0:00:04 > 0:00:09This is the story of how canals changed and shaped our modern world.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13Carrying huge volumes of goods and fuel,
0:00:13 > 0:00:16they were a stimulus to Britain's great Industrial Revolution.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22But they also gave us much more
0:00:22 > 0:00:26and their legacy lives on, often in surprising ways.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29I'm Liz McIvor.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32I've spent my life studying and talking about history
0:00:32 > 0:00:34and now I believe it's time to take a different look
0:00:34 > 0:00:36at our inland waterways.
0:00:42 > 0:00:44In the story of Britain's canals,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47there's a chapter that's barely been told.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50It's the role of the workers, the navvies,
0:00:50 > 0:00:54whose herculean efforts drove waterways across the landscape,
0:00:54 > 0:00:58a nomadic army of hard, resilient men,
0:00:58 > 0:01:00roaming the countryside, seeking work.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05So, who were these forgotten men?
0:01:05 > 0:01:10Unreliable heathens who evolved a lifestyle and culture of their own?
0:01:10 > 0:01:15Social outcasts with a reputation for hard living and hard drinking?
0:01:15 > 0:01:20Or unsung heroes, who used might and muscle to build epic marvels?
0:01:22 > 0:01:25These men of brawn with a huge capacity for work
0:01:25 > 0:01:27would have one last triumph.
0:01:27 > 0:01:28It was this.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30A giant project,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33hailed as one of the greatest feats of Victorian engineering.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35The Manchester Ship Canal.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06By the 1880s, Britain had extensive networks of canals,
0:02:06 > 0:02:11man-made waterways crisscrossing the countryside for nearly 5,000 miles.
0:02:12 > 0:02:13For over a century,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16gangs of navvies had been changing the landscape,
0:02:16 > 0:02:20working on river navigations from where they took their name,
0:02:20 > 0:02:23before moving on to canals and then the railways.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29The Big Ditch, as it was nicknamed,
0:02:29 > 0:02:32was an enormous project, lasting six years.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37It would bring the sea from Liverpool to the inland city of Manchester,
0:02:37 > 0:02:40transforming it into a world-class port.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45SHIP HORN
0:02:47 > 0:02:50Oceangoing vessels could navigate their way from the Atlantic
0:02:50 > 0:02:53and Irish Sea into the industrial heart of Lancashire.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57Engineers got the plaudits and the knighthoods
0:02:57 > 0:02:59for this deep and wide waterway,
0:02:59 > 0:03:03but it was huge gangs of navvies who actually built it...
0:03:05 > 0:03:08..men dedicated to the kind of heavy, manual labour
0:03:08 > 0:03:11that could be traced back over a century
0:03:11 > 0:03:13of canal, road and railway construction.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18Initially, they'd join a navvy gang,
0:03:18 > 0:03:20or the construction work,
0:03:20 > 0:03:22simply because they're fit, strong and healthy
0:03:22 > 0:03:24That's the most important thing for navvies at all times.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27But once you start working in this line of work,
0:03:27 > 0:03:29obviously you acquire all sorts of building skills.
0:03:29 > 0:03:30I mean, some of the work they do,
0:03:30 > 0:03:32a lot of it is just physical work.
0:03:32 > 0:03:33They're just digging trenches.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36But there are some more kind of skilled engineering tasks as well,
0:03:36 > 0:03:38that they will learn, little by little.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40By virtue of being on a construction site,
0:03:40 > 0:03:42they'll learn some of the more skilled work as well.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48The Ship Canal was the navigators' swansong,
0:03:48 > 0:03:50their biggest and boldest achievement.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55Even as construction started in 1887, it was proclaimed as one
0:03:55 > 0:04:00of the most ambitious building projects Britain had ever seen.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06It was led by Thomas Walker,
0:04:06 > 0:04:10a civil engineer who'd spent his life working alongside navvies.
0:04:11 > 0:04:12He was compassionate
0:04:12 > 0:04:16and took an active interest in the welfare of these hard grafters.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22But he also knew that navvies had always been feared as bogeymen.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38Society regarded the navvies with contempt.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42They had an unsavoury reputation for being wild,
0:04:42 > 0:04:44disruptive and sometimes ungodly.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49A Lancashire vicar described navvies as men who...
0:04:49 > 0:04:51"Cheat and steal and drink
0:04:51 > 0:04:54"and swear and fight and do all kinds of mischief
0:04:54 > 0:04:56"to themselves and others."
