Difference between revisions of "Railway Navvies of the SVR"

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*1859 "LABOURERS STRIKING.-A short distance from [[Sandbourne Viaduct | Sambourne]], upon the Severn Valley Railway line, there is a deep and lung cutting of sandstone, which the men have great difficulty in getting on with. On Tuesday last, their master, a sub-contractor, informed them that he should require them to fill 15 trucks per day instead of 14, their usual number; but they immediately left, taking with them their tools, and have gone in quest of employment elsewhere."<ref>Worcestershire Chronicle - Wednesday 26 January 1859 [https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000350/18590126/038/0004]</ref>
 
*1859 "LABOURERS STRIKING.-A short distance from [[Sandbourne Viaduct | Sambourne]], upon the Severn Valley Railway line, there is a deep and lung cutting of sandstone, which the men have great difficulty in getting on with. On Tuesday last, their master, a sub-contractor, informed them that he should require them to fill 15 trucks per day instead of 14, their usual number; but they immediately left, taking with them their tools, and have gone in quest of employment elsewhere."<ref>Worcestershire Chronicle - Wednesday 26 January 1859 [https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000350/18590126/038/0004]</ref>
  
*1859 "FALL OF EARTH.-William Bennet, a labourer working on the Severn Valley Railway, near Sambourne, was on Saturday severely injured by a fall of earth. He is going on favourably under the care of Dr. Montgomery."<ref>[https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000350/18590202/025/0003 Worcestershire Chronicle - Wednesday 02 February 1859]</ref>
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*1859 "FALL OF EARTH.-William Bennet, a labourer working on the Severn Valley Railway, near [[Sandbourne Viaduct | Sambourne]], was on Saturday severely injured by a fall of earth. He is going on favourably under the care of Dr. Montgomery."<ref>[https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000350/18590202/025/0003 Worcestershire Chronicle - Wednesday 02 February 1859]</ref>
  
 
*1859 "A RAILWAY DEFAULTER.—On Friday last, one of the gangers named David Deer, employed upon the Severn Valley Railway, at Upper Areley, absconded, taking with him the whole of the wages due to about twelve or fifteen of the men for a fortnight's labour, leaving the poor fellows and their families completely destitute."<ref>[https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000150/18590716/031/0008 Worcester Journal - Saturday 16 July 1859]</ref>
 
*1859 "A RAILWAY DEFAULTER.—On Friday last, one of the gangers named David Deer, employed upon the Severn Valley Railway, at Upper Areley, absconded, taking with him the whole of the wages due to about twelve or fifteen of the men for a fortnight's labour, leaving the poor fellows and their families completely destitute."<ref>[https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000150/18590716/031/0008 Worcester Journal - Saturday 16 July 1859]</ref>

Revision as of 14:05, 13 October 2019

The canals of Britain were known as Inland Navigations and the labourers and tradesmen who built them became known as 'Navvies'. As canal building turned to railway building in the 19th century, the name stuck and the Railway Navvies, and their exploits, became almost part of British folklore.
Very little evidence remains of the hundreds of men who would have been employed in building the Severn Valley Railway, other than newspaper reports, which unfortunately focus almost entirely on either accidents or court appearances.

  • 1859 "LABOURERS STRIKING.-A short distance from Sambourne, upon the Severn Valley Railway line, there is a deep and lung cutting of sandstone, which the men have great difficulty in getting on with. On Tuesday last, their master, a sub-contractor, informed them that he should require them to fill 15 trucks per day instead of 14, their usual number; but they immediately left, taking with them their tools, and have gone in quest of employment elsewhere."[1]
  • 1859 "FALL OF EARTH.-William Bennet, a labourer working on the Severn Valley Railway, near Sambourne, was on Saturday severely injured by a fall of earth. He is going on favourably under the care of Dr. Montgomery."[2]
  • 1859 "A RAILWAY DEFAULTER.—On Friday last, one of the gangers named David Deer, employed upon the Severn Valley Railway, at Upper Areley, absconded, taking with him the whole of the wages due to about twelve or fifteen of the men for a fortnight's labour, leaving the poor fellows and their families completely destitute."[3]
  • 1859 "VIOLENT OUTRAGE AND ASSAULT BY A RAILWAY CONTRACTOR James Wallace, in the employ of the directors of the Severn Valley Railway Company, was brought up in custody charged with committing an outrageous assault and seriously wounding William Beddow, one of the workmen on the railway. The complainant, who had his head enveloped and bound up in clothes, appeared at the magistrates office on Monday morning, at eleven o'clock, and with difficulty gave his deposition before Aldermen Deighton, Nock, and Richards, who heard the case to the following effect :— Complainant went about nine this morning to the workshop of the company and demanded his wages due for three days and quarter work ; the prisoner Wallace refused to pay him till the regular pay day (Friday) : words ensued about it, when complainant was knocked down by Wallace by a blow on the face ; be did not know what with, but he lay senseless for full a quarter of an hour before he was able to rise ; he was seriously injured about the head, and had to get a surgeon's assistance. Mr. Wallace attempted to prove that the complainant had used threatening words to him, and challenged him to fight, but failed on the cross-examination. A surgeon's certificate was put in to show the wounded man was in a most precarious state, and, notwithstanding the urgent plea of Wallace to take bail, the magistrates decided upon committing hint to gaol to be brought up at eleven o'clock to-morrow morning for re-examination. The event has caused considerable stir in the town and its environs."[4]

References

  1. Worcestershire Chronicle - Wednesday 26 January 1859 [1]
  2. Worcestershire Chronicle - Wednesday 02 February 1859
  3. Worcester Journal - Saturday 16 July 1859
  4. Eddowes's Journal, and General Advertiser for Shropshire, and the Principality of Wales - Wednesday 31 August 1859
  5. Sheffield Daily Telegraph - Saturday 18 March 1876