At about the age of thirty he began to contribute articles to local papers, and the republication of some of his sketches of Lancashire character in A Summer Day in Daisy Nook (1859) attracted attention.

[1] In 1863 he definitely took to journalism and literature, publishing in the same year his Chronicles of Waverlow, and in 1864 a long story called The Layrock of Langley Side (afterwards dramatised), followed by others.

Ben Brierley's grave is in Manchester General (Harpurhey) Cemetery, Rochdale Road.

On 30 April 1898, a statue in John Cassidy's honour, raised by public subscription, was unveiled at Queen's Park, Harpurhey, by George Milner, President of the Manchester Literary Club.

[2] Today, Brierley is remembered in a 2006 bronze statue by Denise Dutton outside the public library, near his birthplace in the Rocks area of Failsworth.