Eardiston Village

                                    Worcestershire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


                                           Site of Dumbleton Barracks (red arrow)

                                                    Home to the Hop Pickers from Cradley Heath

 

The village of Eardiston lies in the valley of the river Teme between Great Witley and Tenbury Wells

Its main activity was, and probably still is, hops and for many years it provided working holidays

for dozens of families from the Cradley Heath area of the Black Country

Starting in 1940, my visits were all made during the War years, when normal holidays were badly

disrupted but for many it was the only “holiday” they could afford

Pickers were recruited by a Ruth Billingham from Cradley Heath, well before the outbreak of the

First World War and many family groups returned year after year so that a closely-knit community

was formed.

 

 

 

 

 

 


                      Named after the lane in which the Hop Pickers were accommodated,“The Dumbleton”

                         had a fairytale ring to it and it was certainly “fairy tale” time for us kids in the early 1940’s

 

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                Sir Kingsley Wood, Minister for Health, chatting to eighty-four year old

                                   Ruth Billingham at Dumbleton Hop field sometime in the 1930’s

 

After Ruth Billinghams death in 1938 her daughter, Ruth Hayes, and Daughter-in-Law,

Leah Billingham, maintained the family tradition until mechanisation of hop picking was

introduced in 1955

 

The picking season started in September, just at the beginning of the new school term

but, surprisingly, the school authorities considered the event important enough to

allow school kids-albeit grudgingly-to add an extra few weeks to their Summer holiday

So for us kids, not only were we going to have the time of our life “down on the farm”

but we were going to have it in School time!

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Yarranton’s Coaches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


              A modern Yarranton Brothers coach—they celebrated their 75th year in 2002

    Its forerunners were used to transport hop-pickers from Cradley Heath to the Dumbleton

 

Eardiston Village had one other activity, a coach company called Yarrantons and one

of my very first memories was boarding a coach in Graingers lane, Cradley Heath,

at the junction with Southgate, to start the journey to the Dumbleton

I recall that our luggage, usually tin trunks, was loaded separately on a high sided lorry

In 1940, as a nine year old the journey seemed endless and a cheer usually went up

when we reached a particular milestone--the Hundred House at Great Witley,

then the first hopfield--the Black Gardens--not far to go now!

 

It should be remembered that only privileged families had the sort of transport that we

now take for granted, so that the Dumbleton really did seem exotic, even the Eardiston

locals with their countrified accent spoke differently!

 

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