients of the English Sunday lunch, made their way to the UK as vegetable migrants. Children will exchange seeds and ideas as they prepare for ‘Vegetable Show’, an imagining of new, fictitious vegetables (the best paintings going on tour in the exhibition). Pupils will also get the chance to take part in the Agricultural Sculpture Colouring-in Posters Competition and contribute to the Franz West Gourd Growing Station.

OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS The Hop Project is an evolving project; we expect other groups to make contributions to the touring exhibition as the project develops. Please check the website for updates.

Image credit: Hereford Museum and Gallery, Herefordshire Museum Service

OUTCOMES Model of the final Hop Pickers Special train to leave Herefordshire, overcrowded with hop pickers returning to the Black Country* West Bromwich Model Railway Society Watercolours inspired by inner city graffiti Cradley, Mathon and Storridge Art Group Diorama of socialist hop pickers from the South Wales Valleys and the Black Country fighting the royalist land owners in a fictional British civil war universe Hereford Wargamers Quilted beer label designs for fictional feminist ales Crystal Quilters & Kidderminster Forest Quilters Rustic touring exhibition display system Mr Bennett, Romany Traveller

* Taking inspiration from the fact that hop pickers were always put on inferior trains/poor quality carriages, this was a handy opportunity for the Model Railway Society to use up all their damaged stock.

The

Multicultural

Pickle

Challenge Is the UK in a multicultural pickle?

Pickle |'pık(ə)l| noun 1. A relish consisting of vegetables or fruit preserved in vinegar or brine.

“I’ll have a cheese and pickle sandwich please.”

Synonyms: relish, chutney, chow chow, piccalilli, sauerkraut 2. A difficult situation. (informal) “I am in a pickle.”

Or are flavours from other countries adding a tasty tang to what would otherwise be a rather bland offering?

Can pickle help facilitate an informed debate?

Discuss multi-culturalism through the medium of pickle, chutney or piccalilli.

Please get in contact if your group would like to take part in the Multicultural Pickle Challenge

Tasting & competition to be held at the Midlands Arts Centre in September 2017

Thank you to Balsall Heath Women’s Institute who will be trialing the Multicultural Pickle Challenge later this year

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HOP GROWING Adapted from text supplied by the British Hops Association www.britishhops.org.uk

THE HISTORY OF HOPS The modern hop has been developed from a wild plant as ancient as history itself. As far back as the first century AD it was described as a salad plant and is believed to originate from Egypt.

Today, the words ‘beer’ and ‘ale’ mean much the same, but the word ‘ale’ was originally reserved for brews produced from malt without hops. This was the original drink of the Anglo-Saxons and the English, whereas ‘beer’, a brew using hops, probably originated in Germany. Hops were cultivated in the Low Countries (modern Belgium and the Netherlands) from the 13th century.

The cultivation of hops was probably introduced from Flanders to England in the Maidstone area of Kent at the end of the 15th century. Our national drink until then had been ale, unhopped and sometimes flavoured with herbs such as wormwood.

Brewers started to import dried Flemish hops, but these contained so much extraneous matter that an Act of Parliament was passed in 1603 imposing penalties on merchants and brewers found dealing in hops adulterated with ‘leaves, stalks, powder, sand, straw and with loggetts of wood drosse’. In those early days, the sole reason for using hops was to preserve the beer in good condition: the bittering effect was reluctantly accepted by Englishmen.

By the 17th century ale (un-hopped beer) was no longer popular and beer was the established drink – by 1655 hop cultivation had grown rapidly in fourteen counties. In a successful year, an acre of good hops could be more profitable than fifty acres of arable land, but some farmers would not grow hops due to the erratic yields caused by drought, wet periods and mildew. Duty was imposed in 1710 and the Act prohibited the use of any bittering agent other than hops in beer, as hops were far more wholesome. The duty varied from year to year and speculation on the tax became a popular form of betting.

The 19th century was the golden age of the hop industry. Hop acreage continued to increase until 1878 when it reached a peak of 77,000 acres. However, tastes changed, and there was a decline in the demand for porter and lighter beer, known as Indian Ale or Pale Ale, became fashionable. Pasteurisation arrived in the late 1870s and fewer hops were needed as a preservative. Clean water became more available and this may have contributed to a falling demand

for beer. By 1909, there were only 32,000 acres of land being used to grow hops and a renewed import of foreign hops. This was due to breweries being contracted to brew foreign beers under licence, and thus being required to use the hops stipulated in the original recipe.

Twenty three years later and acreage had fallen to 16,500. The producer-controlled Hops Marketing Board was created to control the flailing industry.

The Board would negotiate a guaranteed price with the growers and the brewers would indicate their expected demand to the Board, resulting in allocated quotas to each grower. This brought stability and by 1968 acreage had slowly increased to 17,900 acres.

However, in 1982 EEC rules led to the disbanding of the Board and the introduction of independent producer groups for the marketing of English hops.

The hop industry was soon to face further problems as lager gained in popularity and fewer hops were required. In addition, the seeded hops produced in the UK were purported by competing countries to be of inferior quality. This has since been disproved, but the myth caused considerable damage to the British hop industry.

Formerly, hops were grown in almost every region of the UK, but they are now confined largely to the West Midlands and south eastern counties of England. Because a huge itinerant force of workers was needed to pick the crop by hand, production became concentrated near to the industrial areas of London, South Wales and the West Midlands where working class families were glad to be able to spend their annual holidays in the countryside.

In 1922 the first hop picking machine to be used in this country was imported from America by a Worcester grower. Machine picking was not to become widely practiced until the 1950s as the American machines were not suited to conditions in England and hand pickers were still available. However, when the change came it was the West Midland growers who led the way. The first British-made picking machine was produced in Martley in 1934 and the two main makes were manufactured in Suckley and Malvern.

Britain’s brewers in the 21st century require a comprehensive portfolio of hops ranging from low alpha acids of around 4% to higher alphas nearer

Image credit: John Andrews

Image credits: Bromyard and District Local History Society, Herefordshire (unless specified otherwise)

20%, and are increasingly interested in the individual flavours of each hop variety. There will always be a need to develop economical hops that are more resistant to disease and that require lower chemical inputs. Horticulture Research International at Wye College in Kent joined with England’s hop growers in the 1980s to anticipate this need and to develop the new category of hops called ‘hedgerows’. These address many of the above problems, as hedgerow hops only grow to 8 feet rather than the 20 feet of traditional varieties. They are also cheaper to establish, can be harvested at speed by machine, require

less chemical input and provide a wonderful playground for beneficial bugs and insects.

Today, with almost no Government support, the development of new varieties continues apace.

When the Wye College hop development programme was closed down, the British Hop Association (formerly National Hop Association) created a subsidiary company in 2007 called Wye Hops to continue driving the British Hop industry forward.