0:04:58 > 0:05:01The Reverend St George Sargent, working near Lancaster,
0:05:01 > 0:05:03didn't mince his words either.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06"The navigators were the most neglected
0:05:06 > 0:05:09"and spiritually destitute people I ever met,
0:05:09 > 0:05:13"ignorant of Bible religion and gospel truth,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17"infected with infidelity and prone to revolutionary principles."
0:05:20 > 0:05:24In Preston in 1838, a huge fight broke out between
0:05:24 > 0:05:27Irish navvies and agricultural workers.
0:05:27 > 0:05:28SHOUTING
0:05:28 > 0:05:32As the local paper reported it, "About 800 drunken men,
0:05:32 > 0:05:35"armed with guns, pistols and pikes,
0:05:35 > 0:05:38"began a pitched battle which resulted in deaths
0:05:38 > 0:05:40"and serious injuries."
0:05:41 > 0:05:43There's a common misconception that most navvies were Irish.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48When the potato harvest failed in the mid-19th century in Ireland,
0:05:48 > 0:05:50agricultural labourers did come to England
0:05:50 > 0:05:52to work on canals and railways
0:05:52 > 0:05:54and it caused resentment.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59I suppose any band of outsiders who comes into a settled community,
0:05:59 > 0:06:03that's unfamiliar with their neighbours more than
0:06:03 > 0:06:06a mile and a half down the road, are going to be treated with...
0:06:06 > 0:06:08looked on with suspicion.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12You would have had, I suppose...
0:06:12 > 0:06:15vagrants wandering, and beggars, and so on,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19for a long, long time around the English countryside.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21And suddenly these looked rather similar
0:06:21 > 0:06:24but in vastly greater numbers.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27And, yeah, there was natural suspicion and mistrust.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31I suppose people then went on how they found them
0:06:31 > 0:06:33as they worked alongside them.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44Here, on the Manchester Ship Canal, only around 5,000 navvies,
0:06:44 > 0:06:47a third of the workforce, originated from Ireland.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51At the time work started, there was a general hostility towards the navvy,
0:06:51 > 0:06:53irrespective of their background.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56They, in turn, responded to this alienation
0:06:56 > 0:06:58by embracing an identity of their own.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04Navvies had always looked different.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07One contemporary described their colourful fashion.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12"Mustard yellows, periwinkle blues and wine reds were favourites.
0:07:13 > 0:07:19"Thick-set boots, velvety moleskin breaches, scarlet waistcoats,
0:07:19 > 0:07:23"canvas shirts, white spotted silk neckerchiefs
0:07:23 > 0:07:25"and felt hats were the popular choices."
0:07:26 > 0:07:30They used aliases and were more often known by a nickname
0:07:30 > 0:07:33reflecting their personality or place of birth.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36So, you had Warwick Jack,
0:07:36 > 0:07:39Soldier, Rainbow Rattie,
0:07:39 > 0:07:40Tweedle Beak
0:07:40 > 0:07:41and Wingy,
0:07:41 > 0:07:44the last referring to a one-armed navvy.
0:07:46 > 0:07:48For the most part, I think navvies would have been recognisable.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52I mean, very often we will have dozens of these workers entering
0:07:52 > 0:07:55a very, very quiet community where everybody knows everybody,
0:07:55 > 0:07:57so just the sheer fact that there are lots of them
0:07:57 > 0:08:01and that they're strangers will make it quite obvious what they're doing.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05But even outside that, our navvies will have been very muscular,
0:08:05 > 0:08:07very suntanned and weather-beaten.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09They'll be going round in pairs
0:08:09 > 0:08:12and they'll probably cut quite a distinctive figure.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17For navvies who'd come from previous jobs on canals or railways,
0:08:17 > 0:08:22starting on the Ship Canal must have been a jaw-dropping prospect.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26Even with machinery, the scale of digging would be colossal,
0:08:26 > 0:08:30a corridor of excavation 36 miles long,
0:08:30 > 0:08:34120 feet wide and 28 feet deep.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39Sir Bosdin Leech, a former Lord Mayor of Manchester,
0:08:39 > 0:08:44wrote the first history of the canal and reckoned the earth they excavated
0:08:44 > 0:08:48would make a wall around the equator six feet high and two feet wide.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52A sculpture at Halsall in Lancashire illustrates
0:08:52 > 0:08:54the stature of the average navvy,
0:08:54 > 0:08:57over six feet tall, deep-chested,
0:08:57 > 0:09:00broad-backed and weighing 15 stones.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04And that was when the average height of a man in Britain was just
0:09:04 > 0:09:06five feet six inches tall.
