0:00:03 > 0:00:07Just over a century ago, the motion camera was invented
0:00:07 > 0:00:11and changed forever the way we recall our history.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13For the first time, we could see life
0:00:13 > 0:00:16through the eyes of ordinary people.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20Across this series,
0:00:20 > 0:00:23we'll bring these rare archive films back to life,
0:00:23 > 0:00:26with the help of our vintage mobile cinema.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34We'll be inviting people with a story to tell to step on board
0:00:34 > 0:00:37and relive moments they thought were gone forever.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43They'll see relatives on screen for the first time,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46come face to face with their younger selves,
0:00:46 > 0:00:49and celebrate our amazing 20th-century past.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54This is the people's story, our story.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24Our vintage mobile cinema was originally commissioned in 1967,
0:01:24 > 0:01:26to show training films to workers.
0:01:26 > 0:01:31Today, it's been lovingly restored and loaded up with remarkable film footage,
0:01:31 > 0:01:34preserved for us by the British Film Institute
0:01:34 > 0:01:37and other national and regional film archives.
0:01:37 > 0:01:38In this series,
0:01:38 > 0:01:41we'll be travelling to towns and cities across the country
0:01:41 > 0:01:44and showing films from the 20th century
0:01:44 > 0:01:48that give us the Reel History Of Britain.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55Today, we're pulling up in rural Britain in the 1930s...
0:01:58 > 0:02:01..to remember a time before mechanisation,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04when only man and horse power worked the land.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22We're here at Sandling, at the museum of Kent Life,
0:02:22 > 0:02:23jam-packed with visitors,
0:02:23 > 0:02:25and we have our mobile cinema
0:02:25 > 0:02:28and we'll be showing films from the 1930s
0:02:28 > 0:02:30when farming in this country changed completely.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38Coming up -
0:02:38 > 0:02:41a farm labourer's accommodation in the 1930s...
0:02:41 > 0:02:43It was one big happy family.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48..Jonathan Dimbleby on what mechanisation meant
0:02:48 > 0:02:50for rural life...
0:02:50 > 0:02:53Suddenly, people realised that you could get rid of people
0:02:53 > 0:02:56and replace them, largely, with machines.
0:02:56 > 0:02:58..and fond memories of hop-picking.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03My grandmother was born in 1892
0:03:03 > 0:03:05and she went hop-picking,
0:03:05 > 0:03:07and her parents before did.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17We've come to the Museum of Kent Life
0:03:17 > 0:03:19at Sandling near Maidstone,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22to explore the rich farming heritage
0:03:22 > 0:03:23of the garden of England.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27This is still a working farm,
0:03:27 > 0:03:29growing and harvesting hops
0:03:29 > 0:03:32using traditional techniques.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39Rural Britain in the 1930s looked like this...
0:03:41 > 0:03:43But major change was afoot.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48Men and women all over Great Britain
0:03:48 > 0:03:52who'd worked the land for centuries, with the help of horses,
0:03:52 > 0:03:54were up against the march of mechanisation.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58As their labour was slowly replaced by the tractor...
0:04:01 > 0:04:04..the combine harvester,
0:04:04 > 0:04:08and the milking machine.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14We'll be hearing how this agricultural revolution
0:04:14 > 0:04:16changed the lives of all those involved.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26'My guests today have come from all over the country,
0:04:26 > 0:04:29'with memories of rural life in the 1930s.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33'Many of them will be seeing the films we are about to screen
0:04:33 > 0:04:35'for the first time,
0:04:35 > 0:04:39'showing us photos of their family history, and sharing their stories with us.'
0:04:42 > 0:04:45'Gerry Smith from Sevenoaks is now 86,
0:04:45 > 0:04:48'one of the few remaining men with first-hand memories
0:04:48 > 0:04:50'of rural life in the 1930s.'
0:04:51 > 0:04:53'He became a horseman, like his father,
0:04:53 > 0:04:58'in the days before labour-saving machinery arrived.'
0:04:58 > 0:04:59Now, when did you start working?
0:04:59 > 0:05:02I worked when I left school at 12.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05- 12?- Yep, and went to work on the farm.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07It was a wonderful life, really,
0:05:07 > 0:05:09cos everything was done by hand.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12And then, of course, tractors came in.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14What did you think when the tractors came in then?
