spadesman

plural spadesmen

1. A man who uses a spade or shovel.

   So Dawkins' pick swung up and down again, up and down, and at every few strokes the spadesmen at his left or right stooped hurriedly and pulled from the deepening hole a fresh lump of silver.

   1928, C. S. Forester, The Daughter of the Hawk

   2 more examples

   […] without the unnecessary operation of turning the slice upside down, as practised by the British spadesmen; but simply by throwing it, so that the top of the slice may always fall in the lower part of the furrow, agreeably to the practise of Flemish spadesmen, and in general the spadesmen of all warm climates.

   1838, The Gardener's Magazine and Register of Rural and Domestic Improvement, page 196

   When excavating in ordinary loose soil to a depth not exceeding four feet, a spadesman can fill a standing barrow in about the same time as a wheeler can transport it to a distance of 30 yards along a level plank and return to the spadesman with his empty barrow.

   1901, George Edward Davis, A handbook of chemical engineering