There were 17,000 of them. Their toil over six years was the foundation of a magnificent feat of engineering. Now 135 years later the navvies who built the Manchester Ship Canal will be recognised.
A memorial to the labourers whose graft created the 36 miles waterway from Salford to the Irish Sea is to be created. It is one of four schemes which have won grants from Historic England.
Workers came from Ireland - 5,000 - Scotland, Wales, and South West England as well as the streets of Manchester and Salford. Many paid the ultimate price as they grafted to feed their families back home. Figures for the number of labourers who died digging the canal range from 200 - estimated by insurers for the company - to 1,200 gleaned from records kept by workers groups.