The Hop Project

27 THE BRITISH HOP GROWING YEAR Growing hops is a one of the hardest crop choices in farming. Hops require a high attention to detail throughout the year but most especially in the growing months as they need to be checked weekly, sometimes more often. Hop growers are resilient folk and often grow other horticultural crops, particularly apples.

Growing organic hops in the UK presents quite a challenge. The first thing you notice is that our hop yards tend to be full of weeds. These are both good and bad. On the one hand they compete with the hops for nutrients and moisture, so significantly reduce yield potential. On the other hand, the weeds give a diversity of habitat where beneficial insects that feed on aphids and red spiders can live. We rely on keeping the plants as healthy as possible and to do this we keep the soil in as good a condition as we can and do not encourage excessive growth in the plant. Despite this we are entirely at the mercy of the season and yields vary accordingly, most notably on the number and timing of the damson hop aphid.

HEREFORDSHIRE & WORCESTERSHIRE Hops produced in the West Midlands counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and, for a brief spell, Shropshire and Gloucestershire, cannot be isolated from the history of English hop growing.

The less suitable areas, particularly to the north of Bromyard and to the west of Leominster, went out of hop production early in the present century, but the better areas in the Hereford-Ledbury-Bromyard triangle and the Teme Valley, have retained their importance to the present day.

The first planting in the West Midlands has never been established, but is likely to have been prior to 1636, for in that year there was a reference to a field in Littleton, Worcestershire, which was named The Hopyard. The crop probably reached Herefordshire about the same time for the Victoria County History records show that hops were sold in Hereford in 1692.

Sadly, there are no records of the hop acreage in the early years, but in 1794 John Clark wrote in A general view of the agriculture of the County of Hereford, prepared for the Board of Agriculture, that ‘…hops form a very considerable article in the rural economy and seem to be of all others the Farmers’ favourite’. In 1840, there were stated to be some 6,000 acres and in the peak year of 1894 over 10,000 acres.

The present system of supporting the growing bine on a lattice of wirework was introduced by two Worcestershire growers as long ago as 1865. A kiln patented by another Worcester grower before 1880 left in the hops ‘a higher percentage of oil, resin and bitter principle’ than was customary at the time.

MARCH, APRIL, MAY AND JUNE The hop plant is perennial and grows back from the rootstock every year. Depending on the warmth of Spring, this usually starts in early April when the first shoots start to emerge.

The ‘stringing’ of tall hop yards and hop gardens starts in March. In fact some farmers use the winter to complete the job slowly. Natural coir string is used to create the framework for the hops to climb, supported by a permanent structure of poles and wirework. The stringing is done by hand with the aid of a long pole called a ‘monkey’ and is taken from the permanent ‘peg’ in the ground to the hooks on the top wirework above, up to six metres off the ground. Various patterns of stringing have been devised to optimise yield and ease harvesting, depending on variety and region.

From April onwards the hops are tied or ‘twiddled’ onto each string. Depending on the variety, either two or three shoots are tied, clockwise, to each string. If they are tied anti-clockwise they will fall off. If we have a windy spring the hops may need to be re-tied several times. Again this is all completed by hand.

In a hedgerow hop yard or garden, spring is the time that the previous year’s old growth or ‘string’ is removed using a front-mounted rubber flail. The hedgerow hops self-train onto a UV stable polypropylene netted structure, significantly reducing the hand-labour requirement. The netting is designed to last for up to 7 years.

In the spring, proactive spray programmes commence. Hops are monitored regularly by walking the crop and any irregularities can then be dealt with.

By June the plants are starting to establish on the strings or netting.

JULY AND AUGUST By the middle to the end of July the hops should have reached their full height and the laterals begin to grow out. Hops come into ‘burr’ first and then the flower or cone develops. It is the shortening of daylight hours that triggers the plant to produce burr and flower. Broadly speaking the plant is three weeks in burr and three weeks in hop before reaching maturity.

It is during these two months that the growers need to be very vigilant to ensure the crop is disease free. Should a disease or pest be allowed adequate time to do damage, the crop may not recover. This may be only a matter of days.

SEPTEMBER The UK harvest usually starts in early September and, depending on varieties grown and size of farm, it may continue into early October. Tall hops are harvested by cutting the whole bine, including string, and taking it to the hop picking machine where the hop is separated from the bine, laterals and leaf.

Hedgerow hops are harvested mechanically using a machine developed from the British blackcurrant harvester. The hop and leaf is taken to the hop picking machine where the hop is separated from the leaf.

Arguably the most important aspect of hop farming is the drying. Once clean of leaf, the hops are distributed into baskets and put into the hop kiln or oast to dry. Hops contain over 80% moisture when picked and in order to make them store, this is reduced to about 10%. They are then put into bales of 70 to 85kg in weight.

To help preserve the hops they can be baled and cold stored for one year; vacuum packed and cold stored for two years; or pelleted, vacuum packed and cold stored for five years.

OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER Once picked, the tall hop yard and gardens require the bines to be cut to the ground and disposed of, a process which we call ‘bine-cutting’. At the end of the season, depending on the weather and levels of soil compaction, hop yards and gardens may be improved by subsoiling and/or shakerating the rows.

BRITISH HOPS ‘TERROIR’ All British hops share the same wonderful ‘terroir’ – great soils and a mild maritime climate with even rainfall throughout the year. We use the natural resources we have available, which means that very few of our hops are irrigated. It is this special and sustainable terroir that gives our hops a lower level of myrcene than hops grown anywhere else in the world. It is lower myrcene that makes the aromas so delicate and complex and so good at helping you to brew the best session beers in the world.

WINTER MONTHS During the dormant period growers complete a range of jobs including wirework and pole maintenance, liming the soil to provide the right pH balance, slug control and ‘gapping up’ of dead or diseased plants.

Image credit: Malcolm Scott

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PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES

CHANGES in society run parallel with developments in transport infrastructure. The annual migration from the cities of Britain (London, Portsmouth, Birmingham) to the hop fields of Kent, Hampshire, Sussex, Herefordshire and Worcestershire was a mass movement of the urban workforce to the countryside. This would have been impossible without the expansive railway networks of the Victorian and Edwardian era. With the coming of the railways, it was now possible for Herefordshire hop farmers to import labour from South Wales and the Black

Country. Special trains were scheduled – known as ‘Hop Pickers Specials’ – whose sole objective was servicing the mass labour requirements of hop farmers. At the peak of the hop picking season, up to 2,000 pickers a day were arriving at small country stations in Herefordshire. The demise in the annual hop picking migration coincided with sweeping changes to the railway network of the UK in the 1960s. In 1961 Dr Richard Beeching was appointed chairman of British Railways with a brief to reduce costs over the 17,000 mile rail net-

work. He recommended that half of the network be closed down, along with some 2,000 stations.

Station closures were phased out over a period of time, but when the final decision came to close a particular section of line, including the stations, they were shut down the same day by midnight. More people were buying cars whilst freight and consumer goods were now being transported on a rapidly expanding motorway network.

