James Brindley
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
. He was born in Tunstead
Tunstead, Derbyshire
Tunstead is a village in Derbyshire, England, situated above Great Rocks Dale north of Buxton.It should not be confused with Tunstead Milton, which is roughly five miles to the north west....
, Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
, and lived much of his life in Leek, Staffordshire
Leek, Staffordshire
Leek is a market town in the county of Staffordshire, England, on the River Churnet. It is an ancient borough and was granted its royal charter in 1214.It is the administrative centre for the Staffordshire Moorlands District Council...
, becoming one of the most notable engineers of the 18th century.
Early life
Born into a well-to-do family of yeoman farmers and craftsmen in the Peak DistrictPeak District
The Peak District is an upland area in central and northern England, lying mainly in northern Derbyshire, but also covering parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, and South and West Yorkshire....
which in those days was extremely isolated, he received little formal education but was educated at home by his mother. At age 17, encouraged by his mother, he was apprenticed to a millwright
Millwright
A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...
in Sutton, Macclesfield
Sutton, Macclesfield
Sutton Lane Ends or Sutton is a semi-rural village and civil parish that is situated roughly a mile south of Macclesfield; it includes the hamlets of Gurnett and Jarman. Sutton is in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England...
and soon showed exceptional skill and ability. Having completed his apprenticeship he set up business for himself as a wheelwright in Leek
Leek, Staffordshire
Leek is a market town in the county of Staffordshire, England, on the River Churnet. It is an ancient borough and was granted its royal charter in 1214.It is the administrative centre for the Staffordshire Moorlands District Council...
, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
. In 1750 he expanded his business by renting a millwright
Millwright
A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...
's shop in Oakham
Oakham
-Oakham's horseshoes:Traditionally, members of royalty and peers of the realm who visited or passed through the town had to pay a forfeit in the form of a horseshoe...
. He soon established a reputation for ingenuity and skill at repairing many different kinds of machinery. In 1752 he designed and built an engine for draining a coal mine, the Wet Earth Colliery
Wet Earth Colliery
The Wet Earth Colliery has a unique place in British coal mining history, apart from being one of the earliest pits in the country; it is the place where the engineer James Brindley made water run uphill...
at Clifton
Clifton, Lancashire
Clifton is a village in the English county of Lancashire and in the district of Fylde. The village is part of the civil parish of Newton with Clifton...
in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
. Three years later he built a machine for a silk-mill at Congleton
Congleton
Congleton is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Dane, to the west of the Macclesfield Canal and 21 miles south of Manchester. It has a population of 25,750.-History:The first settlements in...
.
Early canal engineering
Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater
Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater , known as Lord Francis Egerton until 1748, was a British nobleman, the younger son of the 1st Duke...
who was looking for a way to improve the transport of coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
from his coal mines at Worsley
Worsley
Worsley is a town in the metropolitan borough of the City of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies along the course of Worsley Brook, west of Manchester. The M60 motorway bisects the area....
to Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
.
In 1759 The Duke commissioned the construction of a canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
to do just that. The resulting Bridgewater Canal
Bridgewater Canal
The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester...
, 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. Brindley was commissioned as the consulting engineer and, although he has often been credited as the genius behind the construction of the canal, it is now thought that the main designers were Sir Thomas Egerton himself, who had some engineering training, and the resident engineer John Gilbert
John Gilbert (agent)
John Gilbert was land agent and engineer to the third Duke of Bridgewater and is credited with the idea which led to the building of the Bridgewater Canal....
. Brindley was engaged, at the insistence of Gilbert, to assist with particular problems such as the Barton Aqueduct. This most impressive feature of the canal carried the canal at an elevation of 13 metres (39 ft) over the River Irwell
River Irwell
The River Irwell is a long river which flows through the Irwell Valley in the counties of Lancashire and Greater Manchester in North West England. The river's source is at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately north of Bacup, in the parish of Cliviger, Lancashire...
at Barton. (In 1893, on the building of the Manchester Ship Canal
Manchester Ship Canal
The Manchester Ship Canal is a river navigation 36 miles long in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Several sets of locks lift...
