Hello Rita I have been transcribing Wilts for FreeCen for a while and when ever I get stuff from a railway town they are there. I would assume they were working on the railway cuttings and tunnels. There are a lot in the area as it is "rolling" countryside. Mike ex Wantage Berks where there are railway cuttings too I was trawling through an 1841 census website for Wiltshire and came across many heads of families and whole places where the persons occupations were given as Excavators. Curiously I wondered if anyone would know what sort of excavations they would have been involved in, in 1841 ?