0:09:07 > 0:09:09A navvy could shift all sorts,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12from rock and soil to clay and sand.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15And everything was simply called muck.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21And they could shift extraordinary amounts of muck.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24The average navvy would be swinging shovel after shovelful
0:09:24 > 0:09:26over his shoulder and into a wagon.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29It's thought that they could move up to 12 cubic yards a day.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34That's roughly what this pile here represents and it's nearly 18 tonnes.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38All that work in just one day.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47That sort of physical exercise resulted in large appetites.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52Well, looking at all of this on the table, it looks quite inviting,
0:09:52 > 0:09:56but is this the sort of food, Jordan, that navvies would have eaten?
0:09:56 > 0:09:59Yeah, so this is a very typical diet that a person
0:09:59 > 0:10:02working on the canals would eat.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05They consumed roughly about 8,000 calories a day, which is
0:10:05 > 0:10:08an enormous amount of food.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10And just to put that into perspective,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13the average man in the UK today, according to the government
0:10:13 > 0:10:17guidelines, should consume roughly about 2,500 calories.
0:10:17 > 0:10:23A labourer, modern-day labourer, manual work, maybe 3,500 calories.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26And an elite athlete, maybe, like, a triathlon,
0:10:26 > 0:10:30or a Tour de France athlete, would consume anywhere between
0:10:30 > 0:10:325,000 and 6,000 calories a day,
0:10:32 > 0:10:34so that really puts it into perspective,
0:10:34 > 0:10:36not only how much they were eating
0:10:36 > 0:10:39but how physically demanding the work actually was.
0:10:39 > 0:10:434,000 of those 8,000 were from bread alone.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46When we actually look at the bread,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48it's very different to the bread of today.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50It would have been much more dense.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53It wouldn't have been made from refined flour.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56And the loaves would have been round, quite brittle,
0:10:56 > 0:10:58easy to break and they certainly wouldn't have been sliced.
0:11:00 > 0:11:01So, that's quite a lot of beer.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04- Is that how much they would have drunk in one day?- It is, yeah.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06Your typical canal worker would have had
0:11:06 > 0:11:10anywhere between six to eight pints or bottles of beer a day,
0:11:10 > 0:11:13which at first seems quite shocking,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16but when we look back to the time when the canal was being built,
0:11:16 > 0:11:18water quality was terrible
0:11:18 > 0:11:20and drinking beer,
0:11:20 > 0:11:26which was relatively weak, was the best way for you to get clean water.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29So, was there an alternative to beer?
0:11:29 > 0:11:33There was an alternative to beer, which is of course to drink tea,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36but when you actually think of the practicality of it,
0:11:36 > 0:11:38you would have to find a heat source, you would have to
0:11:38 > 0:11:40wait for the kettle to boil,
0:11:40 > 0:11:42and then, of course, you can drink it,
0:11:42 > 0:11:46so, again, beer would have been the best option to get rehydrated.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49And of course, if you wanted to grab a snack as you were going,
0:11:49 > 0:11:52you've got the choice of a baked potato from a vendor,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55or if you've got a bit more money, you're a gang boss, maybe a pork pie.
0:11:55 > 0:11:56Yeah.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05Navvies on the Ship Canal were fortunate in that a long-established
0:12:05 > 0:12:09and long-despised system of exploitation on the canals
0:12:09 > 0:12:12and railways had recently come to an end.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17The practice of paying wages in tokens rather than money
0:12:17 > 0:12:19was known as truck.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23This scheme compelled the navvies to exchange these pay vouchers
0:12:23 > 0:12:27in Tommy shops, or food stores, owned by the contractor.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32The goods available were generally low in quality but high in price.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39Parliament's outlawing of the truck system was finally enforced
0:12:39 > 0:12:43the year the canal started, and as the 19th century headed to a close,
0:12:43 > 0:12:46other reforms were in place to help the welfare of the working classes.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50Although conditions were still hard,
0:12:50 > 0:12:52child labour had been clamped down on,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55working hours reduced and public health practices adopted.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02So, the construction gangs would have been relieved but not surprised
0:13:02 > 0:13:05to find an enlightened man in charge of the Ship Canal.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10Thomas Walker, from Staffordshire, spent his early career building
0:13:10 > 0:13:15a railroad in Canada, where he'd worked side-by-side with British navvies.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19They'd been drafted in for their expertise gained
0:13:19 > 0:13:21in constructing railways at home.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24Walker had also worked on the first section
0:13:24 > 0:13:26of the new London Underground.
