A Record of the BAGE Family History

Charles Bage (1752 - 1822)

Charles Bage, son of the author Robert Bage, designed the Ditherington Flax Mill in Shropshire.

Mr John Yates, of English Heritage who is the governments main advisor on listed buildings, says, '' This is a building of global importance.......this is the grandmother of every skyscraper in every city.''

''While this is now sleepy old Shropshire, you have to think back 200 years to the Georgian industrial revolution when this was the Silicon Valley of the world.''

Planning wrangles and lack of money have meant that the developers who own the mill have been unable to do anything with it. Simon Beedle, property consultant said ''We simply didn't have an economic use for the building.''

But the future for the Ditherington Mill now looks brighter with plans in the pipeline to convert it into shops, offices, an arts centre and gallery.

It featured in a BBC2 T.V. program - the House Detectives At Large, and was broadcast in March 2002;-

In the last programme in the series, the House Detectives At Large journey to Shropshire to uncover the little known origins of the skyscraper at Ditherington Flax Mill in Shrewsbury. Many textile mills have survived from the industrial revolution, and Ditherington is not the oldest, biggest or most spectacular. But the House Detectives' task is to try to prove that this building in the suburbs of Shrewsbury is a site of major international importance - the birthplace of the modern skyscraper.

Ditherington was built in 1796, part of the empire being created by Leeds - based industrialist John Marshall and designed by his business partner Charles Bage. It took over a year to build and was a first in structural engineering; it was the first iron-framed building in the world. Dan Cruickshank, Carenza Lewis and Anna Bennett want to discover more about the elusive Bage and the importance of his pioneering architecture. The House Detectives also hope Ditherington will shed light on the men, women and children who have slipped through history - the ordinary workers who laboured at the mill all their lives.

To complete their journey, the detectives must travel 4,000 miles across the Atlantic to Chicago, the city heralded as the birthplace of the skyscraper. A fire in 1871 destroyed much of the heart of the city and offered architects a unique opportunity to re-create their city. The on - going demolition of the old Chicago Tribune newspaper building allows the House Detectives to explore the structure of an early skyscraper. Will their investigations prove that Bage has left a lasting legacy on international architecture?

(From BBCi Press Release on the internet, 30.01.02)

BENJAMIN GOTT

Description: Born in Calverley, son of an engineer & county surveyor, he was apprenticed to Wormald & Fountaine, woollen merchants, in 1780. In 1792 he built Bean Ings, the first woollen factory, which seven years later was seriously damaged by fire. Armley Mills was also damaged by fire when he was tenant so the rebuilding, carried out by Charles Bage, included cast iron internal frames. Gott made a large fortune, ploughing much back of it into his mills but also founded almshouses in Armley, collected art works and presided over the founding of the Leeds Philosophical & Literary Society in 1819.

Extract from BBC Shropshire website

Nestling in a down-at-heel suburb in the northern part of Shrewsbury it isn't much to look at - yet it's arguably the most important building in Shropshire.

Ditherington Flax Mill was built in 1797 by Leeds-based industrialist John Marshall and designed by his partner Charles Bage.

It's the mill's design that makes it such a groundbreaking building, because it was the first building in the world to be constructed around an iron frame.

This system was later taken up and employed to construct tall buildings all over the world

Essentially this structure represents the birth of the skyscraper, most notably adopted during the reconstruction of Chicago almost a century later.

So what is this forerunner of the Empire State Building, Canary Wharf and the Petronas Towers doing in a backwater like Shropshire?

Why Shropshire?

Considering the county gave birth to the industrial revolution, it would perhaps be more surprising if this building had been built anywhere else.

Just down the road in Coalbrookdale, iron was first smelted with coke; the first iron rails were laid; the first iron boat was floated; and 17 years before the Flax Mill sprung up, Abraham Darby III built the world's first iron bridge.


Why Iron?

The building was constructed specifically to process flax. Flax was a crop widely used in the UK 200 years ago, but before it could be turned into yarn, it required considerable processing.

During the Napoleonic wars, yarn was processed, spun and then worked into uniforms for troops abroad by 1,000 men and women.

However, flax dust was notoriously combustible and terrible fires were commonplace in the industry. In designing this new factory in Shrewsbury, Bage sought to create a fire-proof environment. That meant finding an alternative to wooden beams.

The iron, expertly smelted just a stone's throw away, seemed an obvious choice. However, wrought iron was still very expensive and the less-forgiving cast iron would have to suffice.

The adventurous design also meant that internal walls were not needed to give the structure strength.

This allowed owners Marshall, Benyon and Bage to make maximum use of space as the large, open plan floors testify.


Why Shrewsbury?

While its location may now seem odd, at the time the Shrewsbury canal ran past the factory door, delivering flax produced both locally and in Northern Ireland.

Canals were the motorways of their day, supplying the arteries of industry, so the Flax Mill was indeed well-placed.


The Maltings

The building continued to operate as a flax mill until it was converted into a maltings in 1886, principally to process barley for the brewing industry.

It was at this point that the Flax Mill's most distinctive features were added.

The tower and dye house are today Grade II* listed, while the original structure is Grade I listed.

In its heyday, 17,000 tonnes of barley were processed each year - that's a lot of beer! More concrete hoppers were added to the site in the 20th Century, but the building finally closed its doors - and fell out of use - in 1987.

Since then the building has lain dormant and gradually decaying.

Extract from ESDEP Course lecture

STATE OF STRUCTURAL KNOWLEDGE IN BRITAIN IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY

In the early 19th Century, intuition gave way to calculation for all materials and theory took over to an ever increasing extent. However, the aim of this lecture is not to outline the development of structural theories for which most credit must go to the intellectuals of France, but to show how, in Britain particularly but also elsewhere, these theories were gradually incorporated in the work of ordinary engineering designers.......

