General Chat

Thank you folks for your comments Howard, I was amazed by how many people travelled round the coast to new places for both work and pleasure. I had always thought of them going by river or canal, but it seems that quite a few went by sea Chris, your great grandfather would certainly have had a better life style as a railwayman than as a labourer. Accommodation was often provided for rail workers, which would have been very modern in its day. I remember the railway cottages near where I lived, where my grandmother lived for a while Dawn and Paul and Christine, P P and Rosalyn, it’s such a shame we haven’t aural histories from folks like your families, they are what are needed to give us all a flavour of how life was in those days. Teri, your ancestor was probably not the only one adversely affected. Huge numbers of people must have been killed building the railways. Nell, sorry I haven’t seen your thread on the railways. For one of my essays for my course I covered how the coming of the railways to Bromley, in Kent, affected the family I was researching. Our tutor was telling us of the slum clearance that went on in London so that the railways could be built. The people were not given new homes so just moved into another already overcrowded area, and exacerbated the situation in that area. I researched a village where the navvies were show on the 1841 census, it’s a shame I didn’t have time to transcribe all the names of those working at the time. Mind you some of the details were rather sketchy, and I guess the men may not have always known where they were born, so unless the surname was fairly unusual it may have been difficult to attach them to families It was interesting to see that there was an increase in the population of the village after the navvies left, possibly the local girls found the workmen attractive having only met farm labourers previously Brian, maps of the before and after of the railways must be fascinating, it made a huge impact on the countryside, didn’t it?

I know it affected my paternal grandmother's family because her father worked for the railway and moved from Buckinghamshire to Wales and lived in a railway house.

Our office by the Post Office Tower was built on allotments. I found a map online dated about 1840 which shows that and you can clearly see why Euston station was built where it is, there's a tract of undeveloped farmland that leads in from the north to where the station is.

My great aunt was born at Guthrie Station , Forfar, Scotland in 1899 , her father was a railway worker -not sure what he did exactly. His mother , widowed, was a gatekeeper in 1881 census. She had a lodger who was a Rail Porter. It`s very interesting , Dee. Rosalyn

My Gr Gr Grandad got run over by a train in 1904, so you could say the railway affected him a lot!! sorry :O)

Yonks ago I read a history of London which had a chapter on the growth of the railways, and I did have a thread on the Tips Board about it. Apart from the obvious effects - creating jobs for railway labourers, ticket inspectors, porters etc (railways years ago were very labour-intensive, and each station had several staff), and making movement from one part of the country to another more possible, the railways affected London particularly. Firstly, lots of poor people's dwellings were pulled down to make way for the railway lines - no compensation then! It also led to the birth of commuter villages around London with middle-class commuter homes being built to house people who went to work in London on the train. How it affected my family in particular is that my gt x 3 grandfather was a railway labourer in 1841 and 1851 and not at home - or anywhere else that I can see - on census night. He inconveniently died in 1858, so I have never seen him at home with his wife and sons. nell

Yes, I have thought about this quite a bit. My father worked all his life for the railways, in the Wolverton railways works. Wolverton is a raiilway town, and if not for the railway, then who knows, perhaps Milton Keynes would never have been developed ?

Hi Dee, My great grandfather started his working life as a labourer in a quarry as his father was before him. With the coming of the railway he was able to get a job as a fireman then progressed on to being an engine driver. I understand that this was quite a good job and certainly seemed to give the family a better standard of living than a quarry worker. My father seemed very proud to tell me that his grandfather had been a railway engine driver. Sadly my g grandfather got TB and died aged only 30 in 1901. I had great enjoyment researching this side of the family. Love Chris

One side of mums family all worked on the railways and went from cambridgeshire to London then to hertfordshire, would love to of heard their tales.

Dee I often wonder how my ancestors came from south devon up to wales that was before the severn tunnel was opened and modern transport early (1800s) was it rail or by boat wish I could ask them Howardxx

The building of the railways provided employment, but on a negative side it destroyed great tracts of countryside. Excursion trains enabled city dwellers to have days out at the seaside White-collar workers could move to the suburbs and enjoy ‘rural’ life whilst working in cities Companies like W H Smith were formed as a direct result of rail travel Have you any interesting tales of how your family were affected by the growth of the rail industry that you would like to share? Dee ;-))

How the coming of the railways in the mid 1800’s, affected your ancestors?