, the aqueduct
Navigable aqueduct
Navigable aqueducts are bridge structures that carry navigable waterway canals over other rivers, valleys, railways or roads. They are primarily distinguished by their size, carrying a larger cross-section of water than most water-supply aqueducts...
was replaced by the equally impressive Barton Swing Aqueduct
Barton Swing Aqueduct
The Barton Swing Aqueduct is a moveable navigable aqueduct in Barton upon Irwell in Greater Manchester, England. It carries the Bridgewater Canal across the Manchester Ship Canal. The swinging action allows large vessels using the Manchester Ship Canal to pass underneath and smaller narrowboats to...
.)
Brindley's technique minimized the amount of earth moving by developing the principle of contouring. He preferred to use a circuitous route which avoided embankments, and tunnels rather than cuttings. Though this recognized the primitive methods of earth-moving available at the time, it meant that his canals were often much longer than a more adventurous approach would have produced. But his greatest contribution was the technique of clay puddling
Puddling (engineering)
Puddle is a watertight material based on clay used in building and maintaining canals or reservoirs. Puddling is the process of lining the channel with puddle....
to make the bed of the canal watertight.
Master canal engineer
Brindley's reputation soon spread and he was soon commissioned to construct more canals. He extended the Bridgewater to RuncornRuncorn
Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port within the borough of Halton in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. In 2009, its population was estimated to be 61,500. The town is on the southern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form Runcorn Gap. Directly to the north...
, connecting it to his next major work, the Trent and Mersey Canal
Trent and Mersey Canal
The Trent and Mersey Canal is a in the East Midlands, West Midlands, and North West of England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities—east of Burton upon Trent and west of Middlewich—it is a wide canal....
. At this time Brindley had never built a lock and he first built an experimental lock in the grounds of Turnhurst
Turnhurst
Turnhurst Hall was a substantial house which stood in an area of what is now Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, near to the hamlet of Newchapel in Newcastle-under-Lyme...
, a house he had bought near the summit, and this determined the design of the narrow canal lock which characterized most of the canals in the Midlands, with a single upper gate and double mitre lower gates. These were for an elongated version of the boats designed for the underground system at Worsley, the so-called 'starvationers', which were subsequently known as narrowboat
Narrowboat
A narrowboat or narrow boat is a boat of a distinctive design, made to fit the narrow canals of Great Britain.In the context of British Inland Waterways, "narrow boat" refers to the original working boats built in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries for carrying goods on the narrow canals...
s and this decision was to cast a long shadow on the English canal system.
River Mersey
The River Mersey is a river in North West England. It is around long, stretching from Stockport, Greater Manchester, and ending at Liverpool Bay, Merseyside. For centuries, it formed part of the ancient county divide between Lancashire and Cheshire....
, Trent
River Trent
The River Trent is one of the major rivers of England. Its source is in Staffordshire on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through the Midlands until it joins the River Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber Estuary, which empties into the North Sea below Hull and Immingham.The Trent...
, Severn
River Severn
The River Severn is the longest river in Great Britain, at about , but the second longest on the British Isles, behind the River Shannon. It rises at an altitude of on Plynlimon, Ceredigion near Llanidloes, Powys, in the Cambrian Mountains of mid Wales...
and Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
(the "Grand Cross" scheme). In 1762 he 'set out for Chester and Shropshire survey or a raconitering' according to his diary. He had with him a sketch map of the continuation of the Dee southwards past Whitchurch.
Since the potteries around Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
were in desperate need of something better than the pack-horse to carry their fragile wares, they wholeheartedly supported the connection of Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
to the Trent and to the Mersey. The first sod was cut by Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood was an English potter, founder of the Wedgwood company, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. A prominent abolitionist, Wedgwood is remembered for his "Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" anti-slavery medallion. He was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family...
in 1766 and Brindley carried it away in a barrow. From Runcorn, the canal would climb by a series of thirty-five locks
Lock (water transport)
A lock is a device for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is...
, pass through a three thousand yard long tunnel (the Harecastle Tunnel
Harecastle Tunnel
Harecastle Tunnel is a canal tunnel on the Trent and Mersey Canal at Kidsgrove in Staffordshire. It is made up of two separate, parallel, tunnels described as Brindley and the later Telford after the engineers that constructed them. Today only the Telford tunnel is navigable...
