The Hop Fields of Worcestershire

Seasonal work for generations from the West Midlands - the annual hop harvest in Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

This short reel of amateur film is thought to have been shot at Bransford in Worcestershire and depicts the harvesting of hops for the beer industry. Up until the 1960s it was a laborious process that brought seasonal workers from Birmingham and the West Midlands into the area. We see women with children hand picking the hops, which grow on unwieldy twenty foot high trellises. A community spirit sprang up around the families that stayed for the whole season on the land.