Today in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, soft fruit producers (like hop farmers historically)

require thousands of seasonal workers to pick fruit.

Again, there is a direct correlation to the evolution of a different transport system: air travel. When the EU expanded in 2004 to incorporate eight Central European countries, there was an increased volume of east-to-west migration with many central Europeans arriving in the UK and other western countries, facilitated by the increasing range of budget flights operated by low cost airlines between central European cities and UK regional airports.

The Hop Project

29

Norton-Juxta-Kempsey – M5 Railbridge to North East © R.H. Sargeant

Norton-Juxta-Kempsey – Building Viaduct Motorway Bristol Birmingham 27th January 1961 Image credit: Worcester News

Bromsgrove Rubery – By-pass under construction 1964 Photograph by R.W. Horsley

30

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The Hop Project

‘New’ Migrants in the British Countryside

by David Storey Principal Lecturer in Geography, University of Worcester First published in ‘Journal of Rural and Community Development, 8 (3)’ 2013 Painting by Norrie Davies

31 Abstract The eastward expansion of the European Union (EU) in the early 2000s had a number of consequences. One of these, deriving from the EU principle of freedom of movement and the associated relaxation of border restrictions, was a marked increase in migration from the new member states into the longer established western ones. Within the United Kingdom much of that migration was towards larger urban centres, but a relatively high (and perhaps unexpected) proportion was to smaller towns, villages and more rural areas. This article explores the extent of this migration and, more specifically, it seeks to highlight some of the reactions to it. In doing so, there is a focus on rural parts of the English west midlands, in particular the county of Herefordshire. The article places this migratory movement within the context of increased east-west migration more generally, the regulatory environment surrounding it, and the broader responses to it at a national level.

Keywords Migration, Eastern Europe, Employment, Media Reactions, Xenophobia

1.0 East-west Migration in the European Union The EU expanded in May 2004 to incorporate eight central European countries: Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia (along with Cyprus and Malta).

One effect of this territorial expansion was to open up the borders of existing EU member states to migrants from the accession countries. Many western countries placed restrictions on the ability of eastern migrants from the so-called A-8 to fully participate in the workforce but the UK (together with Ireland and Sweden) allowed migrants from these countries full access to the job market. The only restriction was that A-8 migrants, while entitled to work, were ineligible for forms of social welfare unless they had worked continuously in the UK for 12 months and had registered under the Workers Registration Scheme (WRS). In 2007, two more eastern European countries—Bulgaria and Romania—joined the EU. On this occasion restrictions were placed on the right of Bulgarians and Romanians to work in the UK. Migrants from those countries could only obtain employment in sectors where there were apparent difficulties recruiting labour. Of particular relevance in a rural context is the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS), a quota-based system under which, as of January 2008, certain jobs in the agricultural sector could be given to Bulgarian or Romanian workers for a specified period of time (UK Border Agency, 2013).

Statistics on the numbers of eastern European migrants in the UK have been derived from a range of sources with the Office for National Statistics utilising figures drawn from the Labour Force Survey (conducted on a quarterly basis), National Insurance registrations, the WRS and SAWS. There are limitations attached to all of these. For example, the requirement to register under the WRS did not apply to self-employed workers and it also appears not to have been rigorously enforced thereby casting some doubts on its accuracy. Under the terms of the original accession agreement, this scheme was abolished in May 2011. Information on Bulgarian and Romanian workers derives principally from the SAWS under which Bulgarian and Romanian workers could be employed through pre-arranged agreements by an employer for periods up to 6 months.

Obviously, the data that exists does not account for those immigrant workers who may have been employed, but who were never formally recorded.

Despite these limitations, the available figures from differing sources combine to provide a reasonable indication of the volume of in-migration.

Following the accession of the A-8 countries the volume of east-west migration increased with many eastern Europeans arriving in the UK and other western countries. Employment prospects, higher wage rates and the increasing range of relatively cheap travel options contributed to making western European countries attractive options for eastern migrants. Cheap flights operated by lowcost airlines between eastern European cities and UK regional airports both reflected and facilitated this movement.

For residents of countries where freedom of movement had been severely restricted in the communist era until the 1990s, the ease and comparative low cost of travel contributed to the sizeable westward flow. From 2004 onwards the numbers of eastern

European migrants into the UK increased sharply, a trend exemplified by the rise in the number of Polish-born people resident in the country (See Figure 1). Although calculating accurate figures has proved difficult (as suggested above), indications are that almost one fifth of A-8 migrant workers went to the UK which also became the major western European destination for Polish migrants (Okólski, 2007; Duvell & Garapich, 2011). It is estimated that between 2004 and 2007 over 650,000 migrant workers from the A-8 countries entered the UK; about two thirds of these were from Poland and approximately one quarter of the total worked in rural areas at some stage. The economic downturn of recent years has seen rising unemployment in the UK and an associated levelling out of the immigration figures with reduced inward flows from Eastern Europe (Experian, 2011). At the same time, the Polish economy has performed comparatively better than many western European ones leading to many Polish migrants returning ‘home’. Indeed, there have been campaigns by the Polish authorities aimed at encouraging migrant workers to return.

This east-west migration has had a significant effect. In 1996 there were 13,000 eastern European workers in the UK (0.05% of the workforce) while by 2009 that figure had grown substantially to 472,000 (1.63% of the workforce). By 2009 the cumulative total of WRS applications approached one million, of which about two thirds were from Poland (Duvell & Garapich, 2011). While these figures highlight the volume of migration into the UK they have been invoked (quite often in an alarmist manner) by those worried about the phenomenon and concerned about its possible consequences.

However, care needs to be taken here and it is important to stress that not all of these migrants were in the UK at any one time (Blanchflower et al., 2007).

For example, it is estimated that in the region of one fifth of Polish-born migrants have been temporary or seasonal workers suggesting that, for some, their stay within the UK has been relatively short. For others, residence in the UK has been discontinuous with workers leaving the country for periods of time before returning. A focus on aggregate numbers entering the country has tended to ignore the duration of stay and overly simplify the often complex circularity of migrant flows.

Figure 1: Numbers of Polish-born people resident in the United Kingdom.

Source: Office for National Statistics 2.0 Reactions This ‘new’ migratory trend provoked many varied responses articulated by politicians, the media and the public. In summarising these it might be suggested they have tended to fall into three broad categories. One response is characterised by a strong negative view of immigration focusing on the presumed impact on employment, increased pressures on services and potential cultural implications. A second type of response marshals economic, social and cultural arguments to suggest that inward migration has had a beneficial impact. A third response adopts a humanitarian perspective characterised by a concern with the experiences of migrant workers with attention drawn to issues of exploitation and poor living conditions.

