The statue was erected to commemorate James Brindley who was an engineer and canal builder. The statue is located opposite the Etruria Industrial Museum, at Etruria Wharf.
James Brindley was an engineer and canal builder who was born in Thornsett, Derbyshire.
He was apprenticed to a millwright Abraham Bennett, a wheelwright, whose workshop at Sutton near Macclesfield still stands (though it is now a garage attached to a private house). He then set himself up in business as a wheelwright in Leek, Staffordshire.
In 1752 he contrived a water engine for draining a coalmine.
In 1759 Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, employed him to build the canal between Worsley and Manchester, this was a difficult enterprise was not completed in 1772.
During the 1760s he was employed on the building of the Coventry Canal Basin. He also commenced the Grand Trunk Canal, and completed the Birmingham, Chesterfield, and other canals.
Contrary to some reports, James could read and write perfectly well and his notebook in the Leek Museum testifies to a confident and clear writing style. (
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The statue ia a life sized bronze situated on a stone plinth -1.8m high x 1m square.
'The statue of James Brindley stands on a tall square-sectioned plinth, facing the canal he was responsible for building. He is shown in contemporary eighteenth-century dress with his right hand resting upon a theodolite, an instrument he would have used when carrying out his work of surveying land for the canals. His left arm is bent at the elbow and tucked behind his back. Compared to James Butler's statue of James Brindley by the canal in Coventry, this figure is shown in a very wooden stance.' (
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James Brindley: (1716-1770)
Date of design: 1990
Unveiling: Unveiled 20 July 1990
Sculptor: Colin Melbourne
Commissioned by: Brindley Committee
Inscriptions:
(on front of plinth)
'JAMES
BRINDLEY
CANAL ENGINEER
1716-1772
UNVEILED BY
LORD HESKETH
UNDER SECRETARY
OF STATE
FOR THE
ENVIRONMENT
20TH JULY 1990'
(around the base of the plinth, from front)
'THIS STATUE WAS ERECTED BY THE
BRINDLEY COMMITTEE
GUY BANKS. BILL COSTELLO.
VERA ROWLEY. JOHN SUTTON. DAVID SALT.
BRIAN KEELING. GORDON MYATT. PAT OSBORN'
(back of plinth)
'SCULPTOR
COLIN MELBOURNE
ON BEHALF OF THE CALDON CANAL
SOCIETY
THE STOKE-ON-TRENT BOAT CLUB
THE INLAND WATERWAYS
ASSOCIATION.
THE TRENT AND MERSEY
CANAL SOCIETY
THE CITY OF
STOKE-ON-TRENT
AND BRITISH WATERWAYS'
The statue was unveiled on 20th July 1990 by Lord Hesketh. He held the office of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment between 1989 and 1990.
Alexander Fermor-Hesketh, 3rd Baron Hesketh
"Thomas Alexander Fermor-Hesketh, 3rd Baron Hesketh, KBE, PC (born 28 October 1950), is a British peer and UK Independence Party politician.
Hesketh succeeded in the barony (and baronetcy) on 6 October 1955, aged four, when his father, Frederick Fermor-Hesketh, 2nd Baron Hesketh, died aged 39.
He was educated at Ampleforth College, Yorkshire. He went on to work for Dean Witter Inc in San Francisco before returning to manage his family's businesses.
Hesketh married Hon. Claire Georgina Watson, daughter of Joseph Rupert Eric Robert Watson, 3rd Baron Manton and Mary Elizabeth Hallinan, on 21 May 1977 and has three children:
Hon. Flora Mary Fermor-Hesketh (born 1981)
Hon. Sophia Christian Fermor-Hesketh (born 1984)
Hon. Frederick Hatton Fermor-Hesketh (born 13 October 1988)
Lord Hesketh's children use the surname Hesketh day-to-day.
In 2006, Lord Hesketh sold the family seat, Easton Neston, at Towcester, Northamptonshire—the only surviving complete house by the English baroque architect Nicholas Hawksmoor—together with the estate, the furnishings of the house and family portraits.
Hesketh automatically became a member of the House of Lords but took no active part in politics until he met Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher after the Irish Republican Army's bomb attack on her in Brighton on 12 October 1984. Thatcher visited Easton Neston and in conversation, Hesketh explained that he did not occupy his seat in the House of Lords. He later explained, "Mrs Thatcher asked me if I served on a regular basis in the House, and when I told her no, she said, 'You must. It's your duty, and I expect you to be there.'" From that point Hesketh worked under Thatcher, whom he described as "the most outstanding person I ever worked with"[6] and held the office of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment between 1989 and 1990 and was Minister of State in the Department of Trade and Industry between 1990 and 1991.
On 22 May of that year, he became Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms (Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords) under the next Prime Minister, John Major, a position he kept until 16 September 1993. During his period in office as Chief Whip he helped secure the Local Government Finance Act 1992, which introduced council taxes, and the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1993, which ratified the Maastricht Treaty.
Hesketh lost his seat in the House of Lords in 1999, when the House of Lords Act 1999 removed all but 92 hereditary peers. He was not one of the 92 who were elected to keep their seats.
In 2003, he became Treasurer of the Conservative Party, resigning in 2006 due to his own financial difficulties, and was formerly a board member of The Conservative Party Foundation.
On 10 October 2011, Lord Hesketh defected to the UK Independence Party, in response to Prime Minister David Cameron ruling out a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union. During the years 2011/12 Lord Hesketh donated approximately £31,000 to the UK Independence Party.
Known for his love of motor racing, Lord Hesketh founded Hesketh Racing in 1972, best known for competing in Formula One from 1973 to 1978. The team was famous for its flamboyant and patriotic approach to the sport and for refusing sponsorship. Between 1973 and 1975 the team had some success with the English driver James Hunt, including winning the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix. He later was president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, from 1993 to 2000.
Hesketh formed Hesketh Motorcycles plc. In 1982 a modern purpose built factory was set up to manufacture the Hesketh V1000 motorcycles in Daventry. However, there were numerous problems. The bikes were heavy, made worse by a high riding style; and unreliable, with numerous manufacturing problems adding to an overheating rear cylinder due to lack of air flow. The resultant bad press combined on top of an under-developed bike, lack of cash and a collapsing market meant that after the production of 139 bikes, the company went into receivership. The Triumph Motorcycles co-operative looked at buying the rights to the machine, as they lacked a new model beyond the aged Triumph Bonneville. A V1000 machine even appeared with a Triumph badge on its tank, but Triumph also lacked funding to buy and develop the machine. In 1983, Lord Hesketh formed a new company called Hesleydon Ltd to manufacture a revamped V1000 with a full fairing, called the Vampire. However, although the company had produced a motorcycle with export potential in mind, the Vampire retained too many of the V1000's faults and only 40 were produced before the company closed again in 1984.
In 1994 Hesketh helped set up British Mediterranean Airways, later known as BMED. He also became chairman of the new airline – a role in which he continued until early 2007, when BMED was purchased for £30 million by UK Airline BMI. He now serves as an "independent director" of Air Astana, the national carrier of Kazakhstan.
Hesketh joined the board of Babcock International Group on 6 October 1993, becoming non-executive Deputy chairman on 26 April 1996. He was forced to resign in November 2010 after a comment regarding the Royal Navy's new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, in which he was reported as saying the project would make the country a "laughing stock".
In 1997, Hesketh was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE). Hesketh was portrayed by British actor Christian McKay in the 2013 biographical drama Rush."
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