From the Dover Express and East Kent News, 4 January, 1952.

The Sampling of Beer

Demand for a Fixed Standard

"The position with regard to beer sampling is not very satisfactory," says Mr. G. Strugnell, Chief Inspector of Weights and Measures, Food and Drugs, in his annual report to the Kent County Council.

"So far as the food and Drugs Act, 1938, is concerned there is no fixed standard for any type of beer."

The analysis of samples of beer taken in the county during the last two years, he states, show the original gravity to vary between 1029.4 and 1038.9. The price is charged per pint for all these samples was the same.

Samples of mild beer varied in original gravity between 1028.0 and 1032.4. In some cases the charge made for the mild was 11d. a pint and in others 1s. per pint. That did not mean that, in every case, the cheaper beer was the weaker in strength because one of the mild beer sold at 11d. per pint had an original gravity of 1032.4, whereas another at 1s. per pint analysed at an original gravity of 1029.0.

One of the reasons for sampling beer is to check for the type of adulteration which reduces the quality and increases the quantity after it has left the brewery. Sampling for this purpose would be a complete waste of time was it not for the readily given help and cooperation of the brewers.

When the official sample has been analysed the brewer must be asked if the figures so obtained are in agreement with the strength of the beer as sent out from the brewery.

The brewers would be perfectly within their rights if they refused this information. It speaks well of their desire that the public should receive the beer as they make it that there is no instance in this county that application for this confidential information has been refused.

The report concluded by saying that as there are minimum standards for so many articles of food and drink, consideration might well be given to standards for draught beer so that the public analyst could say whether or not a sample is genuine in that respect. The necessity for regulated standards of strength for beer sold retail appeared to be just as essential as it was for spirits.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, 25 January 1952.

Licensees Complaining of Hard Times

Country licensees are becoming more and more worried with the difficulty of making a living in their houses. This was reported at the annual meeting at the "Five Bells," Eastry, (Mr. E. Curling), on Monday, of the Wingham and District Licensed Victuallers Association.

In the course of discussion, it was stated that, owing to high prices, low profits and the decreasing spending power of the public, a large percentage of the members had had to seek outside jobs to help make ends meet.

The meeting unanimously approved a resolution calling upon the Kent Federation to press for a larger margin of profit, or relief from the heavy taxation - or both - for country licensees.

The retiring chairman, Mr. Curling presided at the opening of the meeting and Mr. George Borrett (Hon. Sec.), reported that, with 18 new members, the total membership of the Association represented 95 per cent of the licenses of the Division. Attendances at the monthly meetings had considerably increased.

Mr. F. Chell (President and now honorary life member) presided for the election of officers, which resulted:- Chairman, Mr. A. E. Giles, The "Plough", Ripple; Vice-Chairman, Mr. Curling; Hon Treasurer and Assnt. Sec., Mr. T. Gibbens, The "Volunteer", Ash - who had previously reported most satisfactory finances; Hon Sec. (pro tem), Mr. Borrett; Committee: Messrs. C. Munday, The "Sportsman", Barham; J. Murphy, "Woodman's Arms", Barham; A. Richards, "Black Pig", Staple; F. York, "Rice Arms", Tilmanstone; H. Elgar, "Hare and Hounds", Northbourne; and S. Pitts, "Eight Bells", Wingham Well.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday, 23 May, 1952.

"TIME GENTLEMEN" PLEASE!

Whit Sunday and Monday drinking hours in the eighty-four public houses whose licensees are members of the Licensed Victuallers Association have been extended by an hour until 11.30.

Dover Magistrates on, Monday, granted this on the application of Mr. N. W. S. Mitchison, said that other licensees would have similar hours if they applied early enough.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday, 6 June, 1952.

Pub Carpet Sales Banned

"Unfair to Local Traders"

Making an appeal for support for the Dover Chamber of Commerce at a meeting on Thursday last week, Mr. S. B. Turnpenny told his listeners of one instance in which they had taken action in the interests of local traders.