The negative reactions have tended to focus on the idea that British workers are being displaced by immigrant labour. In part this perspective is tied into a widely held and longstanding view that immigrants tend to be prepared to work for lower wages. An industrial dispute at Lindsay oil refinery in Lincolnshire in eastern England in 2009 centred over the use of Portuguese and Italian workers who were employed via an Italian sub-contracting company. This dispute fuelled a wider economic and political debate over what were portrayed as British jobs going to foreign workers (Wainwright, 2009).

The controversy served to highlight the complexity

32 of labour issues in what might be seen as a global labour market. In addition to the jobs argument, it has also been suggested that increased strains have been placed on a range of services such as health and education. The provision of translation services and the production of information in a range of different languages by local authorities have raised further concerns about the perceived cost of immigration.

While the economic and labour market impacts of immigration are complex and difficult to disentangle, there appears to be little evidence of a negative impact on employment or on wage rates (Blanchflower et al, 2007; Lemos & Portes, 2008).

The deficiencies in information on actual numbers of immigrants (alluded to earlier) were also in themselves seen as a cause for concern with a view in some quarters that official figures were underestimating the actual extent of the phenomenon (Cekalova, 2008). The seemingly large numbers led some to argue (in a more general context) that there would be long-term impacts on culture and society (Coleman, 2008). As well as concerns over the consequences for British identity, amongst these broad socio-cultural arguments are suggestions that some migrants engage in anti-social behaviour with (in cases) a degree of association with criminal activity (whether as perpetrators or victims). This leads to concerns over large numbers of migrant labourers living in particular places, debates which tend to essentialise a disparate group of people and classify them en masse as an undifferentiated ‘other’, a stance which echoes long-standing rhetoric on the supposed negative impacts of immigration. Paradoxically (though not surprisingly) this westerly migrant flow has been paralleled by western investment in Poland and other eastern European economies so that negative attitudes towards westward migration have been accompanied by the encouragement of capital flows eastward (Favell, 2008).

Within this debate the media has of course played a key role in the construction and dissemination of particular views. While media reaction has by no means been wholly negative, some coverage has served to reproduce prejudicial stereotypes. In 2008 the Federation of Poles in Great Britain complained to the Press Complaints Commission over what it saw as negative reporting of Polish migrants in a national newspaper, the Daily Mail. This, the federation claimed, was exemplified through headlines such as those in Table 1. As already suggested, it is obvious that the debates surrounding eastern European migration were not unlike those which tend to surround other migrant groups with a considerable degree of stereotyping, prejudice, and panic-mongering through which a heterogeneous variety of people are portrayed in a reductive and simplistic manner. Such processes of othering are a well-established phenomenon and negative and xenophobic attitudes towards those seen as ‘alien’ have a long history in the UK and elsewhere (Winder, 2004).

Alongside these negative perspectives, westward migration was also cast in much more positive terms. Rather than job displacement, migrant workers were seen to be filling gaps within the labour market and undertaking work not currently being done by the indigenous workforce. In some discourses the apparent work ethic displayed by migrant workers has been contrasted positively with the supposed reluctance of British workers to undertake certain jobs. Some employers have expressed a preference for eastern European workers, based on their apparent willingness to work hard as well as additional considerations related to the possession of certain skills and (perhaps not surprisingly) being cheaper to employ (Experian, 2011). Such views tend to utilise contrasting stereotypes of hard-working migrants with ‘lazy’ British workers. In this sense a class-based view of the short-comings of British workers permeates the discourse. Other more positive arguments have also tended to focus on the potential cultural enrichment brought about through a more multi-cultural workforce. The emergence of eastern European food shops and the appearance of such items as Polish and Czech beers in shops and supermarkets have been cast in a positive light, simultaneously adding to cultural diversity while widening consumer choice (Thring, 2010).

A third strand of discourse has focused on the treatment of immigrant labour with accusations that some employers have operated illegally through such practices as paying workers rates lower than the minimum wage, charging workers excessive sums for accommodation and other facilities, and treating them in a highly exploitative manner. Not surprisingly, specific incidents provide added impetus to these arguments surrounding the health and welfare

www.thehopproject.co.uk of migrants. The drowning of 23 Chinese cockle pickers at Morecambe Bay in the north west of England in 2004 served to highlight many of the issues surrounding the use of migrant labour, particularly the ways in which workers were treated and their vulnerability to various forms of exploitation (Tait, 2005). This, and other incidents, drew attention to the role of agents and gangmasters in procuring migrant workers for employers. This heightened scrutiny led to changes in the laws regulating the way in which gangmasters operate and legislation designed to combat the exploitation of labour in agriculture and related sectors. The remainder of this article now focuses more specifically on how this in-migration from eastern European countries played out in rural areas and the responses it engendered.

Table 1: Selected Daily Mail Headlines Date 07.11.06 02.02.07 31.03.07 25.06.07 28.06.07 29.07.07 02.08.07 14.08.07 03.09.07 17.10.07 26.10.07 18.01.08 16.02.08

Headline Britain is Country of Choice for many “Feckless” Poles One in Five of UK Home Buyers are Polish British Workers Priced out by Wave of Low-Paid Migrants East Europe Migrants bring Surge in pickpocketing Crime Polish Immigrants take £1bn out of the UK economy Biggest Threat to Britain’s Carp is Eastern European Migrants Eastern Europeans Cause 15% of Fatal Accidents on Rural Roads Foreigners Commit 20% of Crime in London, says Police Eastern European Immigrants with Cancer could Swamp the NHS Influx of Immigrants costs Every UK Household £350 a Year Immigration Influx from Eastern Europe is Driving Down Wages One in Every 4 Poles in Britain plans to Stay, says Survey Now Poles begin Mass Desertion of Britain as Soaring Prices send them Home

Source: Federation of Poles in Great Britain 3.0 Movement to Rural Areas Before proceeding to assess aspects of eastern European migration into rural areas, it is important to remember that the arrival of newcomers in the countryside (as with immigrants at a national level) is also nothing new—nor indeed are the types of responses which it has provoked. Rural places in the UK have long been attractive to various types of in-migrant whether they be counterurbanisers seeking an idyllic escape from urban living (Phillips, 2007; Stockdale, 2010), counter-cultural migrants searching for alternative lifestyles (Halfacree, 2007), or gypsies and travellers endeavouring to maintain particular nomadic traditions (Shubin, 2011). There is an extensive literature dealing with the issues raised by these movements and the varied experiences of rural immigrants. Some research has drawn attention to the problems faced by migrants from minority ethnic groups (Panelli et al., 2009) and there is some emerging work on aspects of eastern European migration into rural areas (for example, Woods & Watkin, 2008; McAreavey, 2010). However, little systematic research exists on the topic. In part, it could be argued, this is a consequence of both the absence of accurate statistics and the transient nature of some of this population movement. More extensive research has occurred in the United States where the notable tendency for Latino immigrants to move towards more rural locations in recent years has been investigated (Kandel et al., 2011) and the ways in which this movement impacts on small towns has been explored (Smith & Furuseth, 2006; Trabalzi & Sandoval, 2010). The remainder of this article endeavours to shed some light on this recent migration trend in rural Britain.