0:05:14 > 0:05:16I didn't think much of them. No.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19Did you think they weren't going to replace the horses?
0:05:19 > 0:05:21Yes, I did.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23The horses would stay and see them off?
0:05:23 > 0:05:25Yes, but they didn't. No.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29So what did you do, did you start to drive a tractor?
0:05:29 > 0:05:31I had to, in the end, yeah. Yeah, that's right.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34- Were you sad to leave the horses? - Absolutely.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38Oh, it was a terrible day when they went.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40Yeah, we loved them.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45Gerry's about to be taken back to a time in his life
0:05:45 > 0:05:47that he thought was gone forever.
0:05:54 > 0:05:55The films will evoke for him
0:05:55 > 0:05:58memories of the days when everything was done by manual labour.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04It was all hard work,
0:06:04 > 0:06:07because everything was done by hand.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09There was no machinery of any description,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12no tractors and no lights.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14We had oil lamps to see.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18We used to line up,
0:06:18 > 0:06:22about 20 people on a farm.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26But change was inescapable,
0:06:26 > 0:06:29for Gerry and for thousands of others like him.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32During the '30s, the number of tractors more than tripled
0:06:32 > 0:06:37and over 100,000 horses faced a tragic fate.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39They got too slow.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41Didn't do enough in a day.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45Some were put out to pasture - the younger ones -
0:06:45 > 0:06:48and the older ones were shot.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50Very, very sad.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01Farm labourers faced an uncertain future too.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04At the start of the '30s,
0:07:04 > 0:07:06over a million people worked the land.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08By the end of the decade, 10% had left farming
0:07:08 > 0:07:10and Gerry was one of them.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15When they got rid of my horses
0:07:15 > 0:07:17for a tractor,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20I decided to try a job in the factory.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26But Gerry hated city life
0:07:26 > 0:07:29and returned to the land.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32I still wanted to go back on the farm.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34I couldn't keep away.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37No money, but you didn't go to work for the money, did you?
0:07:37 > 0:07:39You went to work because you loved it.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44You go on the farm today, there's nobody.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48Just one man or two men, that's all.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50Gerry mourns the passing of the days
0:07:50 > 0:07:52when man and horse worked the land together.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Brought back lots of memories.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58It was hard work, but it was grand.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01You loved it. I did anyway.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03I wouldn't have wanted anything else.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05Through my life, you know,
0:08:05 > 0:08:07I've had a wonderful life.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11And if I die tomorrow, I've had a wonderful time.
0:08:26 > 0:08:27'Gerry loved his horses,
0:08:27 > 0:08:29'but others didn't share his sentiment
0:08:29 > 0:08:32'and it wasn't long before tractors were embraced
0:08:32 > 0:08:35'by forward-thinking farmers right across the country.'
0:08:37 > 0:08:41'Two brothers from Kent have come along to tell us about their father,
0:08:41 > 0:08:42'one of the first in the country
0:08:42 > 0:08:46'to embrace the new farming technology of the 1930s.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48'83-year-old Wilf, and 80-year-old Frank Harris,
0:08:48 > 0:08:51'are from a long line of farmers,
0:08:51 > 0:08:53'who grew up on the family estate,
0:08:53 > 0:08:56'Broadditch Farm in Southfleet in Kent.'
0:08:57 > 0:09:00'They can trace their farming heritage back to 1848,
0:09:00 > 0:09:04'when their great-great-grandfather, William Harris, worked the land.'
0:09:06 > 0:09:09I understand your family have been farming for five generations?
0:09:09 > 0:09:11Well, John, Wilf's son,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14is sixth generation, we're fifth generation.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17Did you get the first combine harvester in your area?
0:09:17 > 0:09:21Yeah, the first combine harvester in our village, yes.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23And did you think the combine harvester...
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Did you think it had a future, or...?
0:09:26 > 0:09:31Yes, a lot of our neighbours looked on it quite cautiously.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35But we proved that we were right at the end of the day!