), then descend by a further forty locks to join the Trent at Wilden Ferry, near Shardlow
Shardlow
Shardlow is a village in Derbyshire, England about 8 km southeast of Derby and 12 km southwest of Nottingham. It is part of the civil parish of Shardlow and Great Wilne, and the district of South Derbyshire. It is also very close to the border with Leicestershire which follows the River Trent, ...
. There was mounting ridicule about his scheme and in the event, although the canal opened from Shardlow to near Stafford
Stafford
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately north of Wolverhampton and south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14...
in 1770, it took eleven years to drive the tunnel.
The Trent and Mersey Canal
Trent and Mersey Canal
The Trent and Mersey Canal is a in the East Midlands, West Midlands, and North West of England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities—east of Burton upon Trent and west of Middlewich—it is a wide canal....
was the first part of this ambitious network, and the later Chester Canal
Chester Canal
The Chester Canal was a canal linking the south Cheshire town of Nantwich with the River Dee at Chester, providing a route for produce from Nantwich to reach Chester and, beyond it, the sea via the Dee estuary.-History:...
, 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. The Harecastle Tunnel finally opened in 1777 and coal was finally transported from the Midlands to the Thames at Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
in January 1790, some 18 years after Brindley's death. Development of the network, therefore, had to be left to other engineers, such as Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...
.
In total, throughout his life Brindley built 365 miles (587 km) of canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
s and many watermill
Watermill
A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...
s, including the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is a narrow navigable canal in the English Midlands, passing through the counties of Staffordshire and Worcestershire....
the Coventry Canal
Coventry Canal
The Coventry Canal is a navigable narrow canal in the Midlands of England.It starts in Coventry and ends 38 miles north at Fradley Junction, just north of Lichfield, where it joins the Trent and Mersey Canal...
, the Oxford Canal
Oxford Canal
The Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
and numerous others, and he also constructed the watermill at Leek, now the Brindley Water Museum.
Last years and epitaph
Brindley married Anne Henshall on 8 December 1765 when he was 49 and she was 19. Anne's brother, Hugh HenshallHugh Henshall
Hugh Henshall was an English civil engineer, noted for his work on canals. He was born in North Staffordshire and was a student of the canal engineer James Brindley, who was also his brother-in-law.-Early life:...
was involved in canal construction himself, on the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal
Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal
The Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal is a disused canal in Greater Manchester, England, built to link Bolton and Bury with Manchester. The canal, when fully opened, was 15 miles 1 furlong long. It was accessed via a junction with the River Irwell in Salford...
. The couple had two daughters, Anne and Susannah.
In 1771, work had begun on the Chesterfield Canal
Chesterfield Canal
The Chesterfield Canal is in the north of England and it is known locally as 'Cuckoo Dyke'. It was opened in 1777 and ran 46 miles from the River Trent at West Stockwith, Nottinghamshire to Chesterfield, Derbyshire...
, but while surveying a new branch of the Trent and Mersey between Froghall and Leek
Leek, Staffordshire
Leek is a market town in the county of Staffordshire, England, on the River Churnet. It is an ancient borough and was granted its royal charter in 1214.It is the administrative centre for the Staffordshire Moorlands District Council...
, he was drenched in a severe rain storm. It had happened many times before, but he was unable to dry out properly at the inn at which he was staying, and caught a chill. He became seriously ill and returned to his home at Turnhurst
Turnhurst
Turnhurst Hall was a substantial house which stood in an area of what is now Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, near to the hamlet of Newchapel in Newcastle-under-Lyme...
, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, where Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin was an English physician who turned down George III's invitation to be a physician to the King. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave trade abolitionist,inventor and poet...
attended him and discovered that he was suffering from diabetes.
James Brindley died at Turnhurst
Turnhurst
Turnhurst Hall was a substantial house which stood in an area of what is now Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, near to the hamlet of Newchapel in Newcastle-under-Lyme...
within sight of the unfinished Harecastle Tunnel on 27 September 1772. He was buried on 30 September, just nine days after the completion of his Birmingham Canal
BCN Main Line
The BCN Main Line, or Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line describes the evolving route of the Birmingham Canal between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in England....
