Local Stories: Memories of Hopping around Brook and Wye, Kent

Next exhibition in the Templeman Gallery – 18th October to 29th November 2024 

Our next exhibition in the Templeman Gallery and will be installed over the next few weeks. Join us for the exhibition launch on Friday 18th October at 6pm! 

This is a partnership with Brook Rural Museum following an oral history project where local people were interviewed about their memories of hopping and hop production in Brook, Wye and the surrounding areas.

The exhibition features extracts from the oral history recordings alongside items from Special Collections and Archives, and from the Brook Rural Museum, including hop tokens and tally sticks, photographs, newspaper articles and rare books – telling the story of what hop farming and hop picking was like in Kent, and describing the history and future of hop production.

Contact us on specialcollections@kent.ac.uk if you have any questions or would like to attend the free launch event.

Poster about the Brook Rural Museum exhibition - Local Stories: Memories of Hopping around Brook and Wye, Kent. The poster features a black and white image of a hop worker on stilts working on the hop frames

Oral History Student Volunteers – Get involved!

Local Stories: Memories of Hopping around Brook and Wye, Kent. 

Do you…

  • Have an interest in oral history?
  • Want to receive free training in conducting oral history interviews?
  • Have an interest in local history or the history of hopping and hop picking in Kent?

If so – come and get involved with this fantastic new project in Special Collections and Archives – where you will interview people from the Brook and Wye area about their memories of hopping.

Special Collections and Archives are working in partnership with Brook Rural Museum on a project for students to explore local peoples’ memories associated with the experience of hop picking and farming in and around Brook and Wye, Kent.

Volunteering on this project will provide you with skills in oral history interviewing (with training from an experienced oral historian) and associated tasks, such as making transcriptions and recording summaries. Most interviews will take place in the villages of Brook or Wye, and expenses for travel will be available. Some aspects of the role can be carried out remotely.

The project will take place between March and June 2024 and will conclude in late 2024 with an exhibition in the Templeman Gallery and at Brook Rural Museum showcasing extracts from the oral history interviews.

Please get in touch at engagement@brookruralmuseum.org.uk to express an interest and receive information about the application process,. You can also talk to us in Special Collections and Archives if you need more information –  specialcollections@kent.ac.uk.

Places on this project are limited – and applications need to be in by 16th February 2024.