0:13:27 > 0:13:28He'd looked after his men
0:13:28 > 0:13:32and his reputation as a good employer followed him to Manchester.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36Walker helped establish one of the world's first
0:13:36 > 0:13:39accident and emergency services here on the Ship Canal.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42It was set up in anticipation of the high toll
0:13:42 > 0:13:44of serious injuries to the navvies.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47After all, health and safety regulations were in their infancy.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51In charge of the hospital service, there was a young doctor
0:13:51 > 0:13:53who'd trained as an orthopaedic surgeon in Liverpool.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00Robert Jones was just 31 and found he now had 17,000 patients.
0:14:01 > 0:14:03He organised hospitals on the route
0:14:03 > 0:14:05and a chain of first-aid stations.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09The hospitals were the first ever to be set up
0:14:09 > 0:14:12to deal purely with accidents and emergencies.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16Each was staffed by a resident doctor and a team of nurses
0:14:16 > 0:14:19and linked to the construction sites by railways.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23Jones, who later became a founding member
0:14:23 > 0:14:27of the British Orthopaedic Society, dealt with hundreds of cases.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30A navvy's life was dangerous in the extreme.
0:14:30 > 0:14:35During construction, there were at least 3,000 accidents and 130 deaths.
0:14:46 > 0:14:47It's very dangerous.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50Essentially, it's a job that requires men using
0:14:50 > 0:14:54just their muscle power to shift a lot of very heavy objects around.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07And so men digging out barrel loads of stone and earth
0:15:07 > 0:15:10and clay to dig the canal itself.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12You've got people lining the canal with stone,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15which is in big blocks, mostly.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19And you've got men to push the canal through hilly areas.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21In all of these things,
0:15:21 > 0:15:23there's always the risk of things going wrong.
0:15:23 > 0:15:25EXPLOSION
0:15:27 > 0:15:29But the health care wasn't free.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32Each navvy had to join a company sick club.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37They would take a small amount out of the workers' wages each week.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41And that would go towards paying for the services of a doctor.
0:15:41 > 0:15:42So if a navvy got injured,
0:15:42 > 0:15:44the company doctor would come and help them.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47And if they were badly enough injured that they needed to go to
0:15:47 > 0:15:50hospital, they could go to hospital.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54The biggest loss of life occurred at Ince, near Ellesmere Port,
0:15:54 > 0:15:56four years into construction.
0:15:56 > 0:16:0223 ballast wagons were accidentally sent into the wrong railway siding.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04They crashed through the buffers,
0:16:04 > 0:16:06and fell onto a gang of navvies working below.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17Six men who were on the train jumped to safety.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21But wagons, burning coal and rock crushed the workers below.
0:16:21 > 0:16:23Ten were killed.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25Another ten had to be dug out by steam crane,
0:16:25 > 0:16:28and treated for serious injuries at the field hospital.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35Here, at the local church, St James the Great at Ince,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38they buried the dead navvies in a common grave.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50The construction gangs lived alongside the route,
0:16:50 > 0:16:55taking lodgings where they could, or in shantytowns like here.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58This is the former site of the aptly named Marshville,
0:16:58 > 0:17:00near Runcorn in Cheshire.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05It sat on Frodsham Marshes, on the banks of the Mersey mudflats.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07Today, sadly, there's nothing left.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12Marshville, the foundations are roughly 30 feet below us now.
0:17:12 > 0:17:17Ahead of us, there would be the Mission Hall cum community centre.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20Just to the left of it would be the shop.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24And over on the far side to the left, there'd be all the workshops,
0:17:24 > 0:17:28because there was engine sheds and workshops here as well.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32Where we're walking now, between the buildings,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35they eventually became flower and vegetable gardens.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52The navvies on the Ship Canal weren't using muscle power alone,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55as their predecessors had on the earlier waterways.
0:17:55 > 0:17:56Technology had advanced,
0:17:56 > 0:18:00and steam shovels similar to this one were now in use.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03The contractor, Thomas Walker, had about 100 of these,
0:18:03 > 0:18:05and each could shift three tonnes a minute.