A traditional migrant route is in the direction of cities and larger towns as people are lured by perceived employment prospects. However, as already noted, migration from Eastern Europe displayed a much more diverse geography with significant levels of movement to smaller towns and villages. It seems clear that the availability of jobs in specific sectors, in particular agriculture, food processing and ser-

vices, has played an important role in this. It is also clear, as already suggested, that some of the migratory movement has been temporary and seasonal, linked to the nature of jobs in those sectors. The migration pattern into rural Britain has also exhibited considerable spatial differentiation. Data from the Commission for Rural Communities has indicated higher concentrations of migrants in some parts of the country, most notably in Lincolnshire and Norfolk in the east and in Herefordshire and Worcestershire in the west midlands; areas where employment in agriculture and related industries appears to have played a role in luring migrants (See Figure 2).

The presence of these ‘new’ migrants in rural areas did not go unremarked in the national media.

Just as the national trends outlined earlier produced a range of reactions, there was also a plethora of views regarding movement into more rural areas.

Not surprisingly, the media played a role in highlighting (and sometimes exaggerating) the phenomenon. The apparent novelty of the trend led one national newspaper to pronounce that “immigrants head for the countryside” (Daily Telegraph 7-102007), while another asserted that the “number of immigrants in rural England trebles in three years” (Daily Mail 17-7-2007). The phenomenon was so marked that it was alleged by one media outlet that “immigration is changing rural England life” (Daily Telegraph 6-8-2007). It is therefore important to explore this trend in a little more detail focusing on one of the regions which appears to have attracted sizeable numbers of in-migrants.

4.0 Eastern European Migrants in the Rural West Midlands Herefordshire, a county in the English west midlands and on the border with Wales, appears as one of those regions which attracted a noticeable number of migrants. WRS and SAWS registrations in the county appear to peak in 2006–07 at a little under 6,000. At that time two thirds of WRS registrations in Herefordshire were from Poland and up to 12 percent of the county’s agricultural workforce was composed of immigrants in 2008 (Experian, 2011). However, as with the national situation there is a need to exercise some caution in how this data is interpreted. An emphasis on aggregate figures ignores the fact that the levels of net migration fluctuated and the impact may not be as significant as some might imagine with a focus on cumulative figures obscuring the fluid nature of this migration (Table 2, Figure 3).

Figure 2: Ratio of in-migrants to total population.

Source: Commission for Rural Communities, 2008 As with the broader national picture attitudes towards the arrival of eastern European migrants into rural areas can be classified utilising the three-fold division outlined earlier. In-migration to Herefordshire and neighbouring counties such as Worcestershire led, unsurprisingly, to some media exaggeration as (apparently) “Hereford has become a magnet for migrants (who) have swarmed to the area to work in the hospitality and catering trades and to pick or process fruit and vegetables” (Daily Mail 14-3-2009). Headlines such as this reflect a wider national phenomenon suggestive of an invasion of hordes of migrants from Poland, Slovakia and elsewhere swamping the countryside. However, not all coverage adopted this tone and local newspapers tended to avoid the hyperbole of sections of the national media, adopting a more circumspect approach. Nevertheless the impact of eastern Europe-

an migration at a local level is reflected in headlines such as “Angling posters printed in Polish” (Worcester News 17-4-2010), “Migrants issue sparks some heated debates” (Worcester News 24-9-2009) and “Gangmaster sought over Worcestershire field children” (BBC Hereford and Worcester 25-10-2010).

Attention was also drawn to the cultural impact with the growing phenomenon of eastern European food shops and the spread of Polski sklep in cities being mirrored in some smaller towns. For example, a shop in a Herefordshire village was re-opened by two Lithuanian sisters and it stocks both ‘local’ and eastern European foodstuffs, a development which prompted favourable media coverage over the provision of a needed service.

Table 2: New National Insurance Registrations in Herefordshire, January 2002 – April 2008 Country of Origin Poland Lithuania Slovakia Bulgaria Latvia Portugal Hungary Romania India South Africa Philippines Czech Republic Estonia Ukraine

Numbers 4,400 980 720 680 400 330 270 210 200 170 160 150 100 100

Source: Herefordshire Council Statutory bodies adopted a broadly positive tone. In Herefordshire, the local authority placed the immigrant issue in a positive and functional light suggesting: The arrival of workers from outside the UK provides significant benefits to the county.

Some of these include: providing people to fill jobs which could not be filled from within the UK workforce, helping rural schools, businesses and public transport routes to remain viable, helping to lower the age profile of the county, bringing a new cultural diversity and different perspective to the county, e.g. delicatessens (Herefordshire Council).

The council also initiated a website (in conjunction with the regional police service) aimed at providing advice and information to migrant workers. The council also engaged in activities promoting Polish culture. This could be said to reflect a broader official response to what was seen as the economic benefits deriving from eastern European immigration. Such supportive and facilitative interventions were mirrored by some local voluntary groups where, for example, cultural events were organised as a means of integrating migrant workers into rural communities. Churches and religious groups have been prominent in this regard, reaching out to migrants, endeavouring to make them feel welcome and, indeed, in commissioning research on the issue (Dawney, 2007). This sort of response is exemplified by the creation of a Friendship Centre in the market town of Leominster aimed at making migrants feel welcome. This mirrors the experience of other places in the UK where voluntary groupings have been instrumental in facilitating the integration of migrants into localities (McAreavey, 2010).

Just as issues of the exploitation of workers generated concerns nationally, the living and working conditions of some migrant workers in Herefordshire also provoked debate. One major source of employment for migrants in rural Herefordshire is the soft-fruit sector with many in-migrants arriving as temporary workers employed as fruit pickers in parts of the county. Soft fruit production (particularly strawberries) requires seasonal labour and many farms have employed eastern European migrants for this task. As elsewhere, some producers availed of the services of agents in providing a workforce drawn from specific countries. While there is no reason to suppose that all farms are guilty of exploitative practices, one fruit farm near Leominster employing large numbers of migrant workers has been faced with allegations of low wages and poor treatment.

The Hop Project In this case, local media coverage has been broadly sympathetic to the apparent plight of the workers.

Figure 3: Migration flows in Herefordshire.

Source: Herefordshire Council Part of the concern has revolved around the living conditions of workers housed in caravans on some fruit farms. This form of accommodation has also sparked broader debates with some residents opposing plans to construct relatively extensive ‘caravan villages’ to house migrant workers. A proposal in 2004 for a ‘village’ to house 1,000 temporary workers near Leominster was rejected. Within these cases there appears an inter-play of arguments surrounding the environment and the aesthetic impact of such developments on the one hand, and concerns over the welfare of migrants on the other. While there is a need to be cautious in interpreting the underlying reasons for opposition, the possibility of xenophobic factors lurking behind environmental concerns cannot be precluded, with some residents being perhaps worried by the presence and behaviour of ‘others’ in their locality. Overall, although responses have been positive in many respects, there has also been evidence of a negative racialising of eastern Europeans in the county with migrants cast as an alien ‘other’ (Dawney, 2008).

