on the 'op

[A.P. Wolf]

What say you, Robert & Debs
I just found a Thomas Cutbush, hop farmer of Yalding, Maidstone in 1858.
Isn't that where Eddowes went 'opping?

[Robert Linford]

I can't remember, AP.

[A.P. Wolf]

I get the idea that it must 'ave been, Robert:

Morning Advertiser (London)
17 September 1888

THE HOP CROP.- The hop season of 1888 will rank in Kent as one of the most disastrous known within the last decade of hop industry. With a largely diminished acreage as compared with former years, the crop, taken generally, has been a dismal failure. In the case of many of the largest growers within the immediate vicinity of Maidstone, several hundreds of acres will be innocent of the presence of a bin, mould and the manifold enemies of the hop having effected their devastating work. In the large districts of the Farleighs, Hanton, and Yalding, which usually require the services of more than 15,000 pickers, only a mere fraction of this large number has been employed. The county town of Maidstone is a severe sufferer from the collapse of this important industry, as it is estimated on good authority that a prosperous hop season benefits it to the extent of 30,000£. - A Worcester correspondent says that the fine weather of the last week has improved the hops on the poles, and has dissipated some of the blight and mould. Where they have been well cared for the hops are looking well. Some little lots of the new growth were offered at market on Saturday in Worcester, but being mostly of inferior quality, they did not sell readily. One parcel is understood to have made 8£ per cwt., and an offer of considerably more money was declined for a choice sample.

[A.P. Wolf]

Hunton - where rumour has it that Eddowes 'opped - is actually part of Yalding.... and then I find that I posted this last year on Casebook:

'Simon, as you may know or not, I have found fairly compulsive fact to show that when Eddowes hopped she did it on land owned by the Cutbush clan.
Of Maidstone.
A sultry kipper in sun's rosy evening glow
a sultry copper's nephew in death row
the hop crop ripped and torn
so a mad bastard born.

There was no hop crop in 1888.
But plenty of it 'bout 'ere.'

Blimey... then I find a Thomas Cutbush, hop farmer of Yalding.
I must be 'opping mad.

[Robert Linford]

I'll try to look into it, AP. Not easy at the moment with Ancestry playing up.

If he's the one I suspect, it would have to be on land passed down to the kids, for the old boy died in 1871.

[A.P. Wolf]

More hopping!

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=q3YpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA263&dq=cutbush&hl=en&ei=aRfDTJTpIIvqObTo0acM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBTigAQ#v=onepage&q=cutbush&f=false