Acknowledgements

Foreword

The Chew Valley Dam — the way it was, in a navvy's own words

In Brief — the overview

Strangers — navvying: a community of strangers

The Sloping Lodger — navvy slang

Bumpsticks — the navvy way of dying

Beginnings — the canal diggers

The Clockwork Shovel — division of labour and working methods

Sod Huts and Shants — housing and lodgings

Cat-Eating-Scan and Half-Ear Slen — navvy nicknames

Impact — how navvies changed the countryside

Moleskin Joe — the story of an Ulster navvy

The Making of Hawick — through the making of a Border railway

The Long Drag — the Carlisle-Settle line, the toughest job of all

Riot — navvies at war with themselves

War — the first military railway, and other stories of navvies at war

Hagmasters and After — employers: who paid and who cheated

Strikes, Truck, Cash — chiefly about pay and payment-in-kind

The Navvies' Union — unorganisable labour

John Ward — a navvy goes to the House of Commons

Churching the Ungodly — the Navvy Mission Society

The Great War — Navvy Battalions behind the trenches

Ending — the last navvy job: the Haweswater dam

Bibliography and Sources

What Happened Next — The Author's Autobiographical Reminiscences

A Navvy's Glossary [Not in print edition; created specifically for the Victorian Web]


Last modified 8 May 2006