3-008-360 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Members of the South Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps at work by torchlight in the gardens of Burlington House, Piccadilly, clearing the ground for a drill-shed, 1862. 'Amateur navvies...[building] a new room of corrugated iron, 150ft. long by 50ft. broad, for the use of the companies of the regiment situated in London. It was found necessary to remove an immense bank of earth, containing many hundred cubic yards, so as to get the desired level for the floor of the drill-room...Lord Ranelagh, the indefatigable commandant of the South Middlesex, called for volunteers...[and]each night a squad of from 60 to 100 men have been at work from four to ten o'clock with pick, spade, and barrow, in true navvy style...The work was carried on by the light of cressets, with enormous fires in them, camphine lamps, and torches...To judge from the work done, the problem of fortifying London in case of invasion is at last solved. Our volunteer corps would, judging by this instance, turn out any number of most efficient navvies at a moment's notice to construct earthworks in the vicinity of the metropolis. The amount of skill and energy displayed by these amateur navvies...shows what can be done by our young men when they determine to carry out anything'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.