Grand-grand…grand-son of Cranage Brothers here. The Cranages worked for the Darbys in their furnace (around 1760) and invented a new process for converting pig iron into wrought iron. Quakers themselves like the Darbys, one of their descendants founded a school in Wellington (the Old Hall) where my grandmother was born.
And so reading these historical notes reminds me of the narrations from my parents and grandparents about the steel industry and our family, very strange and nice discovery here on HN!