0:09:35 > 0:09:37We were progressive,
0:09:37 > 0:09:40our education had been to produce more,
0:09:40 > 0:09:41to feed the world.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44I know the attitudes have changed rather dramatically now,
0:09:44 > 0:09:47but that was what we were educated to do,
0:09:47 > 0:09:50to produce more all the time.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52We had a carrot hung in front of us,
0:09:52 > 0:09:55where they wanted us to go, you know?
0:09:58 > 0:10:00The brothers are about to come face to face
0:10:00 > 0:10:02with a way of life that no longer exists.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04What memories will they have of it?
0:10:09 > 0:10:11I did enjoy the film
0:10:11 > 0:10:15and, you know, it gives people an insight
0:10:15 > 0:10:19into just how difficult it was, everything being done by hand.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24You saw them stacking the wheat.
0:10:24 > 0:10:25Well, I built the last,
0:10:25 > 0:10:28or pretty well the last wheat stack on our farm.
0:10:28 > 0:10:33And it's just nice to see that sort of thing, you know,
0:10:33 > 0:10:36because the combines came in then and it all stopped.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39It was quite moving, I felt emotional once or twice.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46Watching the film reminds Wilf of the day that he realised
0:10:46 > 0:10:50mechanisation was going to win out over people power.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54We've employed a gang of women, of English women,
0:10:54 > 0:10:56all our lives, farming,
0:10:56 > 0:10:59and they picked the potatoes up by hand.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01They would pick up three or four tonnes a day.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03Tough, tough ladies, I'll tell you.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06We were three parts through our harvest that year
0:11:06 > 0:11:10and our neighbour had bought a new potato harvester.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14And he said, "I'm finished, I could help you out if you like."
0:11:14 > 0:11:17And we finished the last six acres of potatoes in that morning,
0:11:17 > 0:11:21and the women, they weren't displeased,
0:11:21 > 0:11:22they said it was wonderful!
0:11:24 > 0:11:29Wilf and Frank are watching a rare film called This Was England,
0:11:29 > 0:11:33made by one of the first female directors in the country - Mary Field.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36It was produced in 1935,
0:11:36 > 0:11:40to show disappearing farm skills to children.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45You see the land was ploughed in ridges
0:11:45 > 0:11:47and then it was hand-sown
0:11:47 > 0:11:50and then harrowed so it buried the thing.
0:11:50 > 0:11:57But to get the grain on the land at the right volume was the secret.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00I've been a farming hand for 40 years
0:12:00 > 0:12:02and I can sow seeds against anyone
0:12:02 > 0:12:05and I can sow ten acres of land with ten pints of seed.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09The seed-sower in this rare film, William Aldred,
0:12:09 > 0:12:11passed away a year after the film was made.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13And with men like him
0:12:13 > 0:12:16went the knowledge of traditional farming techniques.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23And if you watch that piece of film, he's doing it left-right,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27but he's only taking a very small handful left and right
0:12:27 > 0:12:31and to get it the right consistency
0:12:31 > 0:12:33was an absolute art, really.
0:12:36 > 0:12:37And in this fight,
0:12:37 > 0:12:39we Suffolk people have learned
0:12:39 > 0:12:42to keep on using anything that's old and good
0:12:42 > 0:12:45and to try anything that's new
0:12:45 > 0:12:46and may be of use to us.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57Wilf and Frank's family
0:12:57 > 0:12:59were part of a small minority of progressive farmers
0:12:59 > 0:13:01who embraced the new technology
0:13:01 > 0:13:03and they never looked back.
0:13:04 > 0:13:10It was jolly hard work and when machinery made it easier,
0:13:10 > 0:13:13I think everybody was jolly pleased.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16You know, everything was done by hand.
0:13:16 > 0:13:23So the mechanisation, really, was a great improvement -
0:13:23 > 0:13:25it certainly was to us, anyway.
0:13:35 > 0:13:36In the 1930s,
0:13:36 > 0:13:39the traditional, even immemorial ways and scenes
0:13:39 > 0:13:42of the British countryside, began to change rapidly.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44There are two ways of looking at it.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47One is that it was the end of an idyll.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50The other, that mechanisation released energies
0:13:50 > 0:13:52and changed things for the better.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59'I'm meeting up with the broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby,
0:13:59 > 0:14:03'vice president of the Council For The Protection Of Rural England,
0:14:03 > 0:14:06'who for many years ran his own organic farm.