 .........In 1803, Charles Bage developed a perfectly valid method of designing cast iron beams on the basis of tests and Galileo's bending theory.......

Records of the Congreve family of Congreve and Stretton

Catalogue Ref. D1057

Creator(s):
Congreve family of Congreve and Stretton, Staffordshire
Surveys and valuations - outcounty   Wales

      FILE  [no title] - ref.  D1057/G/2/12  - date: 20 June 1788
      [from Scope and Content] Valuation by Mr. Bishton and Mr. Bage

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FAMILY SETTLEMENTS, MORTGAGES, WILLS

   William Mostyn Owen snr. and jnr.

      Executorship of William Mostyn Owen snr. (d.1795)

         FILE  [no title] - ref.  3890/4/10/66-68  - date: 1777-1798
[from Scope and Content] Receipts for rents; to a turnpike security on the tolls of Llanfyllin District; £804 3s 1d; payments, interest etc. - Slater and Bage for surveying June 1782 and in 1776 £3 13s 6d; purchase of chief rent from the Corporation of Salop £12 9s 2d; receipt 24 May 1794 of Wm H.Owen £5 16s 11d, being the Balance of account - Joseph Loxdale executor of his father.

         FILE - Bills of William Mostyn Owen. - ref.  3890/4/10/105-110  - date: 1787-1798
[from Scope and Content] 109 15 January 1798 Charles Bage to Pemberton and Coupland correcting an error in Mr Owen's account. Mr Bage paid Mr Haycock January 1795 for a wine chest 14s and charged it in the account which was deducted at payment as paid directly to Mr Haycock. Mr Haycock says the sum was not charged in his account and is therefore still due to Mr Bage.

         FILE - Bills of WilliamMostyn Owen - ref.  3890/4/10/128-130  - date: 1773-1797
       [from Scope and Content] 128 1794-5 Charles Bage - for drink £42 8s 7½d paid 8 Nov. 1797

Catalogue Ref. T

Creator(s):
Telford, Thomas, 1757-1834, scientist and civil engineer

[from Scope and Content]  Telford's involvement with the developing railway, when the steam locomotive was in its infancy, is represented by four groups of papers. MSS. relating to London Bridge (the project of 1800 and the bridge opened in 1831, which is currently being replaced) also show Telford working on the boundaries of contemporary knowledge and practice with his proposal for a 600' span cast iron bridge (for which the expense of high level approaches proved a stumbling block). There are a number of letters in 1801 from men of science and practical experience (such as Charles Bage, the pioneer in cast-iron framing for buildings) in reply to Telford's request for their opinions on his proposed cast iron bridge, which illustrate the growing 'mastery of materials' An Illustrated History of Civil Engineering, J. M. P. Pannell, Thames & Hudson. 1964. Which was a vital factor in the development of industry and civil engineering from the late 18th century onwards.

LONDON BRIDGE PROJECT (& PORT OF LONDON)

   FILE  [no title] - ref.  T/LO.21  - date: 1801 Apr 12
   [from Scope and Content] Chas. Bage to T.: long ltr. w. detailed considerations re the design of the bridge and its strength. [With sketches in text.] (38)

   FILE  [no title] - ref.  T/LO.31  - date: 1801 Apr 23
   [from Scope and Content] Charles Bage, Shrewsbury to T.: comments on various aspects of the cast iron construction proposed by T. (25)

   FILE  [no title] - ref.  T/LO.43  - date: n.d
   [from Scope and Content] Statemt. of results of experiment to test weight of cast-iron bars [by Chas. Bage]. (11)

Catalogue Ref. 190/96

Creator(s):
Simms, Rupert, b 1853, of Staffordshire, bookseller and author


FILE  [no title] - ref.  190/1-4/96  - date: 1891 - 1893
 item:  [no title] - ref.  190/3/96 p26  - date: 21 March 1893
[from Scope and Content] Correspondent = Bage, Charles. Subject = detail of Charles Bage, will subscribe to book

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Windler Collection

Catalogue Ref. 1984

   Ruyton XI Towns

      Castle and Church Pulverbatch; and Shrewsbury

         FILE  [no title] - ref.  1984/90-1  - date: 22 and 23 October 1802
         [from Scope and Content] (c) Thomas Matthews gentleman and Charles Bage gentleman

         FILE  [no title] - ref.  1984/95  - date: 4 April 1827
         [from Scope and Content] 3. Thomas Matthews gentleman and Charles Bage gentleman

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Records of the Bagot Family of Blithfield, Barons Bagot

Catalogue Ref. D(W)1721/2-3, 986 D3259-3260, D3943, D4038. 4381 and D5121

Creator(s):
Bagot family of Blithfield, Staffordshire

   Bagot Estate Maps and Plans

 FILE  [no title] - ref.  D(W)1721/2/30  - date: 1774
[from Scope and Content] Newton, p. Blithfield. Map of the Estates within manor of Newton, together with boundaries of the manor. Property by John Hawkes Esq. By Slater and Bage.

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LLoyd of Leaton Knolls

Catalogue Ref. 103

Creator(s):
Lloyd family of Leaton Knolls


ESTATE, HOUSEHOLD AND PERSONAL PAPERS

SURVEYS AND MAPS

FILE - Survey of... the Property of Francis Lloyd (by Slater and Bage 1780). Binding by Joshua Eddowes of Shrewsbury. Enclosed plan of lands at Domgay (co. Mont.) - ref.  103/3/77  - date: 1780

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BYGOTT COLLECTION; HILL OF HAWKSTONE

Catalogue Ref. 731