I decided a few days ago to treat myself to a basic subscription for a site that would give me access to the 1871 census, and it answers many questions about the numbers of people involved in building the branch line I'm researching.
Here are my findings:
As mentioned before, it shows 47 labourers, navvies and excavators listed as directly working on constructing the line.
The ratios are roughly 3 to 1 labourers to navvies, and 2 to 1 navvies to excavators.
Accommodation for the above - I was both right and wrong (if I can use that term). Nine of the workers were indeed living in those large wooden huts. The location of these huts took me by surprise, they are north east of Great Harwood in a field (of course). These are arranged with place names such as Back Cricket St, Butts, Mary Hindle Houses, and Clinkum, all of these huts have house numbers. These huts start back in 1851 for locals, continue in 1881, but by 1891 they are all gone. You can still see traces of a lane through the field today.
For the rest of the workers, they are all living in the town, in one house for example, there are 8 labourers, one of which is the head of the household, his wife, two sons, a daughter and the other 7 railway labourers.
Many of these workers bring with them their wives and children, and I count in total 103 people including the railway workers, that's a 2.57% increase on the local population. Many of the children are attending school of a fashion.
No matter where they were living, house or hut, all but 2 are classed as Boarding, which by my understanding would include breakfast and an evening meal and possibly your cloths washed and dried. All of which would have to come out of your wages of course. It also provides extra income for the head of the household and their family.
The majority of these workers are English, a handful from North and South Wales, and the rest from Ireland, especially Mayo, Ireland, apart from one who is from Scotland.
Accommodation grouping of workers - The labourers aren't mixed with the navvies, and navvies aren't mixed with the excavators. It doesn't appear to matter about the nationality of the workers however, they are all mixed with the exception of one hut where they are all from Mayo, Ireland plus one from Galway.
Thomas Stone, contractor had a locomotive on site, the driver and fireman both come from North Wales, the fireman lives in the same house as the driver, driver's wife and children, no other workers live with them.
Mr. Stone himself is still listed at Newton Park, Newton-Le-Willows where he lives, but must have made many trips to the works over the years. His two sons however, are listed as living in a large house with a domestic servant. The eldest son is the resident Civil Engineer for the works, and the other, Clerk of the works.
The Padiham to Rose Grove section:
The 1871 census comes a little too early for this section, however there are 11 Railway labourers listed as working on this section, no mention of navvies or excavators. Like Harwood, the majority of them live in Padiham and are boarding, and once more, the rest are living in huts out of town in a field with place names such as Dear Bridge, Owsle Row, and Lim Boa (possibly meaning Limbo).
John Wilkes Bower - L&Y Resident Engineer is living at Simontone (sometimes spelt Symonstone back in 1871), he is living in a house called Coal Staithe which is in Lord Starkie's large private estate (called Huntroyde Demesne). John lives alone.
Thomas Higham - L&Y Clerk of works is living next to Mr. Bower with his wife who works as a Domestic House Keeper, 2 sons, one at school, one a labourer at an iron works, 2 daughters, one a domestic servant, one at school.
I'm very surprised as to where Mr. Bower and Mr. Higham are living, the line in general was 9 miles long and they are around 7 miles along it near Padiham. These two gentlemen would have to have constantly travelled to both sections of the works.
Lord Starkie - He and his influential friends (two of them Earls), hatched a scheme six years before to build this line and effectively forced the L&Y into building it for them. Perhaps housing Bower and Higham on his estate would have given him a blow by blow account of the progress of the new line?
Questions please:
Should I not be seeing more L&Y clerks etc on site, involved with paperwork?
For 1871, I was surprised to see only one person living in Harwood who was working with horses, he's listed as a Horse Keeper, shouldn't I be seeing stable boys for example?
There are two workers who are listed as Railway Engine Tenter's, I've checked the spelling as written down and it does state Tenters, what are they? Should I count these or discount them?
Looking after the locomotive - Who would clean, wash out, repair this locomotive? would you pay someone who is local and looks after the mill steam locomotive for example?
I've gone through all the trades I can think of such as Stone Masons, Carpenters, Joiners, Carters and Labourers, what other trades would be associated with the construction of a new railway, bare in mind, in 1871 we are in no position to be building stations yet. Can you think of any more trades to search for?
