Here is the news for April 1891–canal worker killed by steam shovel.

I was doing a bit of family genealogy today using the absolutely wonderful village history site of Badsey, the village where I was brung up in Worcestershire.  During my researches I came across this little item referring to a young man whose remains lie only yards from those of my granny and grandad.  In fact I could even be a distant relative of this Richard Knight, because there are Knights in our family in the first half of the 19th century.  Anyway I thought you might be interested because it relates to a canal incident of sorts.  Here is the text

A steam navvy is another name for a mechanical shovel or digger, and in those days they were driven by steam and pictures show them having a large boiler at the back end. Click this link to see loads of excellent pictures of steam navvies working

It’s clear from the text that the employing company accepted no responsibility for this poor chaps death  “the men being supposed to look after themselves”.  It’s also interesting that a young man from the Vale of Evesham should have been working up on the Manchester Ship Canal.  Clearly the canals weren’t only dug by the Irish.