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Little Hoppers Hospital (1910-1953)
Our name is in recognition of the historic hospital - Little Hoppers Hospital – which neighbours our location in Five Oak Green, Kent.
Little Hoppers Hospital was erected for the hop pickers and their children who worked in the hop fields in rural Kent. In fact, Five Oak Green and Capel were the centre for hop growing in the 19th century.
At the peak of hop farming in the mid to late 19th century, it was estimated that over 80,000 people invaded Kent for the hop picking season. At this time, provision for seasonal workers was virtually non-existent. The sheer number of hoppers dwarfed the capacity of workhouses, so many slept outside underneath roughly constructed canvas shelters provided by the hop farmers.
Local people viewed the hoppers with prejudice, with it being common-place to see signs in Kent’s rural public houses saying: “No Dogs, No Gypsies and No Hoppers”.
In 1849, an outbreak of cholera killed 43 hop pickers a few miles away in East Farleigh. A wooden cross in the churchyard was erected “in memory of forty three strangers” – their names were evidently not thought worthy of recording.
The living conditions for the hop pickers were described to be similar as those for livestock:
“They sleep… almost like the cattle in the field. To mingle with these poor creatures, to see their habits and hear their language, to witness the awful lengths to which they go makes it seem almost impossible that we can be living in the nineteenth century” - Reverend J.J. Kendon, 1860.
Reverend Richard Wilson, a priest from St. Augustine's Church in Stepney, was shocked at the poor conditions and inhuman manner in which the hoppers worked. And so, he set-up Little Hoppers Hospital in a disused public house - The Rose and Crown – at Five Oak Green in Kent. He added to the pub's sign "No beer sold here" so no one should have any doubt of its changed role. The building was renovated in 1910 to provide a ward for 10 to 12 children, with the last entry in the hospital register in 1953.
In 1901, a case of smallpox hit the local hop fields. Reverend Richard Wilson held a series of 'vaccination concerts' every evening taking place in a large marquee on the village green at Five Oak Green. Large numbers of children from the hop pickers’ families were vaccinated and a hospital tent was erected to isolate any suspicious cases that occurred. In an adjoining tent, the vaccination officer and the nurses from Little Hoppers Hospital were hard at work vaccinating the audience of locals who could be persuaded to undergo the vaccination program.
By the early-mid 20th century, the future of the hoppers looked to be threatened by more than just discrimination from locals. In 1934, the first hop-picking machine was built. By the middle of the 20th century, half of Kent’s hops were being picked mechanically. The attraction of sleeping in a barn for a working holiday began to lose its appeal for the London families who now lived in modern homes. Hopping was a dying industry, a victim of encroaching machinery.
Here at Little Hoppers Animal Hospital, the legacy of Reverend Richard Wilson and Little Hoppers Hospital lives on, albeit, with vaccinations for dogs, cats and rabbits!
You will see a donation box at our reception desk to support Hoppers (www.hopperskent.org) who work to support under-privileged families and individuals in the local area. Hoppers are based at the original Little Hoppers Hospital building.
You will see a donation box at our reception desk to support Hoppers (www.hopperskent.org) who work to support under-privileged families and individuals in the local area. Hoppers are based at the original Little Hoppers Hospital building.
