by Roberta McGee
In the 1800s the Industrial Revolution brought huge changes to Britain. The introduction of George Stephenson's steam engine allowed the rapid growth of the railways which were needed to transport huge amounts of coal, iron ore and other resources quickly around the country. In 1830 there were only 125 miles of railway lines in Britain. By 1870 there were 13,000 miles (Source:Cobb,M, The Railways of Great Britain,2003). A large varied labour force was needed to work on this rapid expansion of the railways making it a boom time for railway workers.
Thomas Hewitson was a railway platelayer. A platelayer is a person who lays or maintains railway track. The name was first used in Britain for the men who laid and maintained the 'plateways' which were primarily used for coal haulage in the early 19th century. A plateway is an early kind of railway where the rails are made from cast iron. These workers were also known as railway surfacemen.
'By 1860, W.M. Mills stated that on Britain's 8863 miles of railway there were 8598 platelayers. Gangs of platelayers were marshalled under a foreman or ganger, and were allocated a section of line to look after. This had to be inspected twice a day and any faults in the track's guage. level and superelevation were to be mended by using their picks, shovels, hammers, wrenches and track guages. They also had to maintain line side fences and keep the culverts clear as well as retrieve any item that may have fallen from a train. All these tasks were to be done in all weathers.'
Thomas was born in 1854 in Cumberland, England and married Hannah Dixon in Arlecdon, Cumberland in 1875. The 1881 census finds Thomas and Hannah still living in Arlecdon with their two sons, Isaac Dixon (Hannah's son from a previous relationship) and John Hewitson. Both sons were born in Brigham, a township and a parish in Cockermouth District, Cumberland. Thomas's occupation is 'platelayer'.
The advent of the railways made a major difference to Cumberland which was rich in coal and iron ore and coal became a major export. Railway jobs were plentiful and it was here that Thomas learned his trade.
It was not only in Cumberland that the railways made a difference.
'The greatest step forward in nineteenth century Cumnock's economic life was the coming of the railway'.
Source: The New History of Cumnock, John Strawhorn p58
The Templand Viaduct was one of the great engineering feats on the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr line which opened on 20th May 1850. It consists of 13 arches - the highest being 175 feet above the Lugar Water. The Glaisnock Viaduct was built c1872 when the Glasgow and South Western Railways built a second railway line through Cumnock. It consists of 13 arches - the tallest being 75 feet.
Source: Cumnock History Group Website
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Templand Viaduct - Image CHG
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Glaisnock Viaduct
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These were mammoth undertakings and hundreds of Irish navvies (short for navigators) were employed.
'The navvies performed the most dangerous jobs: tunnelling, excavating and blasting, travelling with the railway as it was built and living together as a separate group'
Source: Almost History, 'Praising the Unsung Heroes', Ian Chapman-Curry
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Working on the railway late 1900s - source unknown
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They would live in huts at the side of the railway line and move along as it progressed.
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Typical navvies’ hut
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Thomas and Hannah moved to Ayrshire. Perhaps Thomas hoped to find work on the railways there and 1891 finds them living at No. 2 Templeton Place, Auchinleck along with their children Isaac, John R. (who was known as Jack), Sarah and William. Surprisingly Thomas was now a coalminer while his older sons were stone miners.
The 1901 and 1911 censuses show Thomas and Hannah had moved to Burnside Street, Glengarnock, Dalry. Thomas is a foreman platelayer on both censuses. Their son Jack had married Agnes Tanner in Cumnock in 1895 and, after having a family of three, Agnes died in 1900 at Templeton Place. So, in 1901 widower Jack and his children were living with his parents in Glengarnock. Jack then married Agnes Porteous in 1901 and they moved to Roadside Cottages in Old Cumnock. Two of his children from his marriage to Agnes Tanner remained with their grandparents in Glengarnock.
In 1906 their son Isaac Dixon, a coalminer, had emigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada with his Auchinleck-born wife Maggie Fleming and their children. They had six children born in Auchinleck and their youngest child Alexander was born in Nova Scotia. Tragically Alexander died in a coal mining accident in Inverness, Nova Scotia, in 1943 leaving behind a wife and five children.
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| Isaac Dixon and his wife Maggie Fleming |
During WW1 Isaac and Maggie nearly lost their oldest son Thomas who was a sapper with the 12 Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Forces. He was gassed when fighting overseas and declared dead. Three days later a young British nurse went to the morgue with a mirror. She held it under the noses of all the bodies and found three men alive. Thomas Dixon was one of them. King George V and Queen Mary visited the soldiers in the hospital and invited them for supper to Buckingham Palace upon their release where they sat at the table with the King and Queen. Thomas returned home to Inverness, Nova Scotia. married Mary and had five children. After his wife passed away he remarried Annie MacIsaac and had four more children.
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Thomas Dixon
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Next to emigrate was Thomas and Hannah's daughter Lizzie, her husband and family. They settled in Montreal in 1907.
On15th June 1913 Thomas and Hannah sailed out of Glasgow on the 'Letitia' to visit their son Isaac and daughter Lizzie in Canada. They were both 58 years old and Thomas's occupation is recorded as 'platelayer'. Perhaps the main reason for their visit to Canada was to support their son Isaac whose wife Maggie was very ill. Maggie died in Inverness, Nova Scotia a month after their arrival. In 1914 their remaining daughter Hannah and her husband left Scotland for a new life in Montreal.
Thomas and Hannah settled in Quebec, Thomas finding himself work as a gardener and living near their daughter Lizzie and her family.
That left Thomas and Hannah's two sons still living in Scotland. Like his father William James worked for the railway. He was a foreman railway surfaceman and lived in Glengarnock. His brother Isaac visited him from Canada in 1924. Tragically in 1929 William was killed by a passenger train while working on the line between Dalry and Glengarnock.
Jack remained in Old Cumnock. By 1914 he was living at 10 Glengyron Row. He had three children with his first wife Agnes Tanner and a further seven children with his second wife Agnes Porteous. Before he died Jack lived at 41 McCall Avenue, Cumnock (across the road from his son Campbell) and died in Holmhead Hospital in 1953.
Thomas and Hannah remained in Canada. Thomas died in Montreal in 1926 and Hannah died in 1940 in Wentworth, Ontario at the home of her daughter Hannah Geddes.
