The Railway Navvies

by Terry Coleman

  Selected Bibliography

  EARLY RAILWAY HISTORIES, MANUALS,

  BIOGRAPHIES ETC.

  An Account of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, by Henry Booth, Wales and Baines, Liverpool, 1830.

  An Accurate Description of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, by James Scott Walker, Liverpool, 1830.

  The History of the Railway Connecting London and Birmingham, by Peter Lecount, London, 1839.

  The London and Birmingham Railway, by Thomas Roscoe, London, 1839. (Based on Lecount, but inferior.)

  Drawings of the London and Birmingham Railway, by J. C. Bourne, Ackermann, London, 1839.

  The History and Description of the Great Western Railway, by J. C. Bourne, David Bogue, London, 1846.

  Railway Practice, by S. C. Brees, John Williams, London, in five volumes 1837–47.

  A Practical Treatise on Railways, by Peter Lecount, A. & C. Black, Edinburgh, 1839.

  Ensamples of Railway Making, by John Weale, London, 1843.

  A History of the English Railway, by John Francis, London, 1851.

  Our Iron Roads, by F. S. Williams, Ingram Cooke, London, 1852, and other editions of 1883 and 1888.

  The Life of George Stephenson, by Samuel Smiles, John Murray, London, 1857.

  The Navvies (a novel), by Henrietta Louisa Farrer, W. J. Cleaver, London, 1847.

  The War, by W. H. Russell, London, 1855.

  The Midland Railway, by F. S. Williams, Strahan, London, 1876.

  The Life of C. B. Vignoles, by O. J. Vignoles, Longmans, London, 1889.

  The Life and Work of Joseph Firbank, by Frederick McDermott, Longmans, London, 1887.

  The Life of Joseph Locke, by Joseph Devey, Richard Bentley, London, 1862.

  The Life and Labours of Mr Brassey, by Arthur Helps, London, 1872.

  Work and Wages, by Thomas (later Earl) Brassey, Bell and Daldy, London, 1872, and other editions up to 1916.

  Sir Morton Peto, a memorial sketch, by Sir Henry Peto, privately printed, 1893.

  A Song of Labour and other Poems, by Alexander Anderson, Dundee, 1873.

  Songs of the Rail, by Alexander Anderson, Simpkin Marshall, London, 1878.

  Gleanings from a Navvy’s Scrapbook, by Patrick MacGill, Derry Journal, 1910.

  Songs of a Navvy, by Patrick MacGill, published by himself, printed by the Derry Journal, 1912.

  Children of the Dead End, the autobiography of a navvy, by Patrick MacGill, Herbert Jenkins, London, 1914.

  Winchmore Hill, Memories of a Lost Village, by Henrietta Cresswell, Standard office, Dumfries, 1912.

  The Men Who Built Railways, by F.R. Conder, 1868. Reprinted 1983, ed. Jack Simmons

  EVANGELICAL WORKS

  Little Rainbow, a Story of Navvy Life, by Elizabeth Garnett, London, 1877.

  Our Navvies, by Elizabeth Garnett, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1885.

  Quarterly Letter to Navvies, published by the Navvy Mission Society from 1878.

  Labour Among the Navvies, by Thomas Fayers, printed in Kendal, 1862.

  Life and Work Among the Navvies, by the Rev. D. W. Barrett, Wells and Gardner, London, 1880.

  WORKS ABOUT WOODHEAD

  Papers Read Before the Statistical Society of Manchester on the Demoralization and Injuries occasioned by the want of proper regulations of labourers engaged in the construction and working of railways, Manchester, 1846.

  Strictures on a Pamphlet published at the request of the Manchester Statistical Society, by Thomas Nicholson, J. Gadsby, Manchester, 1846.

  Report from the Select Committee on Railway Labourers, printed by order of the House of Commons of 28 July 1846, Reports, Committees (9) 1846, 13.

  The History of Penistone, by John Dransfield, Penistone, 1906.

  ‘Edwin Chadwick and the Railway Labourers’, by R. A. Lewis, Economic History Review, second series, Vol. III, No. 1, 1950.

  MODERN WORKS

  The History of the First Public Railway (the Stockton and Darlington) editor M. Heavisides, Stockton-on-Tees, 1912.

  The History of the Great Western Railway, by E. T. MacDermot, G.W.R., London, 1927.

  The Struggle for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, by George S. Veitch, Liverpool, 1930.

  The Story of the Settle – Carlisle Line, by F. W. Houghton and W. H. Foster, Norman Arch Publications, Bradford, 1948.

  Letters from the Crimea, by Sir Henry Clifford, Michael Joseph, London, 1956.

