Engineer and canal builder, born in Thornsett, Derbyshire, C England, UK. Apprenticed to a millwright, he became an engineer, and contrived a water engine for draining a coalmine (1752). Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, employed him to build the canal between Worsley and Manchester (1759), a difficult enterprise completed in 1772. He also commenced the Grand Trunk Canal, and completed the Birmingham, Chesterfield, and other canals. He was illiterate, solving most of his problems without writings or drawings.
His reputation brought him to the attention of the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater who was looking for a way to improve the transport of coal from his coal mines at Worsley to Manchester.
In 1759 The Duke commissioned Brindley to construct a canal to do just that. The resulting Bridgewater Canal, opened in 1761, is often regarded as the first British canal of the modern era (though the Sankey Canal has a good claim to that title), and was a major technical triumph. The most impressive feature of the canal was an aqueduct which carried the canal at an elevation of 13 metres (39 feet) over the River Irwell at Barton.
Brindley's reputation soon spread and he was soon commissioned to construct more canals. He extended the Bridgewater to Runcorn, connecting it to his next major work, the Trent and Mersey Canal.
Brindley believed it would be possible to use canals to link the four great rivers of England: the Mersey, Trent, Severn and Thames.
Since the potteries around Stoke-on-Trent were in desperate need of something better than the pack-horse to carry their fragile wares, they wholeheatedly supported the connection of Staffordshire to the Trent and to the Mersey.
The Trent and Mersey Canal was the first part of this ambitious network, and the later Chester Canal, started in 1772, was also a result.
However, although he and his assistants surveyed the whole potential system, for, from the start, he had asserted his view of the Trent and Mersey as the "Grand Trunk Canal" - the Grand Cross of waterways across the country - he would not live to see it completed.
In total, throughout his life Brindley built 365 miles (587 km) of canals and many watermills, including the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal the Coventry Canal, the Oxford Canal and numerous others, and he also constructed the watermill at Leek, now the Brindley Water Museum.
In 1771, work had begun on the Chesterfield Canal, but while surveying a new branch of the Trent and Mersey between Froghall and Leek, he was drenched in a severe rain storm.
He died at Turnhurst within sight of the unfinished Harecastle Tunnel on 30 September 1772.
His death was noted in the Chester Courant of December 1st 1772 in the form of an epitaph:
JAMES BRINDLEY lies amongst these Rocks,
He made Canals, Bridges, and Locks,
To convey Water; he made Tunnels
for Barges, Boats, and Air-Vessels;
He erected several Banks,
Mills, Pumps, Machines, with Wheels and Cranks;
He was famous t'invent Engines,
Calculated for working Mines;
He knew Water, its Weight and Strength,
Turn'd Brooks, made Soughs to a great Length;
While he used the Miners' Blast,
He stopp'd Currents from running too fast;
There ne'er was paid such Attention
As he did to Navigation.
But while busy with Pit or Well,
His Spirits sunk below Level;
And, when too late, his Doctor found,
Water sent him to the Ground.
He is remembered in Birmingham by Brindley Drive (on the site of former canal yards), the Brindleyplace mixed-use development and a pub, The James Brindley (both being canal-side features), and the James Brindley School for children in Birmingham's hospitals;
He is also remembered in Runcorn by "The Brindley" Arts Centre which opened in the autumn of 2004.
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