At the centre of the scene stands a young 'navvy', digging a hole in the ground for a sewer. The artist used genuine navvies as his models; one of them was killed in a scaffold accident before Madox Brown had completed the picture. Madox Brown had great admiration for the 'navvy class'.

Read what the artist said about this figure

'The young navvy who occupies the place of hero in this group, and in the picture, stands on what is termed a landing-stage, a platform placed half-way down the trench; two men from beneath shovel the earth up to him, and he shovels it on to the pile outside.'
'Here are presented the young navvy in the pride of manly health and beauty; the strong fully developed navvy who does his work and loves his beer...'