In brief: In the middle of a gold rush the Hunter River Rail company was trying to build a railway from Newcastle to East Maitland but their navvies kept leaving for the goldfields. So they recruited navvies from England, purchased 300 ton of railway iron and a locomotive engine and put the lot on board the Anglia. Cheers Wendy -----Original Message----- From: MargM [mailto:genknut@optusnet.com.au] Sent: Saturday, 25 February 2006 7:30 AM To: AUS-NSW-Hunter-Valley-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [HV] Re: Railway navvies 1855 ?? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Howard" <hdb@hotkey.net.au> To: <AUS-NSW-Hunter-Valley-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 11:19 PM Subject: [HV] Re: Railway navvies 1855 ?? >Hi Howard > The WIGGINS you mentioned, as it is capitals I assume it > is a surname ? > Of course ! > My reason for asking we have people by that name living > near us and Mrs Wiggins is researching her husbands > family particularly the Irish connection. > This HOLMES family came from Lincolnshire so I guess the WIGGINS sister came from the same area That's insteresing there were 2 ship loads of navvies arrive in 1855 Never stop learning with this hobby Bye MargM Hunter Valley List Admin