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Notes added from Chris Haynes
Navvies and their families would travel long distances to find work, often tramping on foot. They lived and worked in terrible conditions, often for years at a time. While some would take lodgings in the area, many lived in rough timber or turf huts alongside the bridges, tunnels and cuttings that they built. Despite this they achieved amazing feats of engineering using little more than gunpowder, picks and shovels.
Around 900 navvies were used to build the Severn Valley Railway. <ref group="note">[[Bibliography#Books|Nabarro (1971)]] gives around 900. Chris Haynes' research gives around 976 persons on the 1861 census, at a date most of the earthworks had finished. It is therefore likely a higher number were employed for probably the two years of 1859 and 1860</ref> They were mostly recruited from those who had previously worked on the [[Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway|Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton]] and Worcester and Hereford Railways, although [[Henry Orlando Bridgeman]] made a special visit to Liverpool in May 1959 to enlarge the labour force<ref>[[Bibliography#Books|Nabarro (1971)]] p. 34.</ref><ref group="note">Nabarro reports Bridgeman made a special visit to Liverpool in May 1959 to enlarge the labour force. Bridgeman was, however, employed by [[John Fowler]] working for the [[The Severn Valley Railway Company (19th Century)|SVR Company]] and [[Peto, Brassey and Betts|Thomas Brassey]] was responsible for recruiting workers. Bridgman may have met the contractors in Liverpool to discuss progress on recruitment.</ref>
==1861 Census==