Agricultural History Review, Volume 56 Part 2 (2008), p. 238

This is the second edition of a book, first published in 1988, that has found a wide popular readership. The major change is new material that brings the historical narrative up to date (2007). Other changes include the addition of new photographs, maps and other illustrations and some stylistic revision of the original text. All of these changes help to make the book more readable and generally attractive, whilst, as the introduction notes, leaving intact the broad format and flavour of the original.

A pocketful of hops remains a solid and accessible social and economic history of hop-growing in Bromyard, Herefordshire – once one of the main hop-growing areas in England – from the turn of the twentieth century to the present day. A key focus, as befits a book produced by a local history society, is on the significance of hops for not only farmers but also the wider community around which the industry revolves.

After an introductory chapter tracing the evolution of hop-growing in Bromyard from the middle of the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, the book falls into two parts. First it examines the social dimensions of hop-picking; five chapters cover the perspectives of growers, local pickers and seasonal migrant labour and the various local authorities and voluntary organizations that took responsibility for their welfare and organization. The second half of the book examines the changing fortunes of the industry itself, with six chapters covering technical developments in hop-growing, the servicing of the hop industry, quantitative trends in hop production, the impact of the dwarf hop, and the influence of changes in marketing, drinking tastes and government regulation over the course of the twentieth century.

The book has two major strengths: a wealth of factual detail on the technical aspects of hop growing; and a strong sense of hop-picking as experienced by the hop-pickers. The latter is imparted by the inclusion of lengthy reminiscences from interviews and letters and a wide range of high-quality monochrome photographs. As with most books of this type, however, the portrayal of social life is open to the charge of being overly rose-tinted; there is little indication of the hardships suffered by such workers, nor of the tensions and conflicts that often arose between growers and pickers.

Unsurprisingly, given its amateur status and local remit, the book does not seek to locate hop-growers and pickers in the context of a wider historical division of labour. Nor is there any serious attempt to place Bromyard hop-growing in wider geographical context; this is very much a descriptive, idiographic study. The absence of any attempt to assess the significance of hop-growing to the local economy of Bromyard beyond some disjointed references to the wages of hop pickers in the nineteenth century means that the book would be of limited interest to economic historians.

These caveats aside, and bearing in mind the paucity of historical studies in this area, A pocketful of hops provides a valuable, if narrow, insight into the history of hop-growing in England and its significance for rural society.