James Brindley

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James Brindley | Biography, Canals, & Facts | Britannica

James Brindley, (born 1716, Tunstead, near Buxton, Derbyshire, England—died September 30, 1772, Turnhurst, Staffordshire), pioneer canal builder, who constructed the Bridgewater Canal from Worsley to Manchester, which is recognized as the first English canal of major economic importance. Beginning as a millwright, Brindley designed and built an engine for draining coalpits at Clifton, Lancashire, in 1752. In 1759 Francis Egerton, 3rd duke of Bridgewater, hired him to build a 16-km (10-mile) canal to transport coal from the duke’s mines at Worsley to the textile-manufacturing centre at Manchester. Brindley’s solution to the problem included a subterranean channel, extending from the barge