Basket, potato

The hopper is a basket used to put potatoes into a sack when they have been lifted from the soil. It is a circular funnel-shaped basket with an open bottom. The hopper was put into the mouth of the sack and potatoes were thrown into the hopper. This basket, made of brown and white willow, comes from Saint Ives, Cambridgeshire. Other names for the hopper include ‘dolly’ in Cambridgeshire, ‘nancy’ a…