The Railway Navvy - `The Despicable Race of Men'

An object of contempt and even hatred for his riots and `randies', the railway navvy nevertheless accomplished an extraordinary feat in constructing over 20 000 miles of line in the 19th century. Only during the final years of that period was his position as `King of Labourers' threatened by the mechanisation of railway contracting. Until then the navvy was regarded almost as a social outcast, although the extent of disorders had perhaps been exaggerated; nonetheless his drunken brawling on pay day and notorious immorality caused him to be regarded with fear - when the 4000-odd men who laboured on the tunnel at Box departed, the villagers are said to have rejoiced. This book examines in greater detail than attempted before the geographical origins of the navvies of Britain and the wide variety of skills required in their work. Many of the early navvies were agricultural labourers who abandoned railway construction works at harvest time. The book also shows how men were killed and injured through the indifference to safe work practices of their employers...