0:18:08 > 0:18:10These innovative mechanical diggers were
0:18:10 > 0:18:15so efficient that their design hardly changed over the next century.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18But they had a curious and unexpected side effect.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23Their introduction is said to have caused the deterioration
0:18:23 > 0:18:25of the physique of the workers.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28As machines supplemented labour,
0:18:28 > 0:18:30the days of the giant navvy were numbered.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36Steam excavators could chew out the rough outline of a trench,
0:18:36 > 0:18:39but men were still needed to shore up the slopes.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41And as they dug up more and more material,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44it was more difficult to get it to the top of the banks.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46For that they developed the barrow run.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53This was an extraordinarily risky procedure,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56and often resulted in dreadful injuries.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59The navvy and a full barrow would, in effect,
0:18:59 > 0:19:03be winched up a wooden ramp by a rope that extended over
0:19:03 > 0:19:06the embankment and was attached to a pulling horse.
0:19:06 > 0:19:10Once at the top, the barrel would be emptied, but to get back down
0:19:10 > 0:19:15the slope with the barrow, a man faced a perilous journey.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18He pushed it in front of him and used his boots as brakes.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25A really experienced navvy could make two runs a minute, but they ran
0:19:25 > 0:19:29the risk of breaking ropes, toppling wheelbarrows and slippery planks.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33It was such a spectacle that local people used to turn up
0:19:33 > 0:19:34just to watch the barrow runs.
0:19:50 > 0:19:55Traditionally, navvies were a highly mobile and flexible workforce.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59Men would wander around the country between jobs -
0:19:59 > 0:20:01"going on the tramp", as they called it.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04Wages were comparatively good -
0:20:04 > 0:20:06a navvy could earn five times what
0:20:06 > 0:20:09a farm labourer would be paid for a day's work.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13But they belonged nowhere and had few responsibilities.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15The navvies were individualistic,
0:20:15 > 0:20:18they were nomadic, because that's the nature of the work,
0:20:18 > 0:20:22and that didn't lend itself to unionisation
0:20:22 > 0:20:24and where navvies encountered unions,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28they regarded them as almost as parasitic as the employers,
0:20:28 > 0:20:31looking for money from them and offering very little in return.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34A navvy's bargaining power was the ability to
0:20:34 > 0:20:36walk off the site down the road and onto another site -
0:20:36 > 0:20:39as long as a man could do that, he was a free man.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44As the canal headed towards Manchester,
0:20:44 > 0:20:48its construction coincided with the emergence of a nationwide
0:20:48 > 0:20:52labour movement, fighting for better pay and conditions.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57So when one man tried to do what no-one had ever managed before -
0:20:57 > 0:20:59organise the navvies into a powerful group -
0:20:59 > 0:21:02it seemed like a winning idea.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06John Ward was the son of a plasterer.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08He'd had no formal education
0:21:08 > 0:21:10and by the age of 12,
0:21:10 > 0:21:13was working as a navvy on a railway.
0:21:13 > 0:21:14He tramped from job to job
0:21:14 > 0:21:18and endured all the hardships of navvy life.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21On the Manchester Ship Canal, his hands froze to a wagon
0:21:21 > 0:21:24and had to be torn free by his workmates.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30In 1889, a year that would later be recognised as a turning point
0:21:30 > 0:21:32in the history of trade unionism,
0:21:32 > 0:21:35John Ward founded the inelegantly named
0:21:35 > 0:21:39Navvies, Bricklayers, Labourers and General Labourers Union.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42He wanted better wages
0:21:42 > 0:21:46and compensation for those who'd been killed or injured.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50And he had reason to believe that his new union could become powerful.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56Traditionally, unions had represented single professions
0:21:56 > 0:22:02of skilled workers such as engineers, printers and carpenters.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05They were exclusive, and unskilled workers like navvies
0:22:05 > 0:22:07and labourers were kept out.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12But two strikes in 1889 changed that stance and marked
0:22:12 > 0:22:17a milestone in the development of the British labour movement.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19The first was at a gasworks in London
0:22:19 > 0:22:22in a dispute over working hours.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25800 unskilled workers were organised into a union,
0:22:25 > 0:22:28the first time this had ever happened.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31The second strike came a few months later.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34The Port of London was brought to a halt by casual workers
0:22:34 > 0:22:36seeking more pay.
