Peter Burgess
7 years ago
Some years ago now, I came across Census data from 1841, for a Surrey village, which initially had me puzzled. There were many miners suddenly employed in the area. It happens, as it quickly turned out, that the census coincided with the construction of a railway tunnel on the London-Dover route. Now I am wondering whether navvying in general took its toll on mining employment. Was there competition - was railway construction more lucrative for miners than digging for lead, or tin? Are there mine records decrying the loss of workforce to railway navvying?
AR
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7 years ago
I know from 19th century Peak District records that during slumps in the price of lead, there were concerns about experienced miners being lost from the labour pool (primarily to the coal mines where there was secure employment) but I don't think I've seen railway construction being explicitly mentioned. I have heard of the reverse happening where some miners who were working on the Bakewell-Buxton line reverted to form when a vein was found in driving a tunnel; apparently they nicked the vein and claimed the right to work it from the tunnel, much to the railway company's disgust!
Follow the horses, Johnny my laddie, follow the horses canny lad-oh!
pwhole
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7 years ago
That's hilarious. Though presumably there would have been little prospect of them regaining their old job if the vein fizzled out after a few feet? As in: 'You lot are self-employed now, so go and find some employment elsewhere 😉
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