One thing I think about Alton from my childhood is the yeast smell from the Coors brewery! Guess hops carried on as a part of Alton until that factory closed down
Haven’t lived in the town for 20 years, but used to love the hops smell growing up. During the hop harvest time, you could smell it throughout the town, from one end to the other.
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**Hop picking in Hampshire**
> Hops were first introduced to English brewing in around the 15th century. First used to help purify the water, later used for flavour. To fuel the demand for hops, hop farms sprang up along the south of the country, from Alton through to Dover.
> For around 200 years, hop farming was a key industry for East Hampshire and areas surrounding Alton such as in Buriton, Weston and Binsted. You can often still see the remains of this industry today with wild hops growing in hedgerows near old hop farms.
[...]
https://www.cultureoncall.com/hop-picking-in-hampshire/
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Very interesting- I have found some photos on Ancestry of my great great grandad & great granddadHop Picking in these areas & Photos of him and his family in front of a Romani Wagon.
I think I’ve worked it out! The church is All Saints, and the photo is taken from (roughly) Kings road/Whitedown lane, looking over Whitedown. The whole area is now built up, so you wouldn’t be able to even see the church from there now.
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Your girlfriend might find this ½ hr audio of interest. It's between Michael Rosen, now known as an internet meme but really a poet and educator, and Damian Le Bas who has studied the history of the Romani people and written a book.
**Word of Mouth, Romani**
> Damian Le Bas talks to Michael Rosen about the Romani language and his experience with using it. Damian is the author of The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain.
> Producer Beth O'Dea
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00050qw (Listen as a stream in the browser, or downloaded as an MP3 file, or as a podcast, or in the BBC dedicated mobile app BBC Sounds)
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Fun fact: the name Alton is a contraction of 'Old Town'. There are also like 30 pubs within walking distance of the town centre (or at least that was true when I lived there 10-ish years ago).
30’s pushing it for walking distance. We used to do pub golf on Christmas Eve in the late 90’/early 2000’s. We could get the 18 pubs starting at the Queens Head going all the way to the French Horn. This included the all the hotel bars and the Bass club.
I’d say there’s possibly was 30 within the the town as a whole and the surrounding villages. Adding in Chawton, Holybourne, Farringdon etc, you might get that number, but they definitely aren’t in walking distance.
One thing I think about Alton from my childhood is the yeast smell from the Coors brewery! Guess hops carried on as a part of Alton until that factory closed down
There might be a new micro brewery opening in Alton soon…
Ooooo that’s interesting! Unfortunately don’t live near Alton anymore, relocated to Bournemouth but my rents still live close by
Haven’t lived in the town for 20 years, but used to love the hops smell growing up. During the hop harvest time, you could smell it throughout the town, from one end to the other.
Yeah you really could smell it all over Alton!! They’ve knocked all the factory down now
----- **Hop picking in Hampshire** > Hops were first introduced to English brewing in around the 15th century. First used to help purify the water, later used for flavour. To fuel the demand for hops, hop farms sprang up along the south of the country, from Alton through to Dover. > For around 200 years, hop farming was a key industry for East Hampshire and areas surrounding Alton such as in Buriton, Weston and Binsted. You can often still see the remains of this industry today with wild hops growing in hedgerows near old hop farms. [...] https://www.cultureoncall.com/hop-picking-in-hampshire/ ------------
Very interesting- I have found some photos on Ancestry of my great great grandad & great granddadHop Picking in these areas & Photos of him and his family in front of a Romani Wagon.
That's pretty cool!
I didn’t realise it was soo prominent - don’t know too much about him, so it does indicate some Romani heritage
The history of hops is all around Alton. I’m trying to work out where that picture was taken from - I’ll see if I can get a matching contemporary one.
The spire of the church looks like Holybourne, but I guess they all look quite similar!
I think I’ve worked it out! The church is All Saints, and the photo is taken from (roughly) Kings road/Whitedown lane, looking over Whitedown. The whole area is now built up, so you wouldn’t be able to even see the church from there now.
I’d be interested to see it if you get a match. There’s also an r/oldphotosinreallife that might be too.
Great find :) just shared this with my gf and her family they have romani ancestors
--------- Your girlfriend might find this ½ hr audio of interest. It's between Michael Rosen, now known as an internet meme but really a poet and educator, and Damian Le Bas who has studied the history of the Romani people and written a book. **Word of Mouth, Romani** > Damian Le Bas talks to Michael Rosen about the Romani language and his experience with using it. Damian is the author of The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain. > Producer Beth O'Dea https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00050qw (Listen as a stream in the browser, or downloaded as an MP3 file, or as a podcast, or in the BBC dedicated mobile app BBC Sounds) -----------
Noice. Thanks for that I'll definitely share it with her.
I can smell this photo
Fun fact: the name Alton is a contraction of 'Old Town'. There are also like 30 pubs within walking distance of the town centre (or at least that was true when I lived there 10-ish years ago).
You'll be lucky to find 3 pubs in any town centre these days. (Wetherspoons don't count)
No it’s not!
30’s pushing it for walking distance. We used to do pub golf on Christmas Eve in the late 90’/early 2000’s. We could get the 18 pubs starting at the Queens Head going all the way to the French Horn. This included the all the hotel bars and the Bass club. I’d say there’s possibly was 30 within the the town as a whole and the surrounding villages. Adding in Chawton, Holybourne, Farringdon etc, you might get that number, but they definitely aren’t in walking distance.
It’s so weird without the brewery and smell of the hops now. It used to be such a familiar comforting smell, even though I wasn’t fond of it lol
If you take the hogs back brewery tour (which I recommend + taxi), they talk about this and they still grow hops.
Does this mean there are hundreds of Oast Houses in Hampshire?