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
Description:
Statue - Bronze - Lifesize
Plinth- Stone -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 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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