  The Last Main Line, editor R. D. Abbott, Leicester Museums, 1960.

  The Railway Age, by Michael Robbins, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1962. (Chapter 7, on the impact of railways on the landscape, is most valuable.)

  The Making of the English Landscape, by W. G. Hoskins, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1955. (Chapter 8 is on railways.)

  The Master Builders, by R. K. Middlemas, Hutchinson, London, 1963. (The section on Brassey is particularly informative.)

  Navvyman, by Dick Sullivan, 1983. (Sullivan’s father became a navvy in 1903. Well researched and often eloquent.)

  The Railway Navvy, by David Brooke, 1983. (Makes good use of census returns 1841-71. See also his paper “The Railway Navvy – a reassessment” in “Construction History, Vol. 5, 1989.)

  The Making of a Railway (the Great Central) by L.T.C. Rolt, 1971.

  The Railway Builders: Lives and Works of the Victorian Railway Contractors, by R.S. Joby, 1983.

  Acknowledgements

  I should like to thank many people for their help, particularly the staff of the British Museum newspaper library at Colindale and of the Reading Room at Bloomsbury, both, alas, now gone, the librarians of the Guardian in Manchester and London, the archivist of the British Railways Board, and the staff of Manchester Central Library, Liverpool reference libraries, Poole Library, Leicester Museums, and the Science Museum, Kensington. Also Miss Ruth Peto for lending me the privately published memoir of her grandfather; the Rev. R. S. Roch for showing me the Woodhead registers; Mr L. T. C. Rolt for correcting some errors; Mr R. K. Middlemass for his advice; Mr Donall MacAmhlaigh for introducing me to Patrick MacGill; and the reporters, long dead, of the Manchester Guardian, the Railway Times, the Poole and Dorsetshire Herald, and many other newspapers, whose reports have given me much of my best material. The quotations from Sir Henry Clifford’s Letters from the Crimea are made by kind permission of Michael Joseph Ltd, that from Grace Before Ploughing by permission of the Society of Authors and the late John Masefield, O.M., and those from Edwin Chadwick and the Railway by R. A. Lewis by permission of the editors of the Economic Labourers History Review. Last (and most) I thank my first wife Lesley for careful reading and tactful editing, and for making the index.

  Index

  The numbers given in italic at the end of some entries refer to illustrations, which are listed on pages 8–9.

  Abruzzi, The, 252

  Accidents, in Pennines, 19–20, 38–9, 83–94 passim; at Woodhead, 146–7, 147–8, 151–2; inducing Christianity, 211; reported in Quarterly Letter to Navvies, 212; at Winchmore Hill, 240–1; on the Paris to Rouen, 246–7; on the London extension, 282

  Acland, Sir Thomas, M.P., 124

  Aged Navvies Pension Fund, 88

  Agents, 63, 66, 245

  Ainsworth, Sarah (wife of Peto), 207

  Albert, Prince, 25

  Aliases, reasons for, 179; drawbacks, 183 (see also Nicknames)

  Amiens and Boulogne, The, 250

  Anderson, Alexander (navvy poet), 187-91; 188

  Army, British, in Crimea, 253–64 passim

  Ashton-under-Lyne, collapse of viaduct, 88–9

  Ashwell, William (contractor), 269

  Australia, 273, 284

  Austria, 251

  Austria, Emperor of, 93

  Ayr Observer, The, 189

  Bailey, Benjamin (contractor), 73, 107

  Baird, John (Deputy Clerk of the Peace for Dumfriesshire), 113

  Balaclava, 253–63

  Bamford, George (curate), 206

  Banks, Sir Edward (navvy
and engineer), 67

  Baptism Register, 206–7

  Barentin, 250–1

  Barnsley, 220

  Barrett, The Rev. D. W. (railway chaplain), 28, 92; his description of an encampment, 100–4, 221

  Barrow runs, 52–5

  Basingstoke, 40, 48

  Basingstoke to Salisbury, 109

  Bathampton, 122

  Batty Green, 268–9

  Batty Wyf Hole, 269–71

  Beattie (chief engineer of Crimea Railway), 255–6, 258–9

  Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions, 126

  Beds, 121, 138

  Beef-on-the-hoof, 268–9

  Beggs, Thomas (scripture reader), 103, 170

  Beginning of a new line, Dickens’ description, 43–5; Henrietta Cresswell’s description, 239–41

