A new exhibition marking 300 years since the birth of canal pioneer James Brindley has opened. How did his work transform the English landscape and unlock a new era in the Industrial Revolution? When James Brindley sought Parliament's backing for his plan for an aqueduct over the River Irwell in Lancashire, he apparently employed a novel means of gaining their attention. Taking out a block of Cheshire cheese, the man who engineered England's first canal carved out a model of the waterway he hoped to build. "It's not clear if he cut it into pieces and put it in water...