This episode of Time Team on Youtube may be of interest. Basically a 3 day dig into the remains of a Navvy camp at Rise Hill in Cumbria on the Settle and Carlisle line
@Morayshire, Thanks so much for finding this, it's a fascinating episode for me and answers many questions. In it it's said the wages for a navvy / labourer in 1870 was 3s 6d which seems to be the going rate for that type of work. I looked around in the newspapers for labourers wanted and several times I came across the same wages, 3 and 6.
Question everyone - Was this location a place where navvy huts were located? Look for Tottleworth Lee Bridge, just to its right is a strange bulge and I've wondered about this strange shape ever since I first saw it ten years ago...
Depending on how you measure the area, I can get anything from around 12,000 square feet to 7,500. It might have been necessary due to the geology, but this would have been an ideal location as it's about two thirds along the cutting (Norden cutting). This was the second cutting heading west, and I've been told the huts would have been moved to where the next works had to commence.
What does anyone think please?