0:14:06 > 0:14:07'I want to find out
0:14:07 > 0:14:10'what effect the arrival of machinery had
0:14:10 > 0:14:12'on rural Britain in the 1930s.'
0:14:14 > 0:14:17So, we're talking about the mechanisation of the land.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20Can you give us some idea of what the land farming was like
0:14:20 > 0:14:22in the early 1930s?
0:14:22 > 0:14:25The machines started to come in in the early '30s.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29They didn't take over fantastically fast to start with
0:14:29 > 0:14:33because they were very expensive and farmers were very suspicious.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35You know, "What do we want machines on our farms for?"
0:14:35 > 0:14:39What did this mechanisation bring? Was it utterly transforming?
0:14:39 > 0:14:44It meant... The effect of mechanisation
0:14:44 > 0:14:47meant that the farmer who made the investment
0:14:47 > 0:14:50could produce the same output,
0:14:50 > 0:14:53the same goods, for lower cost.
0:14:53 > 0:14:59That combination meant that those who invested in mechanisation
0:14:59 > 0:15:03began to take off in relation to those who didn't.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07So it was a no-brainer in economic terms.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09The implications of it, though, were enormous.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Do you think it did have a damaging effect?
0:15:12 > 0:15:15I have an open mind about it. Things were clearly lost.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17It's very easy to have a rather glossy image,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20that somehow there was something romantic and wonderful.
0:15:20 > 0:15:25Actually, the work was dirty and hard and often dangerous.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27It was a back-breaking life, though.
0:15:27 > 0:15:32It was not easy and the wages were very, very poor if you were a worker.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35I bet no-one who worked under those circumstances,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39if offered today the choice of working in the '30s on a farm
0:15:39 > 0:15:42or working in the 21st century,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45would ever want to work as they did 70, 80 years ago.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51We've come to the Museum of Kent Life
0:15:51 > 0:15:55to celebrate the traditional farming methods of the past.
0:15:57 > 0:16:02This museum is still a working hop farm that uses manpower to grow,
0:16:02 > 0:16:05pick and store hops, still used in the making of beer.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11John Reeves Vane worked on a hop farm.
0:16:11 > 0:16:16Now he and his team show visitors to the museum how hops are grown.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18To me, it seems like a lost world.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20OK, what's going to go on here then, John?
0:16:20 > 0:16:26Right, Tim will go up the ladder and he'll push the stilts apart.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30And he'll stand up there and he'll strap himself in round his waist
0:16:30 > 0:16:34and then he puts his feet on the blocks there.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36Dave will go up and strap his feet in.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40And then he pulls himself up to the wire.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43He'll have the string hanging from his side
0:16:43 > 0:16:45which he ties on this wire at the top
0:16:45 > 0:16:49to come down to the screw peg in the ground.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56Hops were once Kent's most famous crop
0:16:56 > 0:17:00and they've been grown here since the 16th century.
0:17:00 > 0:17:05In 1932, the county had 16,000 acres of hop gardens.
0:17:10 > 0:17:15They grow up to 20 ft tall, and are harvested every September
0:17:15 > 0:17:17by tugging the hops down from the bines
0:17:17 > 0:17:20in order to collect the all-important hop flower.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30It's built this way so that when the sun comes up, it shines on the hops.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34And then when they're ready, we pick 'em,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38and take 'em down to the oast and dry them.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41- Just all of 25 yards. - That's it, yeah! Yes.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45Today, hops are mostly picked by machines.
0:17:45 > 0:17:50But in the '30s, they needed armies of seasonal workers to do the job.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54We're going to reveal who some of those workers were.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57Every September, about 100,000 Londoners
0:17:57 > 0:18:00swapped their hard life in the smog-filled city
0:18:00 > 0:18:04for a few blissful weeks of fresh air and hop-picking.
0:18:04 > 0:18:0889-year-old Mary Ripper from Bermondsey was one of them.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13Bermondsey Council encouraged local residents to leave town
0:18:13 > 0:18:18and go hop-picking for the good of their health.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21Children looked forward to it, didn't they?
0:18:21 > 0:18:23When it came to September, everybody would say,
0:18:23 > 0:18:25"Have you got your hopping letter yet?"