5.0 Discussion Notwithstanding the exaggerated news stories surrounding the volume of movement, it is clear that there was a considerable influx of eastern European migrants into western countries including the UK. It is also clear that a proportion of this movement (though certainly not the majority of it) was to rural areas and to small and medium-sized towns. In addition, this migration provoked a variety of reactions, some hostile but others much more accommodating.

In assessing recent in-migration (and reactions to it) from Eastern Europe it might be suggested that, rather than a new phenomenon, it is simply an extension of older established trends. As indicated earlier in this article there is a long history of migrant (particularly temporary) labour in rural areas, whether it be gypsies, Irish potato-pickers or navvies. Such groups have always filled specific niches within the workforce and have provoked various responses. As with previous migrations, positive responses have been juxtaposed to more negative ones with obvious evidence of an essentialising of a diverse ‘other’.

In broad terms a series of arguments surrounding eastern European migrant labour has emerged and, in the main, these echo arguments surrounding migration more generally with concerns raised over its economic, social and cultural implications (Gup-

33 ta and Omoniyi 2007; Castles and Miller, 2009; Samers, 2010). From an economic perspective, it is suggested that migrants boost the economy through their consumption practices. A common argument also alludes to the supposedly positive work ethic of recent migrants. Their willingness to work long, often anti-social hours and to undertake certain tasks has been contrasted with the supposedly work-shy British in a binary distinction that serves to essentialise both indigenous and migrant labour, and has led to suggestions that British workers have been displaced. This type of argument has been used by employers to justify their hiring practices. Concerns, however, have been raised about the supposed strain placed on public services through catering for an expanded population. This is seen as particularly problematic in rural areas. From a social and cultural perspective migrants might be seen as unwelcome neighbours ‘out of place’, leading separate lives and unsettling senses of local and national identity.

Seen differently it can be argued that eastern European migrants have precipitated a degree of cultural exchange and enriched the fabric of those areas in which they have settled.

The arguments surrounding eastern European migration tend to repeat older debates suggesting a certain degree of continuity with previous rounds of migration. In that sense, it might be argued there is nothing new about the migration of recent years other than the areas of origin of the migrants. However, in another sense we might identify some clear points of departure. This migration flow reflects an extended spatial reach with migrants who have travelled relatively long distances. The phenomenon quite clearly highlights the tensions between a more global labour market and ideas of the local. It is also the case that these more recent migrants display high levels of mobility, with evidence of considerable movement back and forth between home and host countries.

Aided by modern communication systems migrants are retaining close connections (both real and virtual) to ‘home’. There appears to be high levels of what has been termed ‘population churn’ with indications of high levels of return migration as well as internal movement by international migrants within the UK (Dennett & Stillwell, 2008). Duvell & Garapich (2011) point to evidence suggesting some migrants stayed very much in contact with their ‘home’ countries returning there regularly. Such movements mean that the traditional distinction between permanent and temporary becomes blurred as, for example, many Polish migrants remained locked into Polish networks (Garapich, 2008).

This is of course facilitated through the internet and also through cheap and frequent travel between ‘home’ and ‘host’. What it also suggests is that we are seeing a more transnational set of migrants who are locked into a number of different social and cultural contexts (Vertovec, 2007). This more complex migratory pattern is also reflected in the phenomenon of relatively highly educated migrants often employed in more menial occupations such as agriculture and food processing (Drinkwater et al, 2009).

In conclusion, while there are clear continuities with previous waves of migration, there are also notable differences in terms of the nature of movement and the migrant networks resulting from it.

References Blanchflower, D. G., Saleheen, J., & Shadforth, C. (2007). The impact of the recent migration from Eastern Europe on the UK economy. (Bank of England External MPC Unit Discussion Paper No. 17). London, England: Bank of England.

Castles, S., & Miller, M. J. (2009). The age of migration. International population movements in the modern world. Basingstoke, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Cekalova, P. (2008, April). ‘At least they are the right colour’: East to west migration in Europe, seen from the perspective of the British press.

Across fading borders: the challenges of east-west migration in the EU. Retrieved from www. eumap.org Coleman, D. (2008). The demographic effects of international migration in Europe. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 24 (3), 452-476.

Commission for Rural Communities (2008). State of the countryside 2008. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Commission for Rural Communities.

Dawney, L. (2007). Supporting integration of migrants and seasonal workers in the diocese of Hereford. Report to the Diocese of Hereford Council for Social Responsibility, Hereford, England.

Dawney, L. (2008). Racialisation of central and east European migrants in Herefordshire. (Sussex Centre for Migration Research Working Paper No. 53).

Dennett, A., & Stillwell, J. (2008). Population turnover and churn: Enhancing understanding of internal migration in Britain through measures of stability. Population Trends 134, Office for National Statistics.

Drinkwater, S., Eade, J., & Garapich, M. (2009).

Poles apart? EU enlargement and the labour market outcomes of immigrants in the United Kingdom. International Migration, 47 (1), 161-190.

Duvell, F., & Garapich, M (2011). Polish migration to the UK: Continuities and discontinuities.

(Working Paper No. 84). Centre on Migration, Policy and Society.

Experian (2011). International migration and rural economies. London, England: Department for Communities and Local Government.

Favell, A. (2008). The new face of east-west migration in Europe. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 34 (5), 701-716.

Garapich, M. (2008). The migration industry and civil society: Polish immigrants in the United Kingdom before and after EU enlargement.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 34 (5), 735-752.

Gupta, S., & Omoniyi, T. (Eds.) (2007). The cultures of economic migration. International perspectives. Aldershot, United Kingdom: Ashgate.

Halfacree, K. (2007). Back-to-the-land in the twenty-first century—making connections with rurality. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 98 (1), 3-8.

Kandel, W., Henderson, J., Koball, H., & Capps, R. (2011). Moving up in rural America: Economic attainment of nonmetro Latino immigrants.

Rural Sociology, 76 (1), 101-128.

Lemos, S., & Portes, J. (2008). New labour? The impact of migration from Central and Eastern Europe on the UK labour market. (Discussion Paper No. 3756). Institute for the Study of Labour.

McAreavey, R. (2010). ‘Life as a stranger.’ The personal stories of migrants to Northern Ireland.

Challenge of Change. Peace III Southern Partnership.

Okólski, M. (2007). Europe in movement: Migration from/to Central and Eastern Europe. (Working Papers No. 22/80). Centre of Migration Research.

