Tower and Town, May 2021

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The Summer Holidays

The summer - you can almost taste it!

The arrival of spring, dreaming of those long, hazy summer days with the sun on your back is ripe, golden and delicious.

We all have different associations with what summer means to us. To me, it's a long list of happy memories, birthdays, holidays, adventures, late nights, music, dancing, sun-kissed skin and outrageous sunglasses to name but a few. One of the books I read last year was Ysenda Maxtone Graham's British Summer Time: The School Summer Holidays 1930 - 1980.

I've picked up on this because summer is edging nearer (hoorah), and, I have very recently been looking into the history of hop-picking as part of a group project on my Master's degree course.

Did any of you ever pack your bags and head off to the green fields of Kent with your families for the hop-picking season?

I have been working on a project with fellow students looking at a fabulous painting called Hop-Picking Granny Knowles (c.1938) by the undervalued, supremely talented artist, Dame Laura Knight (1877 - 1970).

The portrait of Granny Knowles depicts a Romany lady picking hops. Oil on canvas, the painting is part of the Canterbury Museums and Galleries collection. Dame Laura Knight was a very accomplished artist. The only British artist to cover the Nuremberg Trials, she was also commissioned as a war artist during both world wars. Orphaned at a young age, Knight became the first woman to be elected as a Royal Academician. As an impressionist artist, Knight was drawn to a variety of subjects, but some of her most famous and recognisable pieces are of marginalised communities, as well as life at the circus and ballet.

Studying this particular painting, I dug deep into the history of hop-picking, revisited accounts from Ysenda Maxtone Graham's book and watched fascinating British Pathé News footage of East Enders packing their trunks and heading out to the Kent countryside. I came across dozens of accounts of people recalling their hop-picking days which were full of the warm, summer joy that I touched on earlier. 'opping weren't relaxing mind, no, this was a working holiday, not a 'put your feet-up mum' getaway.

I've found researching the history of hop'picking, Dame Laura Knight and people's memories of their summer holidays fascinating. Why? It's social history, a glimpse into the past, into other people's experiences. Furthermore, it has been wonderful to look closely at the work of this brilliant female artist.

Next time I have a cold beer, I'll raise a glass to those families in the fields, and to Dame Laura Knight, who so beautifully captured these characterful faces and kept these communities and stories alive.

Gabriella Venus