0:18:25 > 0:18:28- Did you enjoy it? - Oh, yes, definitely.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33Mary's about to see a rare film
0:18:33 > 0:18:37made to promote the benefits of a working holiday.
0:18:42 > 0:18:43This is Oppin',
0:18:43 > 0:18:48an early health-education film made by Bermondsey Council in 1930.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54What memories will it bring back of the annual pilgrimage
0:18:54 > 0:18:57that Mary and thousands like her used to make?
0:19:11 > 0:19:14Mary had a hard life in the London slums
0:19:14 > 0:19:18and her first trip to Kent was as a young girl of 16.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20Well, there used to be...
0:19:20 > 0:19:24I think, the London Bridge station, the platform,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26was crowded with people,
0:19:26 > 0:19:30the hop-pickers going down to the hop fields.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38The first time I ever went there was in 1938, actually,
0:19:38 > 0:19:40the year I met my husband.
0:19:40 > 0:19:45He said he was going down to his mother, hop-picking.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47And I said, "OK."
0:19:47 > 0:19:50He said, "Come down for the weekend," you know. "All right."
0:19:50 > 0:19:54So I put me best coat on and me best hat on.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57And I'd never been to hop-picking
0:19:57 > 0:20:03so I felt, you know, a bit dressed-up for this.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09I thought it was good, great.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12I had it harder, put it that way, when we lived -
0:20:12 > 0:20:16we came from Bermondsey, right - and Bermondsey had some slums
0:20:16 > 0:20:23so therefore it was not too bad, really, hop-picking.
0:20:23 > 0:20:30But it was just such a lovely place. It really was. Everybody loved it.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36It must have been a remarkable sight -
0:20:36 > 0:20:38thousands of Londoners arriving
0:20:38 > 0:20:40in the midst of this rural idyll in Kent.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Here, at this museum in Kent,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46they've preserved the huts many of them stayed in
0:20:46 > 0:20:50and my guide, John Reeves Vane, is showing me how they lived.
0:20:50 > 0:20:51And these are supposed
0:20:51 > 0:20:55to be much better than previous, weren't they?
0:20:55 > 0:20:57Well, some of these had a fire inside.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00They would bring some of their stuff down
0:21:00 > 0:21:02and leave it in here all year
0:21:02 > 0:21:06because when they came down the next year they had the same hut.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09They used to come down with tea chests full of pots and pans
0:21:09 > 0:21:12and then when they got here, they'd take their pots and pans out,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16and turn the tea chest up the other way - a table!
0:21:16 > 0:21:18Did they complain much about the size of the accommodation?
0:21:18 > 0:21:20No, it was like one big happy family.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23It was hard times but it was great
0:21:23 > 0:21:26cos people had more time to talk and socialise.
0:21:26 > 0:21:27You know, nobody was in a rush.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30Only when you've got to get out there and earn some money,
0:21:30 > 0:21:32then you've got to go like mad to pick the hops.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36The East End hop-pickers didn't earn much
0:21:36 > 0:21:38and the accommodation was basic,
0:21:38 > 0:21:42but whole families would come back year after year.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44For many, it was the only holiday they had.
0:21:54 > 0:21:59She was born in 1892 and came hop picking and her parents did before.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02'Joyce Dutton from the Isle of Sheppey
0:22:02 > 0:22:04'is one of four generations of hop-pickers.'
0:22:07 > 0:22:09Here she is as a baby.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13Her fond memories of hop-picking stretch back all her life.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17My uncle had a transport business and we came on the back of a lorry.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20Can you imagine health and safety nowadays?
0:22:20 > 0:22:24All the children sitting on the tailboard of a lorry?
0:22:24 > 0:22:29My husband's aunt, many years ago,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33she couldn't afford to come down by train or coach,
0:22:33 > 0:22:36so she walked. It took her three days.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40She'd sleep in the hedgerow and carry on walking.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43She walked there because she loved hopping so much.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46It was in your family, wasn't it? They went way back.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48They were hop-picking as far back as you can trace.
0:22:48 > 0:22:55My grandmother was born in 1892 and she went hop-picking,
0:22:55 > 0:22:59and her parents before did. So that's going back many years.
