(Click
here to Email)At the age of 17 (circa 1734) James Brindley, the legendary canal
engineer, was apprenticed to Abraham Bennett.
A Wheelwright and Millwright by trade, Abraham Bennett lived in
the village of Gurnett in Sutton, in the ancient Cheshire parish of
Prestbury, near Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK. Despite the fact that in those
days the employment of millwrights was of a very limited character, a
great deal of valuable practical information was obtained while carrying
on their practice.
Bennett, like many well-paid master mechanics of the time, was of intemperate habits, and gave very little attention to his apprentices, leaving them under the tender mercies of his journeymen, who were for the most part a rough and drunken bunch! Bennett's shop would have been a bad school for an ordinary youth, but it proved a prolific one for James Brindley, who was anxious to learn, and determined to make a way for himself.
It is said that the young Brindley took some time to settle in at the workshop but was soon in a position to make good repairs and even improve machinery when others failed. Whilst still in his apprenticeship he redesigned and built the new machinery for a paper mill near Wildboarclough after his master had failed!
There soon became no question as to the extraordinary mechanical skill of Bennett's apprentice. The old man felt that he had been in a measure saved by the young Brindley, and thenceforth, during the remainder of his apprenticeship, he left him in principal charge of the shop. Thus for several years Brindley maintained his old master and his family in respectability and comfort.
When Bennett died (some time between 1737, when Brindley inspected Smedley paper mill, and 1742, when he returned to Leek), Brindley carried on the concern until the work in hand had been completed and the accounts wound up, after which he removed from Macclesfield to begin business on his own account at the town of Leek, in Staffordshire." - The rest is History!
Abraham Bennett's workshops at Sutton apparently still stand (albeit altered somewhat) and bear a commemorative plaque.
Information taken from Samuel Smiles' "Lives of the Engineers" (1861) (see also: www.waterwayarchive.co.uk) , Cyril T.G. Boucher's "James Brindley, Engineer 1716 - 1772" and "James Brindley - A New Perspective", Kathleen M Evans, Churnet Valley Books, 1997
Thanks also to members of the uk.rec.waterways newsgroup for their help in compiling these pages.
Any further information, dates etc. regarding Abraham Bennett would be most appreciated.
Probably of no connection whatsoever but there is a "Bennett's Bridge" on the Shropshire Union canal:
"Bennett's Bridge" (No. 80) Shropshire Union Canal!
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