This scene may show the farmer's own family picking hops on their smallholding, rather than the seasonal workers usually depicted in paintings of later periods. Mid 18th century. NB - A near-copy of the original held by the Yale Center for British Art.

Hop-picking in the days before health and safety legislation... 1790s.

A romanticised view of a hop picking family, looking like they are getting ready for a Sunday outing rather than a day's hard work. Mid 19th century?

Manchester Art Gallery description: "A hop picking scene, looking down a steep hillside and across the valley below, which trails off into the distance. In the foreground, on the slope of the hill, men and women pick hops, overseen by a man on a black horse to the right. There is a small cottage to the left amongst the unpicked hop bushes, with a copse of shadowy trees behind it. More hop pickers are working lower down the hill, in the background to right. There is a dramatic clouded sky overhead."

A romanticised view of a large family of hop pickers working in a hop garden, with different generations undertaking the various tasks involved: taking down the poles, stripping the bines and plucking the cones into the bin before the next visit by the tally-man.

A bucolic scene purporting to show life in the hop garden, although the harvest-ready bines on the poles and a distant oasthouse seem more realistic.

Hop picking appears to be underway in the garden (probably belonging to the former College of All Saints) shown in the lower left quarter of this view across the River Medway. Mid 19th century?

A continental hop-picking scene, with the cones being plucked from the bines indoors rather than out in the hop garden as done for centuries in England until invention of the hop picking machine. Later 19th century?

Hop picking underway at Alexandra Park on the northern outskirts of Hastings, mostly by women wearing a variety of bonnets and hats, with a couple of men taking down poles in the background and a tally-man standing by the bin ready to measure the harvest.

From Tate description: "The Hop-Gardens of England is a large canvas, painted during the summer and autumn of 1874 on location in Wrotham in Kent, where the artist used a barn as a studio. It shows a rolling landscape with rows of burgeoning hops dwarfing a pilgrim-like figure in the foreground. A plough sits on a hill in the foreground, while oast houses and other farm buildings are detailed in the background." Image available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lawson-the-hop-gardens-of-england-t13443

The reality of a day's hard work in the hop garden is shown here, unlike the mostly romanticised views of this period.

A romanticised view of hop pickers taking a midday meal in a small hop garden, with the bines being stripped from the poles ready for plucking of the cones into the bin or crib (with the name depending on region), prior to being taken to the oast for drying.

This appears to be a post-harvest scene in the days when hops were still grown up individual small poles which were then taken down over the winter before being re-erected in the following spring (rather than growing up strings supported by permanent wirework and larger poles). Late 19th century?

An unusual view of the internal workings of an oasthouse, with the workmen bagging dried hops into hessian sacks (a practice soon to be replaced by hop presses used to compress the contents into longer 'pockets' for ease of transport and storage).

Most hop pickers would have stayed in tents or rough shacks for a few weeks each September, but these itinerant workers have their own mobile accommodation and no doubt a few more home comforts.

A dramatic study of oasthouse cowls under repair.

A timeless sketch, with just a few simple lines immediately conveying 'oasthouses' to the viewer.

This doesn't look like a Yorkshire scene, and is thus highly unusual since hops were very rarely grown this far north (although there was a small hop cooperative in Brough for a few years). Early 20th century?

A typical Kentish scene, probably in the High Weald, in which at least one oasthouse can be seen in the distance. Early 20th century?

A curious piece of railway company artwork, with the couple's attention divided between train and oasthouse? Early 20th century?

Apart from the bines growing up strings supported by wirework rather than individual poles, this hop-picking scene otherwise looks little changed from the 19th-century farming practice. Earlier 20th century?

In a modern style, yet fully reflective of the more romanticised scenes of hop picking prevalent for decades, with a oasthouse visible beyond the hop garden.

It is not clear in this scene whether the hops are grown using traditional poles or the newer method of strings supported by wirework, and these hop pickers are still plucking cones from bines and filling old-fashioned baskets before being transferred to larger bins for measurement purposes. 1930s?

A timeless scene, with a mother plucking hop cones into baskets and a baby pulling leaves from the remaining bines. 1930s?

Although the wirework cannot be seen, these hop pickers are plucking cones from bines on a string that is still partly hung from the trellis and filling pokes (jute bags) to be taken to the oast.

These hop pickers are plucking cones into baskets for measuring from cut bines piled up behind them, with filled pokes in the background ready to be taken to the oast.

A characterful study, reflecting the era of multi-generational families going 'hopping' every September as a working holiday to earn some much-needed extra money.

With the era of large family groups going hop picking every September almost over, this scene appears to show regular farm workers stripping bines from the strings and plucking the cones into pokes for transport to the oasthouse.

Wistfulness? Melancholy? This post-war scene reflects the ending of the era of large family groups going hop picking every September.

This scene looks very traditional, with large family groups plucking cones into bins for measurements before being transferred to pokes for transport to the oasthouse. The first bines also appear to be still grown up individual poles but the hop garden in the background looks more modern with permanent poles and wirework?

An unidentified converted oasthouse, probably somewhere on or close to the River Adur floodplain, with two roundels missing their white cowls. Mid 20th century?

A scene showing the geometry of a hop garden part-way through the growing season, before the wirework and strings supporting the bines become fully hidden by vegetation.

A hop garden in the rolling Kent countryside shown part-way through the growing season, before the wirework and strings supporting the bines become fully hidden by vegetation.

A typically idealised view of Kent as the 'Garden of England' used for railway company publicity artwork.

An oasthouse with two square kilns in the village of Tarrington, located halfway between Hereford and Ledbury, shown before conversion to residential use.

From the Royal Academy of Music description: "This picture shows two red oast houses on the left, with distinctive roofs. In the foreground, a single workman dressed in blue is shown in profile, holding a tool and bent over a pile of unidentified material, perhaps wood or metal." Mid 20th century (pre-1968)?

Although the hop garden in the background could have been painted in the early 20th century, these workers on a trailer are loading cut bines onto the conveyor leading into the shed housing a modern hop picking machine, and a tractor is in use to collect the next load.

Apart from the bines growing up strings supported by wirework rather than individual poles, this traditional hop-picking scene otherwise looks little changed from the 19th-century farming practice.

A stylised view of an oasthouse and other buildings in a small farmstead in the rolling Kent countryside, no doubt all converted to residential use today...

A rather bleak view of an unconverted three-roundel oast, set (as was often the case) beside a pond or stream to provide a ready source of water in case of a conflagration in one of the kilns... Later 20th century?

A classic Kent landscape, with the white specks of two cowls on a distant oasthouse immediately obvious despite their modest size (and to the right of the trees, another three-kiln oast can just be seen in the far distance).

A stylised hop kiln and hop yard (the West Midlands terms for oasthouse and hop garden), shown on one of 17 panels in the Bromyard Centre depicting the history of the area.