MEN, women and children who died during the construction of the Settle-Carlisle railway line were remembered at a dedication of a new memorial stone.

The stone was put up following the discovery of 72 unmarked graves at St John's Parish Church, Cowgill, which belonged to the workers and their families.

The Rev. Peter Boyles researched the graves after he discovered them and found that the workers lived in a camp high up above Dent for six years. Their living conditions were as extreme as their working conditions: the camp was makeshift and at high altitude, in the middle of a peat bog.

Records show 72 people died during the construction of the railway, which was built between 1869 and 1875.

Cowgill-based letter-carver Pip Hall was commissioned to create the stone memorial.

At the dedication, held at the church on Sunday, Pip played an Irish tune 'The Navvy on the Line' on fiddles with Carolyn Francis to re-create the atmosphere during entertainment evenings in the shanty towns.

The congregation included representatives from the Yorkshire Dales National Park and the Friends of the Settle to Carlisle railway, both of whom gave grants towards the completion of the memorial.

The memorial itself is made of a piece of Millstone Grit from Skipton near the Settle to Carlisle railway.

For the first time in nearly 150 years, the names of the men, women and children who died building the railway were read out and remembered.