Panelli, R., Hubbard, P., Coombes, B., & SuchetPearson, S. (2009). De-centring white ruralities: Ethnic diversity, racialisation and indigenous countrysides. Journal of Rural Studies, 25 (4), 355-364.

Phillips, M. (2007). Changing class complexions on and in the British countryside. Journal of Rural Studies, 23 (3), 283-304.

Samers, M. (2010). Migration. London, England: Routledge.

Shubin, S. (2011). ‘Where can a Gypsy stop?’

Rethinking mobility in Scotland. Antipode, 43(2), 494-524.

Smith, H. A., & Furuseth, O. J. (Eds.) (2006).

Latinos in the new south. Transformations of place. Farnham, United Kingdom: Ashgate.

Stockdale, A. (2010). The diverse geographies of rural gentrification in Scotland. Journal of Rural Studies, 26 (1), 31-40.

Tait, N. (2005, September 20). Five on trial over cockle pickers’ deaths. Financial Times.

Thring, O. (2010, March 17). Fancy a Polish? The Guardian.

Trabalzi, F., & Sandoval, G. (2010). The exotic other: Latinos and the remaking of community identity in Perry, Iowa. Community Development, 41 (1), 76-91.

UK Border Agency. Retrieved March 19, 2013 from http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eucitizens/.

Vertovec, S. (2007). Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 29(6), 1024-1054.

Wainwright, M. (2009, June 22). Lindsay oil refinery dispute deadlock continues. The Guardian.

Winder, R. (2004). Bloody foreigners. The story of immigration to Britain. London, England: Abacus.

Woods, M., & Watkin, S. (2008). Central and Eastern European migrantworkers in Rural Wales. Wales Rural Observatory, Report 20.

Acknowledgements I am grateful to Robbie Austrums for constructing the diagrams.

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EXHIBITION DISPLAY SYSTEM & ROMANY TRAVELLER MOVEMENTS

T

HE BE N N ETTS are a Romany Traveller family. They were involved in hop picking until quite recently. Although not involved in agriculture today, they still live a nomadic lifestyle around the Midlands and Wales, with many of these movements corresponding to former agricultural-migratory routes. The exhibition documents their annual movements around this area today. Mr Bennett has also built elements of the exhibition display structure for the touring exhibition from locally sourced hazel.

FOR SALE

The Bennett Family have a caravan for sale built

by Mr Bennett.

ROMANY TRAVELLERS

Historically, during the hop picking season in September/October, Gypsies, Roma and Traveller people were a key component of the temporary seasonal labour force needed to harvest the hops.

Indeed, ‘hopping’ was a valuable source of income.

Hopping was just one instance of how the movements of Gypsies, Roma and Traveller people corresponded to the agricultural season. They would move from farm to farm throughout the summer picking cherries, strawberries, black-

Please get in touch for more information.

Image credit: Malcolm Scott

currants, peas and beans. In September and October it was hop picking, followed by top fruit and finally potato picking before finding a place to stop for the winter.

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R I C G ULT URAL A

E R SC ULP T U

Photography by Paul Ligas

The Hop Project

H

EREFORDSHIRE is one of the most rural counties in the country. It is also one of the most sparsely populated. The 2011 Census showed that Herefordshire has a population of 183,500. In contrast, the populations of neighbouring Shropshire and Worcestershire stand at 306,100 and 566,169 respectively. Like any rural county, Herefordshire has an economy and culture directly linked to agriculture; indeed, its landscape is shaped by centuries of agricultural practice.

We are accustomed to the rapid change of our urban landscapes and easily accept the demolition and construction so prevalent in our city centres.

However, we are not used to our rural landscapes changing quite so quickly. Or changing at all for that matter. Whilst cityscapes represent the ‘new’, the rural embodies how things used to be. We expect our hills, rolling green pastures, streams and meadows to remain as they have always been. This is why HS2 and other major road or rail developments are so controversial: the urban infringing upon the rural is often an irreversible process.

In Herefordshire over the last ten to fifteen years, pockets of landscape have undergone dramatic cosmetic transformation with the introduction of industrial polytunnels, now covering acres of the countryside. Not only have they physically altered the landscape beyond recognition, these polytunnels are political objects. They produce thousands of tonnes of soft fruit for the UK market and, for the thousands of tonnes that need picking, thousands of workers are required. Harvesting soft fruit is labour-intensive as every berry needs to be picked by hand. More often than not, the workers employed to do this are recruited from abroad. Herefordshire, like the agricultural county of Lincolnshire, is a hub for contemporary central European migration to the UK. In Hereford, for example, the Polish community represents the biggest national minority group within the city. The county itself is also the number one destination for Bulgarian workers looking for seasonal employment in the UK. Whilst the complex issues around economic migration are controversial in some quarters, the polytunnels are contentious in Herefordshire because of one other overriding factor: how they look.

Covering acres of bucolic landscape, many local residents perceive them as an eyesore, a blight on the rural countryside. These structures invoke hostility, particularly if the view from your house encounters one of these. And there are plenty of views to be ruined in the county. Large scale polytunnel growers are now located in the areas of Brierley, Harewood End, How Caple, Kings Caple, Ledbury, Marden, Staunton on Wye and Walford (near Ross on Wye). 60% of UK soft fruit is grown under these structures; 90% of British strawberries are grown under polytunnels. The British strawberry industry is worth almost £400m a year and now stretches from early spring to late autumn. Polytunnels have extended the fruit-growing season from twelve weeks a year to six months. Sales in UK supermarkets of home-grown berries have increased 130% in the last four years.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) whose objective is to prevent the countryside from becoming an industrial landscape has campaigned vigorously in Herefordshire to stop these structures from been constructed in ‘protected landscapes’ like the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). In contrast, organisations such as the National Farmers Union (NFU) argue that the large scale polytunnel growing boosts the rural economy, allows growers to compete with foreign imports and keeps food miles down. The polarising of opinions on the issue perhaps reflects how the countryside is viewed and used. For the growers, the countryside is a working landscape, a resource to be used, and this means that it is subject to change. It is not just something to look at. Farmers would argue that they are simply doing what they have always done: supplying demand.

Glimpsing these polytunnels in the distance, you might mistake them for gigantic shimmering lakes, the water incongruously frozen mid-air in the summer like a vast optical illusion. Up close, these structures loom over the country lanes. Beneath them, thousands of workers pick strawberries, raspberries and blueberries for the expanded UK market. There is something quite science fiction about them, futuristic even. In the future, will these structures come to dominate the countryside as everything is grown under polytunnels? Will seasons cease to be important as the landscape becomes permanently wrapped in polythene? In

37 southern Spain this has already happened. The small coastal plain of Campo de Dalías, some 30km southwest of the city of Almería, was once the backdrop for spaghetti westerns. It is now a glistening landscape of polythene – a ‘plastic city’. Almería has become Europe’s market garden and to grow food all year, the land is cloaked in plastic. There are now an estimated 135 square miles of greenhouses in the Campo de Dalías, the largest concentration in the world. Over 2.7 million tonnes of produce are grown on the plain each year, accounting for over €1.2 billion in economic activity. From the lens of a satellite, Almería province is one of the most recognisable spots on the planet. The roofs of tens of thousands of tightly packed plastic greenhouses form a blanket of mirrored light beaming into space.

