Background
Born in 1716 in the Peak District, which in those days was extremely isolated into a well-to-do family of yeoman farmers and craftsmen .
Born in 1716 in the Peak District, which in those days was extremely isolated into a well-to-do family of yeoman farmers and craftsmen .
His parents were in very humble circumstances, and he received little or no education. At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to a millwright near Macclesfield, and soon after completing his apprenticeship he set up in business for himself as a wheelwright at Leek, quickly becoming known for his ingenuity and skill in repairing all kinds of machinery.
In 1752 he designed and set up an engine for draining some coal-pits at Clifton in Lancashire.
The difficulties in the Way were great, but all were surmounted by his genius, and his crowning triumph was the construction of an aqueduct to carry the canal at an elevation of 39 ft. over the river Irwell at Barton.
The great success of this canal encouraged similar projects, and Brindley was soon engaged in extending his first work to the Mersey, at Runcorn.
He then designed and nearly completed what he called the Grand Trunk Canal, connecting the Trent and Humber with the Mersey.
The Staffordshire and Worcestershire, the Oxford and the Chesterfield Canals were also planned by him, and altogether he laid out over 360 m. of canals.
Brindley retained to the last a peculiar roughness of character and demeanour; but his innate power of thought more than compensated for his lack of training.
It is told of him that when in any difficulty he used to retire to bed, and there remain thinking out his problem until the solution became clear to him.
Brindley married Anne Henshall on 8 December 1765 when he was 49 and she was 19. Anne's brother, Hugh Henshall was involved in canal construction himself, on the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal. The couple had two daughters, Anne and Susannah.
Brindley's widow remarried in 1775 (Robert Williamson one of Brindley's Assistants) and lived until 1799.