Here are my findings:
As mentioned before, it shows 47 labourers, navvies and excavators listed as directly working on constructing the line.
The ratios are roughly 3 to 1 labourers to navvies, and 2 to 1 navvies to excavators.
Accommodation for the above - I was both right and wrong (if I can use that term). Nine of the workers were indeed living in those large wooden huts. The location of these huts took me by surprise, they are north east of Great Harwood in a field (of course). These are arranged with place names such as Back Cricket St, Butts, Mary Hindle Houses, and Clinkum, all of these huts have house numbers. These huts start back in 1851 for locals, continue in 1881, but by 1891 they are all gone. You can still see traces of a lane through the field today.
For the rest of the workers, they are all living in the town, in one house for example, there are 8 labourers, one of which is the head of the household, his wife, two sons, a daughter and the other 7 railway labourers.
Many of these workers bring with them their wives and children, and I count in total 103 people including the railway workers, that's a 2.57% increase on the local population. Many of the children are attending school of a fashion.
No matter where they were living, house or hut, all but 2 are classed as Boarding, which by my understanding would include breakfast and an evening meal and possibly your cloths washed and dried. All of which would have to come out of your wages of course. It also provides extra income for the head of the household and their family.
The majority of these workers are English, a handful from North and South Wales, and the rest from Ireland, especially Mayo, Ireland, apart from one who is from Scotland.
Accommodation grouping of workers - The labourers aren't mixed with the navvies, and navvies aren't mixed with the excavators. It doesn't appear to matter about the nationality of the workers however, they are all mixed with the exception of one hut where they are all from Mayo, Ireland plus one from Galway.
Thomas Stone, contractor had a locomotive on site, the driver and fireman both come from North Wales, the fireman lives in the same house as the driver, driver's wife and children, no other workers live with them.
Mr. Stone himself is still listed at Newton Park, Newton-Le-Willows where he lives, but must have made many trips to the works over the years. His two sons however, are listed as living in a large house with a domestic servant. The eldest son is the resident Civil Engineer for the works, and the other, Clerk of the works.
The Padiham to Rose Grove section:
The 1871 census comes a little too early for this section, however there are 11 Railway labourers listed as working on this section, no mention of navvies or excavators. Like Harwood, the majority of them live in Padiham and are boarding, and once more, the rest are living in huts out of town in a field with place names such as Dear Bridge, Owsle Row, and Lim Boa (possibly meaning Limbo).
John Wilkes Bower - L&Y Resident Engineer is living at Simontone (sometimes spelt Symonstone back in 1871), he is living in a house called Coal Staithe which is in Lord Starkie's large private estate (called Huntroyde Demesne). John lives alone.
Thomas Higham - L&Y Clerk of works is living next to Mr. Bower with his wife who works as a Domestic House Keeper, 2 sons, one at school, one a labourer at an iron works, 2 daughters, one a domestic servant, one at school.
I'm very surprised as to where Mr. Bower and Mr. Higham are living, the line in general was 9 miles long and they are around 7 miles along it near Padiham. These two gentlemen would have to have constantly travelled to both sections of the works.
Lord Starkie - He and his influential friends (two of them Earls), hatched a scheme six years before to build this line and effectively forced the L&Y into building it for them. Perhaps housing Bower and Higham on his estate would have given him a blow by blow account of the progress of the new line?
Questions please:
Should I not be seeing more L&Y clerks etc on site, involved with paperwork?
For 1871, I was surprised to see only one person living in Harwood who was working with horses, he's listed as a Horse Keeper, shouldn't I be seeing stable boys for example?
There are two workers who are listed as Railway Engine Tenter's, I've checked the spelling as written down and it does state Tenters, what are they? Should I count these or discount them?
Looking after the locomotive - Who would clean, wash out, repair this locomotive? would you pay someone who is local and looks after the mill steam locomotive for example?
I've gone through all the trades I can think of such as Stone Masons, Carpenters, Joiners, Carters and Labourers, what other trades would be associated with the construction of a new railway, bare in mind, in 1871 we are in no position to be building stations yet. Can you think of any more trades to search for?
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