Hops have been grown in Kent for nearly 500 years and are associated with good luck and prosperity.
The proliferation of Hop culture from Flanders began only a few miles from Essentially Hops, in the village of Westbere near Canterbury in 1520. This successful planting was preceded by nearly 100 years of fierce resistance to hopped beer and hop production.
During the reign of Henry Vl, hop production and the use there of were forbidden, written evidence hints at the scorn leveled at the hop:
In 1426 information was laid against a person at Maidstone in Kent for 'putting into beer an unwholesome weed called a hoppe'.
Hops in beer were banned in Norwich in 1471 and Shrewsbury in 1519, hops were even blamed for inciting the rabble of Jack Cade's rebellion in 1450.
Like all good things sense prevailed and thanks to the expertise of the Flemish and the Yeoman of Kent, fine beers and the glory of the hops themselves can be enjoyed today.