Bletchingley tunnel and rail line workers accommodation huts

[Joobles123]

Hi,
My ancestor worked on the Bletchingley rail line / tunnel in 1841 and lived along the line of the railway track.
I’m trying to find if there are any photos that may exist of the old labourers accommodation huts which are now described as being hidden in the undergrowth there.
He was with his wife and children so it can’t have been very comfortable for them all !
Thanks
Julie

 

[Andy873]

Hi,
My ancestor worked on the Bletchingley rail line / tunnel in 1841 and lived along the line of the railway track.
I’m trying to find if there are any photos that may exist of the old labourers accommodation huts which are now described as being hidden in the undergrowth there.
He was with his wife and children so it can’t have been very comfortable for them all !
Thanks
Julie

Hi Julie,

Try contacting this historical society (link below), hopefully I have the right Bletchingley!

Looks like they were / are doing a page about the railway line and it could be they might have some photos for you.

Here is the link:

Village Timeline, Part 2

Village Timeline, Part 2

www.bletchingleyhistory.org.uk

Good luck!
Andy.

 

[John Webb]

A good deal of history is recorded about the "Navvies' Huts" and the settlements formed by them on the Settle-Carlisle line construction that took place a couple of decades after the Bletchingley Tunnel construction which may help to understand how such huts were used. One such hut has survived and is preserved at Settle Station and has been well-photographed - see, for example, https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5186280. The wife of a navvy living in such a hut often became the 'landlady' for other unmarried navvies who shared the accommodation, thereby supporting her family by supplying meals, doing laundry etc.

The hut I mention above only survived because it was repurposed for railway use after it's use for housing navvies was ended. I think it extremely unlikely that any such wooden building will have survived near Bletchingley Tunnel after nearly 200 years!

 

[Gloster]

Huts was often a somewhat generous term for what were very basic shelters, sometimes no more than piled earth with a roof of scrap wood and canvas on old branches, which were only required for short periods as the navvies moved on before long. A tunnel might require a slightly longer stay and therefore be slightly more permanent, but not by much. Unless the huts were later reused by the railway or others, they are likely to have been abandoned and rotted away within a few years, although sometimes the shape of the foundations can be recognised. The only buildings that might be more permanent would be the contractor’s buildings, such as forges or gunpowder stores.

 

[Joobles123]

Thank you very much for your help.