GLOSSARY

GOING ON A RANDY A favourite sport of navvies, meaning going on a drinking spree, which could last for several days. MUCK The term referred to anything that navvies dug out of the ground, whether it was mud, sand, stones or shale. ON THE TRAMP Tramping the country looking for work. PURRING- BOOTS Stout boots with an iron- plate, protruding a good inch in front of the toe, which were often used by navvies when fighting. SHANT The navvies had an ironic name for their huts, the slang for ‘shan’t’ or ‘shall not’. This word gave us ‘shanty town’ – ‘shall not town’. TOMMY The navvy’s word for food, which was bought from the ‘tommy shop’, and carried in his neckerchief.