  Belgians, as navvies, 243, 245

  Belsize Tunnel, 59

  Benley (sub-contractor), 74–6

  Betts, Edward (Peto’s partner and brother-in-law), 131; in Crimea, 253–64 passim

  Bibles, 36, 150, 204, 205, 207

  Bigamy, 231–2

  Bilbao and Tudela, The, 78

  Bill for the new London extension of the M.S. & L.R., 275

  Black Friday, 80

  Blasting, at Round Down Cliff, 55–6; in tunnels, 84; at Woodhead, 141, 147; 251; 273

  Bodies, exhumed during excavations, 199–200

  Bog Carts, 265

  Bogs, Chat Moss, 49; on Settle and Carlisle, 265, 269

  Books, 219

  Booth, Henry (treasurer of Liverpool and Manchester Railway), 22, 57

  Botany Bay, 168

  Boulder clay, 265

  Box Tunnel, 40, 136

  Boys, 38, 87, 95, 133, 143

  Brassey, Thomas (contractor), 20, 71, 57–8; kindness to his men, 70–1; 77–9 passim; on the Paris to Rouen, 242–51; in Canada, 252; in the Crimea, 253–64 passim; 265; 71

  Brassey, Thomas, Junior (Earl), 80, 247, 273; 80

  Breakey, William (chaplain), 205

  Bridgebuilders (a monastic order). 285

  Bridges, 61, 250

  Bristol, 40

  Brockenhurst, 50

  Brunel, Isambard Kingdom (engineer), 20; at Box, 30; 40, 47; comments on casualties on Great Western, 86; opposition to truck, 174; at Mickleton Tunnel, 131– 3; opposition to employer’s liability, 175, 265

  Buenos Aires, 274

  Burgoyne, General Sir John (engineer commander in Crimea), 261

  Burial register, 29, 151

  Burning of huts, 121

  Bury, 25

  Butty gangs, 64, 249

  Caen to Cherbourg, The, 251

  Camden, 43–5; 8, 18, 44, 47

  Canada, 42, 62; pay and hardships on the Grand Trunk, 76, 252–3; 283

  Canadians, French, as navvies, 252

  Canals, 40, 67

  Carlisle Patriot, The, 111, 115

  Carlyle, Thomas, 27

  Chadwick, Edwin (barrister and social reformer), on truck, 106, 108; report of casualties at Woodhead, 147; reform efforts, 163– 94; 164

  Chaplains to navvies, 202–6

  Chartism, 25, 36, 170

  Chat Moss, 49, 50; 50

  Chester, 201

  Chester to Holyhead, The, singing on works, 186; solicitude for men, 202, 205

  Chicago Tribune, The, 190

  Children, brat cage, 101; at Woodhead, 145–6; deaths of, 151; 154; illegitimate, 206–7; school books for, 207; 217, 220, 227–31 passim; 234

  Children of the Dead End, the Autobiography of a Navvy, 194

  China, Wall of (compared with railway works), 42

  Cholera, at Woodhead, 158–61; in Canada, 253; in Crimea, 253

  Christchurch, 220

  Christian Excavators’ Union, 210, 211, 284

  Christian News, The, 208

  Christmas message, 221

  Civil Engineer Corps, 255

  Claustrophobia, 140

  Clay, on the Settle and Carlisle, 265–6

  Clergy, at Woodhead, 149–52; 154; nickname for, 181; attitude to the navvy, 197–222 passim; as landowner, 223

  Clifford, Captain Henry (Crimea), 259

  Clifton, suspension bridge, 40

  Cock of the camp, 269

  Coffins, 160

  Committee, Commons, to inquire into condition of railway labourers, 19–20, 23, 31; Purdon’s evidence, 147–8; members, 173; evidence given, 173–5; recommendations, 176–7

  Compensation for injuries, lack of, at Woodhead, 148; Chadwick’s proposals, 166; French style, 174; recommendations of Commons committee, 176–7; in France, 245–7

  Compensation for land, 198, 224

  Confirmation, 211

  Constables, 24, 123; Act for payment of, 166; powers for creation of, 176

  Contractors, as special constables, 26; 28, 30, 39; their work defined, 63–82; contributions for keeping injured men, 88; arranging funeral, 93; profits from truck, 106–10 passim, 116; 120; refusal to pay weekly, 124, 131; at Woodhead, 144; 165, 166, 167; their recklessness, 170; 172, 176, 204; dislike of missionaries, 206; liability for compensation on Paris–Rouen, 246, 251; saviours of army in Crimea, 253–64

