James Brindley was born at Tunstead, in the parish of Wormhill, (near Buxton, Derbyshire), in 1716, the son of James and Susannah Brindley. Brindley was a pioneer canal builder, who constructed the first English canal of major economic importance.
He set up in business as a millwright in Leek, Staffs., in 1742. As a millwright, Brindley designed and built an engine for draining coalpits at Clifton, Lancashire, in 1752.
In addition to constructing mills and steam engines he became famous for his work as a canal engineer.
He was involved in the surveying and construction of the Bridgewater Canal, the Trent and Mersey Canal, the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal, and numerous others. The canal age in Britain began with the construction of the Bridgewater Canal, under the direction of James Brindley. Completed in 1765, its purpose was to move coal the 16-km (10-mile) distance from the Duke of Bridgewater'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 basin at the head of the canal into the mines, and the Barton Aqueduct, which carried the canal over the River Irwell.
In 1759 the Duke of Bridgewater hired him to build a 10-mile (16-kilometre) canal to transport coal from the duke's mines at Worsley to Manchester.
Among the great canal engineers alongside James Brindley were William Jessop and Thomas Telford.
He had a share in Golden Hill colliery and was a partner of his brother John in the Longport Pottery. His brother John brought land in the vicinity of the proposed canal at advantageous terms and in 1773 (before the canal was opened) built two factories at Longport.
James Brindley married Anne Henshall on 8 December 1765 at Wolstanton church, and had two daughters, Susannah and Anne. He also had a natural son, John Bennett (1760-99), from whom Arnold Bennett the novelist descended.
In all, he was responsible for a network of canals totaling about 360 miles (580 km). The improvement in communications helped to hasten the Industrial Revolution. Brindley, a self-made engineer, undertook all his works without written calculations or drawings, leaving no records except the works themselves.
He died at Turnhurst on 27 September 1772 and was buried in the churchyard at Newchapel

Thomas Telford (born 1757, died 1834)

Thomas Telford was born in Crooks cottage in the little known village of Bentpath near Westerkirk, Dumfries, Scotland on 9th August 1757, the son of a shepherd. His father died in the following November and was buried at Westerkirk. The young Thomas was raised by his mother.
After serving his apprenticeship as a stonemason, he went to London in 1782, at the age of 25, to work on the building of Somerset House. He was later involved in the rebuilding of Portsmouth Docks.
In 1787 a considerable change in direction of his career occurred with his appointment as County Surveyor for Shropshire, an obvious reflection of the quality of his masonry skills and his organisation of the projects in which he was involved.
Many things in the county came under Telford's scrutiny, including roads, bridges and public buildings. He designed and built Shrewsbury Gaol and several churches, St. Mary Magdalene at Bridgnorth with its large windows, iron pillars and elegant classical style being a beautiful example of his talents surviving to this day.
In 1793 Telford was appointed as Surveyor and Engineer to the Ellesmere Canal Company, and two years later in 1795 the same post was afforded to him for the Shrewsbury canal. In the same year (1795) work started on the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on the aforementioned Ellesmere canal. It took 10 years to complete.
For a great amount of his work on the canals, Telford's assistant was William Jessup, who was a highly skilled engineer in his own right. The two men made a great team.
As well as Jessup, Telford had a large number of other assistants working on tasks he was carrying out, and, although being a hard taskmaster, he is said to have always afforded them the luxury of clear written instructions and concise plans of exactly what was required. (This is certainly something that his predecessor, James Brindley, was NOT renowned for).
Telford's talents took him back to Scotland in 1801, when he started surveying the line for the Caledonian Canal. Although building and construction work started in 1804, it took no less than 18 years to complete, finally opening in 1822.
In 1817 Telford was appointed as engineering advisor to the Government's Exchequer Loans Commission, who offered cheap loans to encourage public works to offset an economic slump which occurred after the Napoleonic wars.
This entailed surveying and inspecting proposed sites and plans for projects seeking government loans. He subsequently visited nearly every civil engineering project in the country!
It was in 1820 that Telford was asked to propose ways of improving the Birmingham canals.
He was reportedly shocked by "the appalling state of the waterways", and, if this quote is anything to go by he was not impressed by Birmingham itself. It says; -
"…famous for buttons, buckles and locks and ignorance and barbarism. It's prosperity increases upon the corruption of taste and morals."
Harsh words indeed!
The modifications on the BCN took until 1827 to complete, by which time Telford was involved with the building of the Birmingham and Liverpool junction canal (named thus in spite of the fact that it actually originates to the west of Wolverhampton). It was to be his last major work.
The canal (since re-named as the Shropshire Union) used a similar method to that used in Birmingham. The route is almost straight, utilising cuttings and embankments to traverse the minor undulations of hills and valleys. Locks were installed only at permanent rise and fall points in ground levels.
Telford died in London on 2nd September 1834 at the age of 77 (a very old man in those days), twelve months before the final opening of what is regarded by many as one of his finest achievements.
He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

(Note: - Thomas Telford was only 15 years of age when his equally famous predecessor, James Brindley, died in 1772 aged 56).