Hop Pickers (1957)

Paddock Wood, Kent. L/S of a deserted railway station, L/S of a steam train pulling into the station. C/U of a sign saying 'Paddock Wood', M/S of lots of men, women and children getting out of the carriages. M/S as they all make their way down the platform. L/S of two trucks outside the station with lots of people on the back. M/S of a group of women of all different ages sat on the back of a truck. The narrator explains that these people have come hop picking, some have been coming for over 40 years and it has become a family tradition. C/U of one woman sat on the truck talking, L/S as the truck drives away. L/S as a truck drives round the corner towards the camera, C/U of the people and luggage as it passes the camera. The truck has 'Whitbread' written on the side. It drives up to the Oasthouses. Various shots of the people getting out of the trucks and unloading their luggage. L/S of a woman pushing a pram, she has another woman and a boy with her. There are several other people stood about with their luggage. M/S of a woman putting up curtains over the door to her hut. M/S of another woman plumping up pillows. M/S of two men measuring some material on the ground, M/S of two women sewing a white sheet. C/U of a man carrying a tray of food into a hut, a woman is stood by the door. M/S of hop plants (Humulus Lupulus) in a field. M/S of a branch being cut off, the camera pans down to show two elderly ladies and two young boys picking the hops from the branches and putting them in a big sack. M/S of two little boys pulling hops from a branch, C/U of the blonde boy picking the hops and smiling, he is four year old Arthur Foley from Brixton. C/U of an elderly lady picking the hops, she is 65 year old Sarha Donnely who has been picking for 30 years. C/U of her hands pulling the hops off the branch. L/S of various groups picking hops and putting them into the sacks. L/S of a man tipping a basket of hops into a sack. M/S of a woman writing something in a book. L/S of a horse and cart full of sacks of hops, C/U as it moves past the camera. M/S of the top of the Oasthouses shot from a low angle, these are where the hops are dried, C/U of the Oasthouses. M/S of horses and carts walking past, there is a tractor in the background. M/S as men lift the sacks onto their shoulders and carry them up into the building. C/U of the sacks going in. M/S as someone throws a sack to a man inside, he puts it on his shoulder. The narrator says that beer is not actually made from the hops, they are used to flavour it. L/S of all the hop pickers at night, they are having a barbecue and there are pigs roasting on spits in the middle. L/S of the barbecue scene and the crowd of people. FILM ID:67.14 FOR LICENSING ENQUIRIES VISIT http://www.britishpathe.com/