This wrapping of the landscape in plastic has parallels in contemporary art. Indeed, we can perhaps think of this manmade aspect of the Herefordshire agricultural landscape as unintentional public sculpture or land art. The prevalence of polythene in Herefordshire is such that you might be mistaken for thinking that famous land artist Christo had relocated to rural Herefordshire to surreptitiously continue his work. Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude (who died in 2009) were an artistic husband-and-wife team who became known for the creation of large scale environmental artworks.

Their signature technique was the concealing or ‘wrapping’ of public objects like parks, buildings and entire outdoor landscapes. Their first monumental landscape was created in 1969, on a dramatic stretch of cliff-lined coast in Australia. The artists, together with 125 workers and rock climbers, transformed a mile and a half of coastline by wrapping the entire thing – 85-foot cliffs and all – in fabric, tied down with ropes. The work, ‘Wrapped Coast’, remained on view for ten weeks before the area was returned to its original state. Since then their work has included wrapping in fabric the Reichstag building in Berlin, constructing a 25 mile fabric fence across Northern California and stringing a huge orange curtain across a Colorado valley.

And now this quiet wrapping of the Herefordshire landscape. Maybe you’ve seen Christo selling strawberries at Ledbury Farmers Market?

Although soft fruits are now grown extensively in Herefordshire, the county is traditionally associated with hop growing. The structures used to grow hops might also be thought of in terms of their agricultural sculptural qualities. Hop plants grow up natural coir string towards a permanent framework of overhead wires, supported by large wooden poles (traditionally sweet chestnut dipped in bitumen). When they were first introduced to the county, hop growing structures – like polytunnels today – may have been equally controversial. In 1883, for example, hops were grown over 12,371 acres in 81 parishes in Herefordshire. Hop plants grow up to 20 feet in height and require a physically imposing structure to support them, a different wrapping of the landscape. Walking through a hop field during the late autumn and winter months, when they are hop free, the geometric hop pole arrangements recall Walter De Maria’s monumental land artwork ‘The Lightning Field’ (1977). Commissioned and maintained by Dia Art Foundation, ‘The Lightning Field’ is recognised internationally as one of the late 20th century’s most significant works of art. Created in Catron County, New Mexico, it consists of 400 stainless steel poles with solid, pointed tips, arranged in a rectangular 1 mile × 1 kilometre grid. The poles are spaced 220 feet apart and have solid pointed tips that define a horizontal plane. Experiencing ‘The Lightning Field’ does not depend upon the occurrence of lightning (although this often occurs during the months of July and August). Visitors are encouraged to spend as much time as possible in the field, to experience the changes in the quality of light, and the character of the work, from sunrise to sunset.

Image credits above: Bromyard and District Local History Society, Herefordshire

Photography by Paul Ligas

The Hop Project ARTISTS’ MOVEMENTS General Public (artists Elizabeth Rowe and Chris Poolman) devise daring and humorous propositions that invite communities to participate in reimagining their local areas. Between 2011 and 2013 they developed ‘The Balsall Heath Biennale’, a multifaceted project in the inner city suburb of Birmingham where they lived. This consisted of exhibitions, artworks, events, talks, a newspaper delivered to all 5,000 homes in their local area, area-wide competitions and a local contemporary art school.

In 2014 General Public were commissioned by public art agency WERK to develop and curate the inaugural ‘Longbridge Light Festival 2014’. The festival’s ‘Back to the Future’ theme used the metaphor of science fiction to explore how regeneration might operate in a context such as Longbridge.

Over 2014 and 2015 they developed a project at Soho House Museum, Birmingham as part of New Expressions 3, a major nationwide Arts Council initiative encouraging collaboration between contemporary artists and museums. This commission involved producing a set of new Handsworth coins featuring the profiles of local people, thousands of which were disseminated into the local community in May 2015, thereby writing migrants’ stories into the history of the site. The coins’ value – free museum access – was positioned within the context of city-wide cuts to cultural funding and reduced access to museums in Birmingham.

Like the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who always flew in separate planes (if one crashed the other could continue their work), we travel in separate vehicles (white van, tatty estate).

39 THANK YOU We would like to thank all of the people who have supported us on this project. This list is for everyone who isn’t mentioned elsewhere in the newspaper/ website and/or who have been particularly generous with their time and resources.

Andrew McNiven and Penny Allen – The Courtyard, Hereford; Kate Lack and Bromyard & District Local History Society volunteers (in particular Dianna Kelly); Roma Piotrowska; The Bennett Family; Justin Hughes and Susan Vale – Worcestershire Archive & Archaeology Service; Steve Wilson – Worcester City Council; Craig Ashley – mac birmingham; Ranjit Singh – Nisham Centre; Kate Pryor-Williams; Emily Daw; Dr David Storey; Professor Margaret Grieco; Ben Moule – Herefordshire Museum Service; Malcolm Scott; Tessa Burwood; Jamie Jackson – Salt Road; Ted Rudge – Brumroamin; Linda Jones, Mr & Mrs Poolman; Chris Ash, Robert Hazel, Mandy GemWhite and all of the staff at Sandwell Libraries; Pat at the Conquest Theatre, Bromyard; Glynis Rabin – Kidderminster Forest Quilters; William Crouch – Cradley, Mathon & Storridge Art Group; Wendy Rulton – Leominster in Stitches; Ian Miles – West Bromwich Model Railway Society; Bromyard Hop Festival; Rose – Tenbury Countryside Show; Clifton Upon Teme Show; Alexandra Taylor; John Andrews; Lesley and Mark Andrews; Alison Capper, British Hops Association; Rafael, Dagmara & Jacob; Dan Burwood; Nicky Arscott; R.W Horsley; Mary Lowe, Crystal Quilters; Elisabeth Charis; Daniel Lickiss.

COPYRIGHT AND CREDITS Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The newspaper contains images from the following individuals and organisations who are credited accordingly: Paul Ligas; Bromyard and District Local History Society, Herefordshire; Hereford Museum and Gallery, Herefordshire Museum Service; Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service; Worcester News; R.W. Horsley; R.H. Sargeant; Malcolm Scott.

FURTHER RESOURCES If you would like to find out more about the history of hop growing in Herefordshire, Bromyard and District Local History Society’s book A Pocketful of Hops is an excellent resource. It is available to purchase from their website: http://bromyardhistorysociety.org.uk/ a-pocketful-of-hops

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generalpublicprojects@gmail.com 07769 530 557 Above and opposite: Bromyard and District Local History Society, Herefordshire

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