Now seven and thirty strangers,

A-hopping they had been.

They were employed by Mr.Cox’s,

That’s near old Golden Green

Twas in the parish of Hadlow,

That’s nearly Tonbridge town

That’s where they laid all those poor souls,

After they were drowned

So begins the song The Hartlake Bridge Tragedy, the writer of which we shall never know but most surely witnessed this gross negligence which would forever be written into English folk history.

On October 20th 1853, a wagon carrying thirty hop pickers crossed a dilapidated wood bridge near Hadlow and Golden Green in Kent, England. They all fell to their death in the flooded River Medway, among the men were women and children including a two year old girl whose name remains unknown. The oldest to perish was fifty-nine.

Many of them were travellers of Romany and Irish descent and all returning from a days work amongst the hops . The bridge was known to be defective and weak and whilst eleven scrambled to safety, the rest, falling through the rotting railings died in the swollen river.

Now some were men and women,

And others girls and boys.

They kept in contract with the bridge,

But the horses they took fright

They kept in contact with the bridge,

But the horses they took shy.

You should’ve heard the screams of all those poor souls,

As they were going down.

A subsequent inquest found those responsible for the upkeep of the bridge , the Medway Navigation Company neglected their duties whilst a verdict of accidental death was recorded. A memorial fund raised by the locals was ignored by the MNC, the final insult and reminder of how the working class and most especially those from the travelling community were viewed by the elite.

The bodies were buried in a mass grave at St Mary’s Church in Hadlow. The memorial from the locals was a stone shaped like an oast kiln-a building used for drying hops and erected in December 1853.

Now some were men and women

And others girls and boys.

They were employed by Mr. Cox’s,

That’s near old Golden Green.

Twas in the Parish of Hadlow,

That’s near old Tonbridge town.

That’s where they laid all those poor souls,

After they were drowned.

One hundred and sixty years later in 2013 with the names on the memorial fading, a new memorial plaque was unveiled by theRomany and Traveller Family History Society, which listed all of the names of the deceased.

I first heard about this tragedy via the words of the song above, a beautiful old folk song recorded for posterity in the finest Bardic tradition and a sad reminder of the importance of folk music in any country’s history to keep alive the memories of those whose names would otherwise be so easily forgotten.