Between 1851 and 1861 6 Huts for Railway Workers and their families were erected at West House fFrm. These Railway labourers were known as “Navigators” or more commonly “Navvies”.
Dr Dudley Fowkes has made considerable research into this phenomenon. The census shows that these huts housed a population of 19 men, 8 women, 5 girls and 10 boys of 14 years and under. 2 of these boys are described as Railway Labourers, one at 14 years old and the other 6 years old.
All were incomers, only 1 being Derbyshire and 6 Nottinghamshire born. 6 are known to be born in Ireland, and the names and origins of 4 are recorded as unknown. 20 are Railway Labourers, and 2 Bricklayers.
The head of each household in these huts also had a wife, who with her daughters presumably undertook the household duties of cooking, cleaning and washing for the whole hut.
Similar navvy encampments often had higher numbers of hard drinking single men, and fights with locals often resulted, as was the case in Belper. Perhaps the arrangement at Westhouses was to avoid such disputes.
A further 12 men in the Blackwell census are shown as Railway labourers in 1861, many lodging, and some living in existing properties with their families.
The accommodation was temporary and by 1871 the navvies and families had moved on. There is no record of any of them settling in the parish.
The photos here are not of Westhouses but show a Railway hut from the Settle Railway, and of a group of Irish “ Navvies”.