John Anstey, Trustee Eastriggs and Gretna Heritage Group
‘Navvies’ were crucial to Britain’s industrial development. The term derives from ‘navigator’ that is someone who built ‘navigation’ in the sense of canals, of which 4,000 miles were built in Britain. Navvies have shaped the landscape of Britain over the last two centuries. They enjoy a mixed reputation; approximately 30% were Irish and the remainder English, Scottish or Welsh.
Canal building required large numbers of excavators, as well as specialist stonemasons and joiners. In Cumbria, the Carlisle Ship Canal was completed in 1823 from Fisher’s Cross (later Port Carlisle) to the centre of the Carlisle. Local newspapers carried accounts of riotous behaviour and accidents. It remained open until 1853, when it was drained and its bed used for a railway line, rather symbolising the general decline of canals in favour of rail.
The region saw a number of railway projects, several of which joined up to make strategic links, for example the west coast mainline. The main projects were:
Carlisle to Newcastle – 1837
Lancaster to Carlisle – 1844 (with a cost of £17,000 per mile)
Carlisle to Beattock – 1847 (extending the Lancashire line further north)
Carlisle to Maryport – 1845
Cumbria Coast line
Solway Junction Railway – 1869 (including the Solway Viaduct). This line was intended to connect the Lanarkshire steelworks with the coalmines of Cumbria.
Carlisle to Settle – 1870 (including the famous Ribblehead Viaduct)
The completion of the canals and their successor railways did not mark the end of the navvy. For the outbreak of the First World War saw new building projects not least the construction of a huge munitions factory stretching from Dornock to Gretna for the production of cordite. The works required new factory buildings and electricity and water supplies on a huge scale. The contractors, S. Pearson, Britain’s largest civil engineering firm were awarded the contract, and began recruiting the 10,000 navvies required for the work – many from Ireland, as many British navvies had been recruited into the army.
The first task for navvies and tradesmen was to build their accommodation in a large township in Gretna. Then the factory buildings, site railway, power and water facilities. Remarkably, within 12 months of the start of construction, cordite was being dispatched from the site, and within 18 months the annual production target of 800 tons of cordite was achieved. This figure equalled the output of all the other cordite works combined – emphasising the importance of the site for the British war effort. The final task was the building of housing and schools, churches, health facilities etc. for the 8,000 managers/administrators and 12,000 factory workers.
The navvy was needed again during the Second World War for building airfields in Cumbria and Dumfries & Galloway, and post war for the construction of nuclear power facilities and thereafter motorways in the area – the M6 and the A74(M). Despite having access to much more sophisticated excavation equipment, there will always be a need for a navvy with a pick, shovel and wheelbarrow!
D.F.D.