James Brindley - Last Years and Epitaph

Last Years and Epitaph

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.

In 1771, work had begun on the Chesterfield Canal, but while surveying a new branch of the Trent and Mersey between Froghall and Leek, 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, Staffordshire, where Erasmus Darwin attended him and discovered that he was suffering from diabetes.

James Brindley died at Turnhurst 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, at St. James in Newchapel in Staffordshire, 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 by Brindley Drive (on the site of former canal yards), the Brindleyplace 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 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, and another by Colin Melbourne (bronze, 20 July 1990) in Lower Bedford Street, Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, at the junction of the Trent and Mersey Canal with the Caldon Canal,opposite Etruria Industrial Museum.

He is commemorated in Runcorn by the Brindley Arts Centre, which opened in the autumn of 2004.

There is also James Brindley Science College (previously James Brindley High School) in Chell, Stoke-on-Trent, and also, the Brindley's Lock pub on Silverstone Crescent, Stoke-on-Trent.

The well in the village of Wormhill is dedicated to Brindley. Wormhill is in the same Parish as Tunstead where he was born.