Stock Photo - Apr. 04, 1968 - Hop Stringing Competition: Hop stringers, the name given to men and women who every year weave the vast 'spider's web' of cord yarn-some 300,000 miles of it-on which will grow the hops required to flavour the nine thousand million-odd pints of beer Britons can be expected to drink next year, had their ownh competition in Kent today-the Weald of Kenht Ploughing Match Association's annual hop-stringling competiotion-held at Pattenden Farm, Marden, Kent. The stringers carry the yarn in basket's slung over their shoulders, and by means of poles, ten feet or more long and tipped with iron tubing through which the cord runs, thread it from pegs in the ground to hooks set on wires 15 1/2 feet above the gardens. The result is that from each site of a growing hop plant, called 'a hill' arises a pattern of string resembling the spokes of an umbrella- the name given to type of stringing most frequently met with in the South East. The strinhgers, who in the competition have to 'string a cant of about 200 hills', are followed by assistants-usually women-who act as 'banders-in' and tie each group of four vertical strings together about five feet from the ground. Photo shows Husband and wife team seen in action during the competition today. Mrs. Weeks is seen 'banding' the strings while her husband, Mr. R. Weeks is hard at it 'stringing'. Mr. and Mrs. Weeks were the first to finish in the competition. (Credit Image: © Keystone Press Agency/Keystone USA via ZUMAPRESS.com)