before the days of mechanised farming, hop picking was a labour-intensive process, requiring a vastly greater number of people than were available locally. whole families (including children who could have been at school) from london, particularly the south-east and east of london, would leave their homes and spend their time working in the wealden hop-fields of kent, sussex, surrey and hampshire. by the 1870s, the south eastern railway and the london chatham and dover railway were running "hop pickers' specials" to transport londoners to the towns and villages at the start of the season. similar trains were run to serve the pickers in herefordshire and worcestershire. an estimated 250,000 hop pickers from london were travelling to kent by the early twentieth century . in hampshire, some workers came from the portsmouth, southampton and salisbury areas. hopper huts were also provided in herefordshire and worcestershire. workers in these two counties would come from the black country or south wales. the miners from south wales remained at home and carried on working at their pits. accommodation in the early victorian period would be in barns, stables, cattle sheds, pigsties, tents or the roof space of buildings. this led to problems with hygiene and therefore health. an outbreak of cholera killed 43 hop-pickers at east farleigh in september 1849.