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Born in 1751, almost certainly in Derby, Charles Bage was the eldest son of local man Robert Bage.

His father established a paper mill at Elford, near Tamworth, before later finding fame as a novelist.

Charles, however, set himself up as a wine merchant, following a move to Shrewsbury in his late 20s. But before long, engineering had become his new passion.

At the time, Shropshire was teeming with exciting industrial activities, especially those involving the use of iron.

Not far from Shrewsbury, the famous Iron Bridge had recently been erected using castings made at the nearby ironworks of Coalbrookdale.

Bage even made the acquaintance of Thomas Telford, who was the county surveyor in those days.

So, it was hardly surprising that, when asked to design a flax mill on the outskirts of Shrewsbury in 1795, he gave serious thought to using iron.

The work was undertaken on behalf of flax spinner John Marshall and textile merchants Thomas and Benjamin Benyon.

And Bage's friend William Strutt - sone of Jedediah Strutt, also played a vital role in the project. Bage corresponded with his friend to ask for advice and discuss his ideas.

In a letter to Strutt in September 1796, for instance, he summarised the earliest known practical theory for the strength of cast-iron columns.

He ended up modelling his building on Strutt's Derby and Belper mills, but with one significant difference.

To make the structure more fire resistant, he opted to use cast-iron, not only for the columns, but also for the beams.

This was a bold decision by the Derby man and one which established him as a true pioneer in structural engineering, for Ditherington Mill, in Shrewsbury, became the world’s first multi-storey building to be built around an iron frame.

Completed in 1797, the structure was 177ft long, 40ft wide and five storeys high. It still stands in the 21st century, a remarkable testimony to the man who designed it.

At first, concerns were raised over the suitability of cast-iron for beams. After all, this was the cutting edge of technology at the time.

But, before long, engineers all over the country had adopted the technique for making fire-resistant buildings.

Bage himself won the reputation for being an expert on iron framing.

In 1801, he was even invited to give evidence before the Parliamentary Select Committee regarding Thomas Telford’s proposal for a single-arch iron bridge across the Thames.

Meanwhile, he continued to investigate the properties of cast-iron.

In a letter to Strutt in August 1803, Bage announced a theory he had developed from experiments on the strength of flanged beams.

That same year, at the Shrewsbury works of iron master William Hazeldine, he tested out his ideas by conducting the earliest comprehensive loading tests on iron roof frames.

This included possibly the first ever trials carried out on the torsional strength of iron.

This new-found knowledge was at once put to use in the building of a Bage and Benyon flax mill in Leeds and another one in Shrewsbury in 1804.

Bage died in 1838.

• Charles Bage

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County:  Derbyshire