Only the previous week, he said, a carpet sale had been organised in a local public house. The Chamber protested to the brewers that it was unfair on shopkeepers who had to pay their rates, and the sale was cancelled.

Another attempt was made to hold the sale in a different public house, but again the Chamber protested, and again the sale was cancelled.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News, Friday, 13 June, 1952.

Drunk in Charge of a Cycle

For being drunk in charge of a bicycle and drunk and disorderly, Andrew Ashe, 40-year-old farm labourer, of 6, Youngs Place, West Hougham, was fined a total of 30/- when he appeared before Dover Magistrates on Monday.

Ashe admitted the offences and Inspector Haydon told the Court that at 11.30 p.m. on May 31st, P.C. Rhodes was in Cannon Street when he saw the man with his cycle. The constable saw Ashe fall over the machine when he tried to mount it, and then walk off staggering from side to side. Arrested, he was too drunk to be charged until 10.00 a.m. the next day.

He had previously been fined 10/-, added the inspector, for being drunk in charge of a cycle on 19th March.

In Court, Ashe said he was very sorry and was "giving up the drink."

The Magistrates' Clerk (Mr. G. H. Youden): That's what you said before, I think.

Ashe was fined £1 for being drunk in charge of the cycle and 10/- for being drunk and disorderly.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News. 4 July 1952.

HISTORIC INNS

A further 44 old inns and hotels in Kent have been scheduled during the past twelve months by the Ministry of Housing and the Local Government as being of outstanding historical and architectural interest. The total number so far scheduled in the county is 80.

The Brewers' Society is selecting a design for a plaque for marking these old inns to enable tourists and other visitors readily to identify inns of outstanding interest.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News. 29 August, 1952.

HOP PICKING STARTS

Hop-picking is here and the first of the Dover pickers left on Wednesday for the gardens at Ash. By this time next week, picking will be in full swing and reports indicate that the crop although on the light side, will be of good quality.

Generally speaking, the hops in East Kent are very clean with an unusual freedom from pest and disease. Two minor outbreaks of verticillium wilt reported in the district are under control.

This years crop, it is stated, will, because of freedom of leaf, be much easier to pick and most of the gardens have recovered from the slight damage caused by the recent wild weather.

From the Dover Express and East Kent News. 5 September, 1952.

A HOLIDAY WITH STRINGS

Working in the Hopfields

The hop-picking season, no doubt, keep a lot of children away from their classrooms during the first fortnight of the autumn term, but there is some slight measure of compensation to be gained from the undeniable fact that hop-picking provides the youngsters with just about the healthiest holiday they could possibly have.

Take a trip to any of the hop-gardens in the district and see for yourself.

It's a children's paradise. There's the excitement of living in a hut, of having meals cooked up on a camp-fire, of an almost unlimited supply of fruit at their finger-tips, of an ice cream man always in attendance and, until the thick heavily-laden bines are stripped, a near perfect jungle in which to play.

And if children look upon this month as their real holiday away from home, so, in very many cases, do mum and dad.

Ask them why they come hop-picking every year and you'll be surprised to find how few of them start off by talking about money which is to be earned. This is the family holiday to most of them.

It's one long glorious picnic to the kids, a complete change from the every-day cares and worries for mum and, in most cases, light work for dad with the incentive of a cheerful evening at the local pub when picking for the day is done.

I paid a visit on Monday to Mr. Marchant's extensive hop plantations set in the very heart of some of Kent's most glorious countryside between Ash and Staple and hadn't the slightest difficulty in discovering which was the "Dover Colony".

"Up the Lilywhites," halled one of the towns staunchest supporters. Mrs. Norah Crascall, of Military Hill, when she spotted me, and my first ten minutes in the hop garden were spent in trying to persuade Norah that it was not my fault that the town side had not made a particularly sparkling start to the season.

When a team did as well as Dover last season, Norah, for the life of her, can't understand why they have to start making changes. "It's absolutely barmy," she declares.

But back to hop-picking to introduce you to the "Granny" of the Dover Colony - Old Mrs. Lil Daulton, from St. Radigunds Road, who has bee going summer after summer to this same district for the past thirty-odd years.

A trifle heard of hearing, she sits bolt upright on her hard wooden chair, surrounded by her children and grandchildren, and sets a really hot pace when it comes to stripping the bines.

Hop-picking is the one thing to which Mrs. Dalton really looks forward during the whole year. She starts thinking about it long before the others because she has been chosen as the basket-runner and it's her job to recruit the army of local pickers for this particular garden.

Mrs. Dalton declares that it's a lot of nonsense for the authorities to say that the parents should not be allowed to keep their children away from school to go picking.

"If they don't want them to go miss school they should put the summer holidays back a couple of weeks," she says.

"It's the family holiday for these folks - the only holiday most of them get in the year. They all get away together, spend a month in the fresh air and, when it's all over, they go back home with a few pounds in their pockets.

"That's how a good many families manage to have a holiday away from home and earn themselves enough, at the same time, to fit themselves out with clothes for the winter," says Mrs. Dalton.

The hop-pickers daily time-table was given to me by young George Scopes from St. Radigund's who was beginning to wonder whether he had acted prudently in taking his elephant-eared Alsatian dog, "Bruce."

Greatly displeased at being shut up in the Scope's hut while master and mistress were out in the gardens, Bruce had gnawed his way out and was lumbering round delightedly.

"You can't scold him, he's so friendly," said a nearby picker. "Look, he likes the smell of my hops..... Get away, you horrid thing."

The huts, incidentally, can be made cosy and comfortable, particularly if you care to follow George's example. He went out a couple of days in advance and did some wall-papering.

In his hut was a wooden bed with straw palliates, a table and chairs, and oil burner to provide some adequate lighting.

The day for him started at 5.30 a.m. with a wash in the open-air while his wife cooked breakfast on the pressure stove. Breakfast was at six o'clock sharp and then, with the rest of the colony, came the short walk to the gardens, ready to start picking at 6.30.

Most of the pickers work through until five o'clock in the evening with a brief break for an "on-the-spot" snack at mid-day. He big meal of the day is in the evening (Mrs. Dalton had stuffed bullocks heart on Sunday), and bed-time, usually about half-past ten, is generally proceeded by a camp-fire. There is the camp-fire sing-song and seldom any shortage of local talent.

They say it's good picking this year, particularly in this garden where the crops look like being a record one.

"You can usually tell beforehand  which gardens have good crops," says Mrs. Pitman, of Lambton Road. "A lot of the regular pickers scout around the district to find out where the hops are best before they decide which gardens they will go to. There's been a rush for this one this year."

For every tally of hops - and a tally is five bushels - a picker receives about 6s.

A family of four adults, working at a comfortable enough speed to allow dad to roll his own fags and for mum to enjoy an occasional gossip can fill about ten tallies a day - which means that they can earn about £2 10s between them per day.

They can work five-and-a-half days a week during the season which lasts for about four weeks - or, in other words, the family can pick up the very handy sum of about £50.

Deduct from that about £15 for mum's "housekeeping" - and it could be considerably less if the ice-cream man wasn't always so close at hand - and there is a useful purse left.

But, as I said earlier on, to a good many of these hop-pickers the money side of  the business doesn't take the first place.

"They're grand folk out here," says Mrs. Dalton. "They are out in the fresh air all day long, they eat heartily and sleep soundly and they're never short of good company. Who wants a better holiday than that?"

"And we're doing work of national importance," added George with a lick of his lips.

I made a short stop at the "Volunteer" on the way home and heartily agreed with him.

Stan Welta.

Above is shown a group of hop pickers from the St. Radigund's district.