  Convicts, 168

  Corn Laws, 170

  Cost of living, 77-8; at Woodhead, 144

  Cox, William P. (scripture reader), 283

  Cresswell, Henrietta (diarist), 238– 241

  Cricket, 219

  Crimea, 79, 253–64; 260

  Croatians, 262

  Crossley (engineer on Settle and Carlisle), 266

  Croydon and Epsom, The, 37, 205

  Crystal Palace, 30; 30, 31

  Cubitt, William (engineer on South Eastern Railway), 55

  Cuttings, 40; at Camden Hill, 43–5; making a, 46–9; 85

  Daily News, The, 269

  Danes, as navvies, 252

  Deaths, causes of, 83–94; 125, 127; at Woodhead, 146–54; from cholera, 158–60; of convicts, 168; listed in Quarterly Letter, 212; of navvy woman, 228; at Winchmore Hill, 240; between Settle and Dent Head, 272; 279, 282

  Death sentence, 122

  Debate, House of Commons, 171–3

  Defences, around Paris, 248–9

  Demolition, of slums, 277

  Destitution, 32–4; relief of, 184–5

  Devey, Joseph (writer), 141, 150

  Dickens, Charles, 43–5

  Divorce, 231

  Doctors, appointment of, in France, 246; for navvies in Crimea, 257

  Dolly Tub, 180

  Dombey and Son, 43–5

  Dress, 30, 122, 239; in France, 244; in Canada, 252–3; in Crimea, 288; 271

  Drink, 35, 79, 92, 97; amounts consumed, 103–4; 113, 117, 119; results of, 124–7 passim; home made, 156; tickets for, 144–5; 218, 227, 244

  Drunkenness, at work, 31–2; 156; at Woodhead, 159; 180; cure for, 214; deplored by Mrs Garnett, 214; 222; in Rouen, 250; 271

  Dunford Bridge, 137, 139, 155

  Eaton, Thomas (navvy), 19–20, 65, 174

  Earthworks, 40–62; around Paris, 248

  East Lancashire Railway, 74

  Ebrington, Viscount, M.P. (member of Committee of Inquiry), 36, 172, 173

  Eccup, 32, 38, 236

  Edinburgh and Glasgow, 25

  Edinburgh to Hawick, 116

  Education, of navvies and children by Peto, 207

  Ely, 123, 207

  Ely to Peterborough, 207

  Embanking, 50–1

  Emigration, 274

  Engineers, 20, 35, 39; nature of their work, 46–8, 63; the great triumvirate, 137; Purdon on, 147–8; 238; English, abroad, 251; 270

  Engines, stationary, 47, 255

  English, as navvies, 25–7, 31, 112, 270; compared with foreigners, 242–51; compared with the French, 281–2

  Ensamples of Railway Making, 61

  Entertainments, 219–20

  Equipment, for Crimea, 258

  Euston, 47

  Excavator, mechanical, rare use of, 62; in Canada, 253; on the Great Central, 265, 277; 284


  Expenditure, authorized, on railways, 174

  Factory Acts, 163

  Failure, of contractors, 72–4

  Falgate, William (navvy), 279

  Farrer, Henrietta Louisa (novelist), 237–41

  Fayers, Thomas (preacher), 209–9, 226, 258

  Feasts, annual in Northamptonshire, 125; at completion of Woodhead, 156; on the Paris to Rouen, 248

  Fighting, 111–135 passim; at Woodhead, 145; in the Crimea, 256; at Batty Green, 269

  Firbank, Joseph (contractor), 62; his history, 68–9; 62, 103

  Flogging, 261; in army, 263

  Food, how cooked in a shanty, 97–8; amounts of, 103; in truck shops, 106–9; from poaching, 155; prices of, at Woodhead, 144–5, 220–1; in winter, 248–9, 248–9; French and English diet compared, 243–5; at completion of Paris to Rouen, 248; Neapolitan diet, 252; at Batty Green (on Settle and Carlisle), 269; at Jericho (on Settle and Carlisle), 271

  Fox (engineer and lay preacher), 201

  France, liability of employers for accidents, 169; English navvies in, 242–51

  Francis, John (railway historian), 35

  Frenchmen, as navvies, 242–51, 281

  Frostbite, 253

  Funerals, 38; at Ashton, 91; 92, 93; at Woodhead, 151–53; 212, 279, 281

  Fuses, 19, 148

  Fushie Bridge, 118, 120

  Gangers, 25, 28; selling drink, 32, 106; 64; how employed, 64–6; 92, 116; maintaining Woodhead, 161; 220; reputation in France, 244; 251, 270, 278–9

  Gangs, 95

  Garnett, Mrs Elizabeth (missionary), founder of Christian Excavators’ Union, 209–12; work on the Quarterly Letter to Navvies, 209–22; 229–36 passim, 224, 278; 213