Hopping Down In Kent

artist:Shirley Collins

, writer:

Song Info

Title: Hopping Down In Kent

Artist: Shirley Collins

Writer:

Song Types: Folk

Key: G

Info: Hops are picked in September. Most hoppers in Kent were the poor and unemployed from London. At the hop industry's peak more than 80,000 people poured into Kent every autumn. Whole families came and there are many records of families visiting the same gardens for several generations. (source: "History of Hop Picking in Kent" in A History of Hop Growing in Kent and the South East at the National Hop Association of England site; the article describes hopping and some of the terminology used in the song)

Mary Ann Haynes sang Hopping Down in Kent and My Lovely Hops in a recording made by Mike Yates in 1975. It was released in 1979 on the Topic anthology Travellers: Songs, Stories and Tunes from English Gypsies and in 2003 on the Musical Traditions anthology Here's Luck to a Man: Gypsy Songs and Music from South-East England.

Ashley Hutchings noted in his songbook A Little Music:

Until fairly recently the annual excursion to pick hops in Kent was the only holiday of the year for many Cockney families. It wasn't much of a rest for them, as this song indicates.

Gypsies, too, were regular hop-pickers�"going where the seasonal work took them. This tune was collected from a Sussex gypsy, Mary Ann Haynes, by Mike Yates.

The Albion Band recorded Hopping Down in Kent for a single released in 1976. This track was included in 1977 on their album The Prospect Before Us. and later on Shirley Collins' anthologies Within Sound (2002) and The Harvest Years (2008). The Albion Dance Band also performed Hopping Down in Kent twice on BBC radio sessions. One with Shirley Collins singing was recorded on 22 July 1976 and included in The BBC Sessions; the other and much faster one with John Tams singing on probably 31 May 1977 was published on The Albion Band Live in Concert - BBC Radio 1. Both versions were also added to the Ashley Hutchings 4CD anthology Burning Bright. The Albion Band also performed this song live in Switzerland in 1978 at the 7. Folk-Festival auf der Lenzburg. Another live recording of Shirley and Dolly Collins in Dublin in 1978 was published in 1998 on their CD Harking Back.

Use Auto-Formated Version?

Whoa! I didn't find any chords in your song -- it's probably not in ChordPro format. Here's the converted version…

No, Thanks!

Don't perform this check again.

Hopping Down In Kent

artist:Shirley Collins

, writer:

Edit Song

Song Info

Alts - Is barre easier?

Use Auto-Formated Version?

Chord Builder