What do you think?
Rate this book
James Brindley: Canal Pioneer
Light wear to the covers. Orders received by 3pm Sent from the UK that weekday.
138 pages, Paperback
First published February 26, 2004
1 person want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 3, 2025
This was exactly what I was looking for.
Currently living and travelling on the waterways, many designed by James Brindley I was keen to get a really good sense of the man, his career and how it unfolded. I also wanted time spent on the details.
Christine Richardson has achieved all that in a most readable book. It is not a stuffy academic treatment, but colourful, and it avoids hyperbole. His success as a pioneering canal engineer (which wasn't even a job title back then) was a) his love of working with water, b) his character, and c) his people skills. Those last two are timeless attributes desirable, i think, in all of us.
He lead the way for other greats to follow, including the railway pioneers who learnt much from canal engineering.
The canals are not the invention of one man, but of a collection of people who come together, often by accident, commit themselves to a purpose, and through sheer perseverance, overcome. Wedgwood, Gilbert, Henshall, Darwin, and many others are pivotal to Brindley's success, but Brindley was undoubtedly the lynchpin.
If you are still reading, I hope I have sold you on this book...you won't be disappointed
Currently living and travelling on the waterways, many designed by James Brindley I was keen to get a really good sense of the man, his career and how it unfolded. I also wanted time spent on the details.
Christine Richardson has achieved all that in a most readable book. It is not a stuffy academic treatment, but colourful, and it avoids hyperbole. His success as a pioneering canal engineer (which wasn't even a job title back then) was a) his love of working with water, b) his character, and c) his people skills. Those last two are timeless attributes desirable, i think, in all of us.
He lead the way for other greats to follow, including the railway pioneers who learnt much from canal engineering.
The canals are not the invention of one man, but of a collection of people who come together, often by accident, commit themselves to a purpose, and through sheer perseverance, overcome. Wedgwood, Gilbert, Henshall, Darwin, and many others are pivotal to Brindley's success, but Brindley was undoubtedly the lynchpin.
If you are still reading, I hope I have sold you on this book...you won't be disappointed
July 24, 2016
Another Brindley book, rather more scholarly than the Nick Corble work.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews