Many of our ancestors did back-breaking manual labour, or were skilled construction workers. The term ‘navvy’ (from ‘navigator’) originally denoted labourers excavating canals for inland navigation in the late 1700s, but later extended to builders of railways and roads. Georgian navvies, discarding jackets, worked in knee breeches, shirts, waistcoats and various headwear, linen or cotton shirts often worn loose, like short smocks. During the Victorian era trousers of corduroy, moleskin and other robust fabrics became popular outdoor workwear, worn with stout hobnailed leather boots. Shirt sleeves were rolled up and neckerchiefs, waistcoats (when worn) and fitted plain or striped woollen ‘brewers’ caps’ or ‘stocking caps’ were often brightly coloured. Eventually picturesque items disappeared and by the late 1800s dress was more sombre: cloth caps, dark waistcoats and trousers tied below the knees.

The building industry involved several trades, mainly male-dominated, although brick-making employed both men and women. Late-Georgian men wore the usual breeches and shirt with sleeves rolled up, brick-making women the customary working woman’s short ‘bed-gown’ over a coloured petticoat (skirt) with kerchief and apron, all wearing felt hats outdoors. Like other Victorian workwear, their dress progressively modernised, breeches eventually superseded by sturdy trousers, usually hitched up at the knees, while special protective gloves developed for the lads catching hot bricks thrown from the brick kiln. Bricklayers, builders’ labourers and other construction workers when not in shirt sleeves often wore short flannel work jackets or loose-fitting sleeved canvas or calico waistcoats.

Some tradesmen wore protective aprons, according to their work environment. Thomas Hardy described a stonemason of 1840 in Under the Greenwood Tree (1872): ‘he wore a long linen apron, reaching almost to his toes, corduroy breeches and gaiters, which together with his boots, graduated in tints of whitish brown by friction against the lime and stone. He also wore a very stiff fustian coat&helli; [whose] extremely large side pockets&helli; bulged out&helli; and as he was often engaged to work at buildings far away – his breakfast and dinners he carried in these pockets.’ Carpenters also wore large aprons, some having pointed bibs buttoned to the shirt front. Georgian carpenters often wore skull caps, but became known for their paper caps in the Victorian period, paper headwear then worn in various trades. In the early 1900s builders and general workmen often adopted knitted sweaters, collarless shirts with white or coloured neckerchiefs and cloth caps, often removing outerwear, their shirt sleeves rolled up.

Read Jayne’s latest guides to dating photos in the new print edition, Issue 9, available now via discoveryourancestors.co.uk