0:23:01 > 0:23:03We're going to show Joyce footage
0:23:03 > 0:23:05of hop-picking families just like hers,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08preserved by the East Anglian Film Archive.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24Will the films bring back her own childhood memories
0:23:24 > 0:23:25of holidays in Kent?
0:23:32 > 0:23:35It was the only holiday that you had.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39You couldn't afford a holiday then, especially during the war years
0:23:39 > 0:23:42and it gave them a chance to come down,
0:23:42 > 0:23:47be with all their families, their brothers and sisters
0:23:47 > 0:23:51and to earn, as they said, a bob or two.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55My mum used to earn the money and buy us our winter clothes
0:23:55 > 0:23:58and put a bit by for Christmas.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02Yeah, it is nice to remember.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06Seeing the film that we saw today, there's things there that,
0:24:06 > 0:24:10you think... And hop fields, when they're fully grown,
0:24:10 > 0:24:14the hop gardens, they're a beautiful sight.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23The film reminds Joyce of the living conditions for families like hers
0:24:23 > 0:24:24on the hop farms.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Oh, there must have been a thousand huts on the common,
0:24:29 > 0:24:33as they called it when we were there.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36All rows and rows of them.
0:24:36 > 0:24:44They were corrugated tin huts, with wooden beams and concrete floors
0:24:44 > 0:24:47and there'd be a wooden bed there.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50There could be a family of six in each one.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Some people, you know, might have six children
0:24:56 > 0:24:58and them and the children used the one hut.
0:25:07 > 0:25:12Joyce remembers how her mother tried to make their hut a home from home.
0:25:12 > 0:25:18When they got down to the huts that we had year after year,
0:25:18 > 0:25:23my mother would paint everything, and she'd put up curtains and sheets
0:25:23 > 0:25:27and make it very comfortable for us.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35Hop-pickers were paid according to how many bushel baskets they picked.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38Many farms used a token system to pay for food
0:25:38 > 0:25:41and sometimes workers went home almost empty-handed.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46It was hard labour and even the kids joined in.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52You'd fill your bushel baskets
0:25:52 > 0:25:56and they'd all be taken to the end of the alleyway that you worked in
0:25:56 > 0:26:00and then the tallyman used to call out for all full 'uns.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05That meant you had to have six bushel to go in the big basket
0:26:05 > 0:26:11and my mother would tip 'em in, and, oh, your life wasn't worth it
0:26:11 > 0:26:14if you went near that basket and knocked it,
0:26:14 > 0:26:18because it made the hops sink and she'd have to put more in.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22Communal activities were a feature of hop-picking life.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26Cooking, eating and working were all done together,
0:26:26 > 0:26:29a way of life that Joyce fondly remembers.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31Well, it was a good atmosphere,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34because they would then sit outside round the fires.
0:26:34 > 0:26:39We'd be cooking apples and potatoes in the fire
0:26:39 > 0:26:45and they'd all be sitting there and then someone would start singing,
0:26:45 > 0:26:48"Now that hoppin's over and all the money's spent,
0:26:48 > 0:26:50"I wish I'd never gone hopping down in Kent."
0:27:00 > 0:27:04There were 650 hop gardens in the '30s. Now only 60 remain.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08Today has given me a glimpse of our rural past
0:27:08 > 0:27:11before mechanisation took hold,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14forcing farm workers to adapt to change
0:27:14 > 0:27:17or face looking for work in the city.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19We should never forget how the farmers
0:27:19 > 0:27:21and farm labourers of the past
0:27:21 > 0:27:26once toiled to sow, grow and reap the crops.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30Almost entirely by hand, they fed the nation.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39So whatever the hardships that people suffered in the 1930s,
0:27:39 > 0:27:41from foul conditions, from poor pay,
0:27:41 > 0:27:44what comes through is the affection they had
0:27:44 > 0:27:48for those ancient ways of farming and living, even now.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51And because of what they tell us, we have those memories too.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54And they are becoming part of our archive.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07Next time on Reel History, we're going back to school in Watford...
0:28:08 > 0:28:11..to remember secondary moderns in the '60s.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15When I look at that pimply, untidy child,
0:28:15 > 0:28:17I'm thinking to myself, "What am I doing here?
0:28:17 > 0:28:20"I could be outside playing rather than in here."
0:28:25 > 0:28:28Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd