Hopping in Kent

Lesson one. Take notes as I will be ask questions later.
The rootstock was dressed by some one using a home made knife , made from an old gramophone spring, notice the whet stone tied to his leg for sharpening it.
Then comes the stringing. The two main methods of stringing
(i) Umbrella - 4 strings per hill.
(ii) Worcester - 2 strings per hill.
The stringers were paid by the the amount of string they strung.
The big problem with hops is wind, to protect the vines "Lewing" was put up round the outer poles. Hops were always a problem with wind......

Another system was Butchers. This required a stilt walker to string, with the aid of his helper, the wim wom man. The "wim wom" was the barrow used to carry the balls of wire and string.
Vines needed to be trained to climb up the string. Somebody would be employed for the job. In the first instance "Firsting" was done, this involved "twiddling" the vine in a clockwise direction round the string. Then came......"Seconding". This was carried out when the vines were chest height or "Banding-in Height". The lady below is the Twiddler, seen here Twiddling.

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