Object number
52/105/1-2
Description
These two wooden tally sticks were used in the hop fields of Herefordshire. One is a tally man's stick (belonging to the supervisor) and the shorter stick is a picker's tally. The name (of the picker) written on the back of this tally man's stick is 'Mrs Turbell', and the stick has 37 notches. The picker's tally has only 28 notches, however, so these two tally sticks are not a set.
Physical description
hop tally: wood
Archival history
MERL 'Catalogue index' card – ‘… // DATE ACQUIRED: // GROUP: // NEGATIVE: // PERIOD: // PLACE OF ORIGIN: // NUMBER: // DESCRIPTION: …‘ In the hop fields of Kent, Sussex and Hampshire, small metal tokens were given to the pickers as they brought each basketful of hops to the hop pocket. Payment was then made to each picker at the end of the week according to the number of metal tokens he possessed. In Hereford on the other hand, metal tokens were not quite so common but each picker or family of pickers had a tally stick on which the number of basketfuls they picked were recorded. The tally man or foreman who supervised the filling of the pockets had a larger stick on which the name of the picker was written. When a basket of hops was brought to the pocket it was measured and emptied. The tally man placed the picker's tally against his own, and with his knife he cut a notch in both of them. At the end of the week the number of notches were added up and payment made accordingly. //
Production date
1896 - 1896
Object name
Material
Associated subject
