A "navvy" depicted in Ford Madox Brown's painting Work

Navvy is a shorter form of navigational engineer (USA) or navigator (UK) and is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects. The term was coined in the late 18th century in Britain when numerous canals were being built, which were also sometimes known as "navigations". Canal navvies typically worked with shovels, pickaxes and barrows. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Last of England, 1855 Ford Madox Brown (April 16, 1821 – October 6, 1893) was an English painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. ... Work (1852-1865) is a painting by Ford Madox Brown, which is generally considered to be his most important work. ... Engineering is the discipline of acquiring and applying knowledge of design, analysis, and/or construction of works for practical purposes. ... For other uses, see Canal (disambiguation). ... Shovel with wide blade - especially appropriate for lifting snow or coal A shovel is a tool for lifting and moving loose material such as coal, gravel, snow, soil, or sand. ... Pickhandle redirects here. ... A common wheelbarrow Older wheelbarrow Wheelbarrows on the Belomorkanal A wheelbarrow is a small one-wheeled, hand-propelled vehicle, designed to be pushed and guided by a single person using two handles to the rear. ...

Nationalities

Many navvies were immigrants, as manual labourers of low social standing and training requirements often are in relatively affluent societies (compare the Chinese coolies on the US railroad construction), and some were Irish. By 1818, higher wages in North America attracted many of these immigrants to move again. They became a major part of the workforce in the construction of the Erie Canal, in New York State and similar projects; as well as building canals in Britain.^[1] Coolie refers to unskilled laborers from Asia of the 1800s to early 1900s who were sent to the United States, Australia, New Zealand, North Africa and the West Indies. ... North America North America is a continent [1] in the Earths northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. ... The Erie Canal (currently part of the New York State Canal System) is a canal in New York State, United States, that runs from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. ... State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki Official languages None Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ...

Migration from canal to railway projects

The construction of canals in Britain was superseded by contracts to construct railway projects from 1830 onwards, which developed into the railway manias, and the same term was applied to the workmen employed on building rail tracks, their tunnels, cuttings and embankments. Railway mania was the term given to the speculative frenzy in Britain in the 1840s. ... Workman may refer to: Look up workman in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Railroad or railway tracks are used on railways, which, together with railroad switches (points), guide trains without the need for steering. ... A disused railway tunnel now converted to pedestrian and bicycle use, near Houyet, Belgium A tunnel is an underground passage. ... In order to keep a road or rail line straight and/or flat, and where the comparative cost or practicality of alternate solutions (such as diversion) is too prohibitive, the land over which the road or rail line will travel is built up to form an embankment. ...

Navvies working on railway projects typically continued to work using hand tools, supplemented with explosives (particularly when tunnelling, and to clear obdurate difficulties). Steam-powered mechanical diggers or excavators (initially called 'steam navvies') were available in the 1840s, but were not considered cost effective until much later in the 19th century, especially in Britain and Europe where experienced labourers were easily obtained and comparatively cheap. Elsewhere, for example in the A tracked excavator by Daewoo. ...

"United States and Canada, where labour was more scarce and expensive, mechanical diggers were used. In the States the machine tradition became so strong that [...] the word navvy is understood to mean not a man but a steam shovel."^[2]

A steam shovel is a large steam-powered excavating machine designed for lifting and moving material such as rock and soil. ...

Use of the term Navvy

• More recently, in Britain "navvy" sometimes means a workman digging a hole in a public road to get access to buried services such as gas mains or water mains.
• In Britain the name "navvies" is sometimes given to members of the Inland Waterways Protection Society and other canal restoration societies.

In Australia, the term "navvy" is still applied solely to railway workers. Some areas of the country, particularly towns and cities along the sugarcane belt of the state of Queensland, still employ teams of navvies on a permanent basis to lay and maintain the state's narrow-gauge cane-train tracks. Whereas Council workers who work on general civic projects advise of their worksites with fluro orange "Workers Ahead" signage, navvies use pale blue "Navvies at Work" signs. A municipal water system is a large system of reservoirs and large-scale piping which supplies fresh water, suitable for human consumption, to houses and other residences. ... The Inland Waterways Protection Society (IWPS) was founded on the 21 April 1958 by the late Mrs Bessie Bunker of Sheffield, who became its Secretary. ... Part of the Montgomery Canal undergoing restoration Waterway restoration is the activity of restoring a canal or river, including special features such as warehouse buildings, locks, boat lifts, and boats. ... Species Saccharum arundinaceum Saccharum bengalense Saccharum edule Saccharum officinarum Saccharum procerum Saccharum ravennae Saccharum robustum Saccharum sinense Saccharum spontaneum Sugarcane or Sugar cane (Saccharum) is a genus of 6 to 37 species (depending on taxonomic interpretation) of tall perennial grasses (family Poaceae, tribe Andropogoneae), native to warm temperate to tropical... Slogan or Nickname: Sunshine State, Smart State Motto(s): Audax at Fidelis (Bold but Faithful) Other Australian states and territories Capital Brisbane Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Quentin Bryce Premier Anna Bligh (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 28  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $158,506 (3rd...

Working conditions for railway navvies

Many of the navvies employed building the railways in England in the early part of the 19th Century had to live in squalid temporary living accommodations. The navvies working on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway were paid daily and their pay went immediately on ale and porter, leaving nothing for food. When the workers were found not to be fit enough to work, monies were deducted from their wages and meal tokens were issued. These tokens could be handed in at meal caravans for a bowl of soup and a portion of bread, or whatever else was on the menu. At first the token was a slip of paper called a "flimsy" because of its thickness. In todays terms it would be similar to a grade we call "bank paper". These tokens were illegally copied by the forgers of the day, and many a farm worker got a free meal because of this. To eliminate the risk of this fraud, the Liverpool & Manchester Railway supplied its contractors with six-sided food tokens that were surrendered for meals. These were cut from brass and had the initials LMR stamped upon them. This reduced the problems of drunken navvies and eliminated the local farm labourers freelegging from the food caravans. For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Inaugural journey of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the worlds first inter-city passenger railway in which all the trains were timetabled and were hauled for most of the distance solely by steam locomotives. ... For other uses, see Ale (disambiguation). ... Look up Porter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Soup (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Bread (disambiguation). ... Bank paper is a thin strong writing paper of less than 50g/m2 commonly used for typewriting and correspondence. ... Forgery is the process of making or adapting objects or documents (see false document), with the intention to deceive. ... Inaugural journey of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the worlds first inter-city passenger railway in which all the trains were timetabled and were hauled for most of the distance solely by steam locomotives. ... Brazen redirects here. ...

Tokens and a description of their use can be found in the Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester. Museum of Science and Industry can refer to: Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago), United States Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, FL, United States Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, England National Museum of Science and Industry, England Museum of Science and Industry in Birmingham, England, which...

References

Bibliography

• Way, Peter (1997). Common Labor: Workers and the Digging of North American Canals, 1780-1860. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-5522-5.
• Coleman, Terry (1968). The Railway Navvies: a history of the men who made the railways. London: Penguin Books Ltd.
• Dónall Mac Amhlaigh, Dialann Deoraí (Dublin: Clóchomhar, 1968), translated into English as An Irish Navvy: The Diary of an Exile, London: Routledge, 1964. ISBN 1-903464-36-6