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census information (via Marshall)
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. ==1861 Census==Navvies and their families would travel long distances to find work. The 1861 Census listed 741 men as working on the construction of the railway in Shropshire, in which over three quarters of the original Severn Valley Railway lay. Of these, 206 came from Shropshire, 170 from Ireland, 98 from Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Warwickshire, 53 from East Midland counties, 189 from elsewhere in England, 21 from Wales and 4 from Scotland.<ref name=JM/> Their ages ranged from under 15 (7) to over 60 (14), with most (416) aged between 20 and 34. 442 were unmarried, 258 married, 20 were widowers and the other 21 unknown.<brref name=JM/>Very 245 were listed as 'head of household', 313 as lodging in other people’s homes, 123 in inns and lodging houses and 60 in 'temporary or makeshift accommodation' which could have included turf and mud huts, caves and old lime kilns. Census details for the navvies working on the 10 miles of the railway in Worcestershire would presumably have been in similar proportions<ref name=JM>[[Bibliography#Books|Marshall (1989)]] pp. 46-47.</ref>. .==Newspaper reports==Other than the 1861 Census, very little evidence remains of the hundreds of men who would have been were employed in building the Severn Valley Railway, other than apart from newspaper reports, which unfortunately focus almost entirely on either accidents or court appearances.
*1859 "LABOURERS STRIKING.-A short distance from [[Sandbourne Viaduct | Sambourne]], upon the Severn Valley Railway line, there is a deep and long 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>
