THE NAVVIES

The excavation of the New Cut, 1804-9, created a more permanent physical division of Bedminster from Bristol. This, and the later building of the Bristol to Exeter Railway, exposed the people of Bedminster to the hard-living, hard-drinking, licentious navvies who worked on these undertakings. Mostly composed of itinerant workers, they descended upon an area like an army of occupation, putting the fear of God into the hearts of local people.

The navvies lived in shanty towns consisting of rough, turf-roofed dwellings made by themselves, or supplied by the contractors. The true navvy did the hardest and most hazardous work, such as the blasting and cutting, while the most menial tasks of filling the trucks etc was left to boys and locally recruited labourers. Their comforts, amid very primitive surroundings, were basic; two pounds of meat and a gallon of beer a day, together with two pounds of bread.

When in areas where there was no good drinking water they indulged themselves in beer instead. This indulgence by the nawies under such circumstances was not altogether discouraged by the contractors, for it was usually they who sold the beer to their workers, as well as the food.

Generally paid once a month, prior to their pay the men lived on credit. A form of credit, to the amount of what pay he had already earned, would be given to him and this had to be exchanged at the contractors' truck shop where, inevitably, the man was swindled.

While navvies drank at their work and this was the cause of many accidents, their real drinking came on pay day when they went on the monthly 'randy'. The latter was a pure drunken frolic which, without exception, ended in a fight. Sometimes during their randy some of the men would go out into the surrounding countryside to poach fresh meat for the table.

While the navvies' potential for hell-raising did not enamour them to the local populace, their worth to the contractors was recognised by the fact that they could command three times the normal wages of a labourer. When no wagon run was possible, then the earth had to be carried up the sloping walls of the cutting and dumped over the side. Navvy 'runs', consisting of laying planks up the side of the cutting, allowed barrows to be wheeled up them, by the strongest men.

A rope was attached to the barrow and also to the mans belt and then went up the side of the cutting to a pulley at the top, where it was attached to a horse. When the barrow was ready the horse driver at the top was signalled and the man was drawn up the side of the cutting, balancing the barrow in front of him. After tipping his barrow, the man want down the side of the cutting again, drawing his barrow after him, with his back to it. At all times he had to be prepared to jump for his life should the horse slip.

When the New Cut was excavated the use of steam engines did away with much of this 'donkey work'. A great deal of the course from Rownham to Totterdown was through hard sandstone and this stone was utilised in the building of wall sections of the locks and harbour basins. A vast amount of debris is said to have been dumped along the southern edge of the New Cut, elevating Coronation Road above the ground to the south.

At first two bridges were built over the New Cut. Hillsbridge (Bath Bridge) and Harford's Bridge (Bedminster Bridge) at the position where their modern counterparts stand.

The original Bedminster Bridge was of arched stone but later a steel structure was built. This in turn was superceded by another steel bridge about 1880, when first a steel footbridge was built, prior to the removal of the old bridge.

The new bridge was opened by the Mayor, Mr Joseph Weston, some four or five years later. The temporary footbridge was removed upstream and placed into position so as to link the Langton Street and St Luke's Road areas.

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