Navvies Collection

GWR navvies, Treffgarne, Pembrokeshire, South Wales
A group of ten Great Western Railway navvies working on the Treffgarne railway at Nant Y Coy, Pembrokeshire, Dyfed, South Wales

Railway cutting works, discovery of fossilised trees
Railway cutting works on the Manchester to Bolton line, discovery of fossilised trees. Date: 1840s

GWR workings on a railway line in South Wales
Navvies working on a Great Western Railway line embankment, somewhere in South Wales. The navvy hut can be seen in the distance on the left

Navvies at Work
Navvies at work in a railway cutting

Navvies building a railway

Steam shovel and Navvies building a railway

Navvies building a railway line in the UK, early 1900s

Men working on Festival of Britain building site, London
Group of men working on the Festival of Britain building site, London. Seen here taking a break to read their favourite newspapers: the Daily Herald, the Daily Worker and the Daily Mirror

Railway construction, Berkhamsted, Herts. 1837
Navvies building a cutting near Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire in June 1837, part of the London to Birmingham railway line, engineered by Robert Stephenson. Date: 1837

Chair-mender, News Boy, Flying Pieman and Blackfriar s
Chair-mender, News Boy, Flying Pieman and Blackfriars Bridge. Chair-mender repairing a chair seat with rushes in Punyer Alley 46

Railway cutting works in progress in the early days of rail expansion. Date: 1840s

Railway cutting works at Wormwood Scrubs, West London. Date: circa 1840s

Underground railway construction, London 1861
Underground railway construction in progress for the Metropolitan line, London, at Thames Embankment. 1861

Underground railway construction, Euston Road, London
Underground railway construction, earth-hoisting machine, drawn by horses, operating in Euston Road, London. 1861

Underground railway construction, Kings Cross, London
Underground railway construction for the Metropolitan line, Kings Cross, London. Date: 1860

Railway construction, Baker Street, London 1868
Railway construction at Baker Street, London, at the junction of the St Johns Wood and Metropolitan railways. Date: 1868

Railway construction, extension to Broad Street, London 1871
Railway construction, showing demolition of the Worship Street Gas Works to make way for Great Eastern Railway extension to Broad Street, London. 1871

Railway construction accident, Camden Town, London 1849
Railway construction accident at Camden Town, NW London, when some newly constructed arches collapsed on the western side of Kentish Town Road

Construction, Rose Hill cutting, Brighton & Lewes Railway
Construction work taking place on the Rose Hill cutting, Brighton & Lewes Railway. Date: 1846

Metropolitan Extension under construction 1864
Metropolitan Extension Railway under construction at Smithfield, London. 1864

Metropolitan railway and Fleet Ditch 1862
Engraving from the foot of Frederick Street, Grays Inn Road, at its junction with Bagnigge Wells Road. of a portion of the works in progress for this vast undertaking. 1862

Railway Workers - Switzerland. Date: circa 1910s

Laying a railway track near Lima, Ohio, USA
Men at work laying a railway track near Lima, Ohio, USA, with a field of wheat in the foreground. Date: circa 1900

Sunday Work in the Tunnel of a Great Main Line, Matania
Labour and railway efficiency: Renewing the Permanent Way of a Great Main Line. Sunday work in the tunnel of a great main line outside London - gangs of navvies relaying the permanent way. Date: 1914

British soldiers at work, Western Front, France, WW1
British soldiers at work on the Western Front in France during World War One. They are army navvies, recycling bricks from a ruined building to construct roads. Date: circa 1917

London Railway under Construction
A group of navvies working on an elevated section of an inner London railway. Date: 19th century

WW2 - Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps in France
WW2 - British Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps in France - shown here building railway sidings. Date: 1942

Trans-Siberian Railway - Laying sleepers
Russian navvies laying the log sleepers for the Trans-Siberian Railway Date: circa 1910s

Railway workers

Brtish troops breaking stones, Flanders, WW1
British troops breaking stones for road making around the time of the Battle of Broodseinde, Flanders, during the First World War. circa 1917

The Doveholes
The Dove Holes caves, Dovedale, Derbyshire, England. Between 1860 and 1865, Midland Railways built a tunnel here. It was an arduous task and the navvies lived in these caves. Date: 1950s

Navvies building a new railway line, UK
Navvies building a new railway line at an unidentified location in the UK. A station building can be seen in the top right

GWR line at Treffgarne, Pembrokeshire, South Wales
View of the Great Western Railway line at the Treffgarne cutting, Nant Y Coy, Pembrokeshire, Dyfed, South Wales. The navvy hut can be seen on the left

GWR navvies at Ferryside, Carmarthenshire, South Wales
A group of Great Western Railway navvies straightening the track at Ferryside, Carmarthenshire, South Wales

GWR locomotive, Treffgarne, Pembrokeshire, South Wales
Four railway workers with a Great Western Railway locomotive, Amesbury, at Treffgarne, Nant Y Coy, Pembrokeshire, Dyfed, South Wales

Railway works at Balaclava 1855
British navvies commence work on the construction of a railway line between Balaclava and Sebastopol in the Crimea

Laying railway track
Gangs of railway labourers work on the laying of a new section of track running beneath a bridge. The lamps held by the navvies cast spectral traces of light across the gloomy atmospheric scene

Track laying - using a bulldozer
A Caterpillar bulldozer being operated during track laying by the Wimpey construction company. Nightime engineering works. Photograph by Heinz Zinram

Laying railway tracks at night
A very atmospheric shot of a steam engine and cranes aiding the laying of a new set of railway tracks. Photograph by Heinz Zinram

Laying Railway Tracks
Three construction workers guide a large rail into position. Photograph by Heinz Zinram

Manchester Ship Canal - Creating a new dock
Workmen operate a temporary pulley-based device used in the process of the construction of a new dock for the Manchester Ship Canal

Rusyn People - Hungary
Rusyns - an Eastern Slavic ethnic group who speak an Eastern Slavic language (or dialect) known as Rusyn. This appears to be a team working on a railway in the Carpathian Mountain region of Hungary

Rail Construction 1836
An extensive team of navvies build a retaining wall near Part Street, Camden Town, London

Tunnelling / Kilsby / Shaft
The Head Gear at the Great Shaft during the construction of the Kilsby Tunnel

Digging a Rail Cutting
The construction of the Tring Cutting. Railway navvies dig out the earth and rock by hand with the spoil lifted up to the top of the bank by horse- powered winches

Union Pacific Track Laid
Laying track for the Union Pacific as it extends towards the western territories

DIVERS AND NORTHFLEET
Divers prepare to descend to investigate the wreck of the Northfleet which sank after a collision, drowning some 300 navvies bound for Australia to build railways there

Building Blackfriars Station, City of London
The construction of Blackfriars Station, looking towards Saint Pauls Cathedral in the City of London

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