, at St. James in Newchapel
Newchapel
Newchapel is a hamlet in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, close to Kidsgrove in Staffordshire, England.Newchapel was originally named Thursfield. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Turvoldesfeld...
in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, England. The commemorative plaque (1956) at the Church shows his date of death as September 25. The inscription on his grave reads "James Brindley, of Turnhurst, Engineer, was interred Sept. 30, 1772, aged 56."
Brindley's widow remarried in 1775 and lived until 1799.
Brindley's death was noted in the Chester Courant of 1 December 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
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
by Brindley Drive (on the site of former canal yards), the Brindleyplace
Brindleyplace
Brindleyplace is a large mixed-use canalside development, in the Westside district of Birmingham, England. It is often written erroneously as Brindley Place, the name of the street around which it is built...
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; in Leek with the James Brindley Mill; and by numerous other streets in the areas in which he worked. Within the grounds of James Brindley Primary School at Parr Fold Avenue, Worsley is a wooden barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
once used for the transportation of coal from local mines. There is a statue of him (leaning over his desk) by James Walter Butler (bronze, 18 September 1998) located in the canal basin by Leicester Row, Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, and another by Colin Melbourne (bronze, 20 July 1990) in Lower Bedford Street, Etruria
Etruria, Staffordshire
Etruria is a suburb of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England.-Home of Wedgwood:Etruria was the fourth and penultimate site for the Wedgwood pottery business. Josiah Wedgwood, who was previously based in Burslem, opened his new works in 1769. It was named after the Italian district of Etruria,...
, Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
, at the junction of the Trent and Mersey Canal
Trent and Mersey Canal
The Trent and Mersey Canal is a in the East Midlands, West Midlands, and North West of England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities—east of Burton upon Trent and west of Middlewich—it is a wide canal....
with the Caldon Canal
Caldon Canal
The Caldon Canal , opened in 1779, runs 18 miles from Etruria, in Stoke-on-Trent where it leaves the Trent and Mersey Canal at the summit level, to Froghall, Staffordshire...
,opposite Etruria Industrial Museum
Etruria Industrial Museum
The Etruria Industrial Museum is located in Etruria, Staffordshire in England. Located along the Caldon Canal, the museum is a Grade II* listed building which includes a working steam engine called "Princess". The museum buildings were originally a bone and flint mill built in 1857 to grind...
.
He is also remembered in Runcorn by "The Brindley
The Brindley
The Brindley is a theatre and arts centre in the town of Runcorn, Cheshire, England. Located by the Bridgewater Canal, the centre is named after the canal's engineer, James Brindley. It opened in autumn 2004; the architects were John Miller and Partners...
" Arts Centre which opened in the autumn of 2004.
There is also James Brindley Science College
James Brindley Science College
Ormiston Horizon Academy, formerly know as James Brindley High School/James Brindley Science College, is an 11-16 mixed school located at the top most point of St Michaels Road in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Most students are from the surrounding areas such as Chell Heath, Fegg Hayes,...
(previously James Brindley High School) in Chell
Chell
Chell may refer to:* Chell , a Star Trek: Voyager character* Chell , the protagonist of the 2007 video game Portal and its 2011 sequel Portal 2* , a chemical cell - used in the context of Bottom-up Synthetic Biology...
, Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
, and also, the Brindley's Lock pub on Silverstone Crescent, Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
.
The well in the village of Wormhill
Wormhill
Wormhill is a village in Derbyshire, England, situated east by north of Buxton.Wormhill was mentioned in the Domesday book as belonging to Henry de Ferrers and containing of meadow. The name is said by the English Place-Name Society to be derived from the Old English 'Wyrma's hyll'.There was a...
is dedicated to Brindley. Wormhill is in the same Parish as Tunstead where he was born.
See also
- History of the British canal systemHistory of the British canal systemThe British canal system of water transport played a vital role in the United Kingdom's Industrial Revolution at a time when roads were only just emerging from the medieval mud and long trains of pack horses were the only means of "mass" transit by road of raw materials and finished products The...
- Waterways in the United KingdomWaterways in the United KingdomWaterways in the United Kingdom is a link page for any waterway, river, canal, firth or estuary in the United Kingdom.-Related topics:*Waterway, water power, navigable, navigable aqueduct, navigable river, navigable waters, navigability, Waterway society, List of waterway societies in the United...
- List of civil engineers