Railway Navvies of the SVR

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 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."

• 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." The incident bears comparison with the accident suffered by the young Robbie in the first series of God's Wonderful Railway.

• 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."

• 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."

• 1859 "RAILWAY ACCIDENT.—CORONER'S INQUEST.-On Monday, the 26th September an inquest was held at the Town Hall, in Bridgnorth, before W. D. Butte, Esq. Coroner, and a respectable jury, on the body of Benjamin Downes, a young man in the employ of Mr. James Wallace, sub-contractor for the making of the Severn Valley Railway, in this town, and who came by his death in the following awfully-sudden manner : —The deceased's duty was to hook and unhook the trucks proceeding up the cutting of the railway making on the Eardington and Oldbury road and he Was observed hanging on one of the waggons whilst they were running at a very rapid speed, when his foot, projecting out, must have struck some obstacle, which causud him to fall across the rail, when the train of waggons passed over his neck and chest, killing him instantaneously. Mr. Wallace, Edward Bache, and a buy named Brown were examined and gave evidence, when, under the direction of the coroner, the jury returned a verdict of accidental death."

• 1859 "CHARGE OF STEALING A SPADE.-At the County Police-court on Saturday, before Mr. Corbett, John Owen, labourer on the Severn Valley Railway, was charged with stealing a spade, the property of Thomas Jones, a fellow workman, living at Factory-yard, Coleham. The spade was deposited in the tool-shed, and missed on Friday evening. The prosecutor proceeded at once to give information to the police, and on walking up the Wyle-cop, Shrewsbury, he espied the stolen article at the door of a marine store dealer's shop, ticketed for sale, 1.s. 6d. The case was remanded to the Condover petty sessions on Friday (this day)."

• 1859 "STEALING RABBITS.—Joseph Smith and Peter Young, two navvies, were charged with stealing two tame rabbits, on Sunday night last, the property of Mr. George Fowler. There being no evidence against Smith, he was discharged. Young, when asked if he had anything to say, replied, "he had a good deal, but if he could not do a person any good, he would do them no harm." He pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to fourteen days' hard labour.-Joseph Smith, the man charged with stealing the rabbits in the foregoing case, was charged with stealing a quantity of timber, and horse rug and various sacks, the property of Mr. Thomas Brassey, contractor for the Severn Valley Railway. Inspector Stanton stated that on searching Smith's house he found this property. Smith had nothing to say in his defence, but pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to one month's hard labour."

• 1876 "Two workmen have been killed and two seriously injured through a great fall of earth in a new railway tunnel near Bewdley"

See also

The Severn Valley Railway under GWR/BR ownership