0:22:37 > 0:22:42Significantly, both sets of workers won their demands and from then on,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45trade union membership grew rapidly across the country.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51So Ward believed that the navvies would be fertile ground
0:22:51 > 0:22:54for recruitment into his new union,
0:22:54 > 0:22:58but before he could get properly organised, fate intervened.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01A couple of months after the navvy union was formed,
0:23:01 > 0:23:04the canal's main engineer, Thomas Walker, died.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08The company cancelled the contract and took over the works themselves.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12It would lead to the only recorded incidence of a strike on the canal.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17BELL TOLLS
0:23:21 > 0:23:24Once the navvies realised the contract had been cancelled,
0:23:24 > 0:23:27they saw an opportunity to renegotiate their pay
0:23:27 > 0:23:30and downed tools.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32The company simply hired more men.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36Police had to break up fighting between the strikers
0:23:36 > 0:23:38and the new workers.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41In the centre of Eccles, just half a mile from the canal,
0:23:41 > 0:23:45an angry crowd of 2,000 striking navvies, most of whom were
0:23:45 > 0:23:49not in the union, were addressed by one of Ward's officials.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54He told them the strike was a mistake and they should bide their time.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58With few members, the union didn't have the money for strike pay.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02He urged them to join the union, then they'd be able to call
0:24:02 > 0:24:05an all-out strike and would be more effective.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08The company was more defiant,
0:24:08 > 0:24:13telling the strikers they could work or go away, just as they pleased.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17Shortly afterward, the strike just fizzled out.
0:24:23 > 0:24:24It isn't to say
0:24:24 > 0:24:26they weren't organised,
0:24:26 > 0:24:29they were terribly organised for their own interests
0:24:29 > 0:24:33and they were militant in the true sense of that word
0:24:33 > 0:24:39because they were tough men, used to fighting, hard drinking
0:24:39 > 0:24:44and so forth and they didn't need a formal trade union structure.
0:24:44 > 0:24:50They didn't need branch secretaries, branches, organisers and that sort
0:24:50 > 0:24:55of thing, which was the typical structure of late Victorian unions.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16In truth, navvies were hard to organise into unions.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19They had a powerful sense of freedom and independence.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22If they were unhappy, they could move elsewhere,
0:25:22 > 0:25:24but they knew that if they did leave,
0:25:24 > 0:25:27there would always be someone available to take their place.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30In the end, membership of the navvy union could only be measured
0:25:30 > 0:25:32in the hundreds.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35I think they weren't remotely interested in joining unions
0:25:35 > 0:25:38or going on strike. Going on strike was never an option anyway,
0:25:38 > 0:25:42because there was always a lot more labour than there was demand for it
0:25:42 > 0:25:47and so you kept the job you got until you were tired of it,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50bored with it, irritated by someone or something
0:25:50 > 0:25:52and then you walked off.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55But you certainly didn't attempt to collectivise for...to bargain.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58Not in the 19th century - the 20th century's a different story.
0:26:01 > 0:26:06The Ship Canal changed Manchester and the navvy's way of life.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11Soon after it was opened by Queen Victoria in 1894, work started
0:26:11 > 0:26:15on Trafford Park, the world's first purpose-built industrial estate.
0:26:17 > 0:26:19The newly created port of Manchester
0:26:19 > 0:26:22went on to become the third largest in the country,
0:26:22 > 0:26:25linking the city to the rest of the world.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51With the canal finished and most of the new rail network
0:26:51 > 0:26:55now in place, time was up for the navvy in Britain.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01Some continued on the tramp, to Europe and America,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04where more railways were being constructed.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07But as for the towns they left behind, there was a sense of loss and
0:27:07 > 0:27:11perhaps guilt at the prejudices and misconceptions of the humble navvy.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21In his history of the Ship Canal construction,
0:27:21 > 0:27:24Sir Bosdin Leech wrote,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27"People who anticipated their advent with terror
0:27:27 > 0:27:30"were sorry when the work was done, for they enriched
0:27:30 > 0:27:34"the whole neighbourhood by earning good wages and spending them freely".
0:27:37 > 0:27:40An efficient transport system helped to kick-start
0:27:40 > 0:27:42the Industrial Revolution.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46The canals, railways and the Ship Canal gave the country
0:27:46 > 0:27:50the motorways of their age and changed the map of Britain.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54But it wouldn't have been possible without an army of anonymous workers.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58Elizabeth Garnett, from the Navvy Mission Society,
0:27:58 > 0:28:00summed it all up nicely.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03"Their work will last for ages
0:28:03 > 0:28:06"and if the world remains so long,
0:28:06 > 0:28:09"people will come hundreds of years hence to look at
0:28:09 > 0:28:11"and to wonder at what they have done".
0:28:14 > 0:28:17And she was right - the navvies may be all but forgotten,
0:28:17 > 0:28:19but their legacy lives on.