UK Edition
Why Britain's last bell foundry is fighting for its life
If you hear the bells of a parish church ring, chances are that they were made in Loughborough, at Taylor’s bell foundry. It is the last of its kind in the UK, after the closure of the Whitechapel bell foundry in 2017. And this ancient craft skill is under threat – unless funds can be raised to restore the 180-year-old Midlands premises of this family business.
There has been bell founding in Loughborough since the 14th century, and Taylor’s was taken on by members of that family in 1784. In 1839 the business moved to its current site, a purpose-built bell foundry.
This complex of Grade II* listed buildings is in trouble, having been placed on English Heritage’s at-risk register in 2012. “We’d been keeping an eye on them from about 2009,” explains Dr Ben Robinson, principal heritage at risk adviser at what is now Historic England.
In common with many other buildings of their age, the Taylor’s buildings have problems with water ingress. “Time and again [problems with historic buildings] come down to rainwater undermining foundations, masonry becoming loose and beam ends rotting,” says Dr Robinson.
The buildings were not the only part of Taylor’s to run into trouble in 2009. “It had gone into receivership and the business was going to be lost completely,” explains Kate Pinnock of Ingham Pinnock Associates, the project manager for Taylor’s.
A group of bellringers stepped in to save Taylor’s, buying the site and reopening the foundry in October 2009 under the name of John Taylor & Co. “They have worked over the past two years to get the business on to a good footing,” says Pinnock.
Now, a fundraising campaign has been launched to bring the Taylor’s buildings back to life. Approximately £1 million is still needed of the estimated £5 million that the project requires, with £3.7 million having been secured through the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The foundry is still functional, says Dr Robinson – for now. Bell founding could still go on should it be condemned, but only temporarily.
It’s not just in Loughborough where campaigners are fighting to save a bell foundry. In Whitechapel, local residents last month launched a petition to stop the foundry there from being turned into a hotel. The Historic Building Preservation Trust wants to buy it back and reopen the foundry, where Big Ben and the Liberty Bell were cast.
Taylor’s board member Andrew Wilby has spent the past 40 years surrounded by bells, having started bellringing as a boy. The conditions for making bells are specific, he explains. “The reason the Taylor family set up in Loughborough is because there was coal locally available and they had the railways and canals for transport.” Crucially, the ground must be right: “A bell foundry needs 12ft of sand above the water table to make casting safe, as water and hot metals do not mix.”
Were Taylor’s to move, it would be hard to find a new purpose for the foundry. “We’ve got a unique situation here in that the building is still in use for the purpose for which it was built in the 19th century,” says Dr Robinson.
It would be wrong to think of bell founding as a niche enterprise for the benefit of parish churches. Between 70 to 100 bells are made at Taylor’s every year, each taking up to six weeks to finish; it is the largest bell foundry in the world. Every bell is a one-off, explains Wilby. “It’s a bespoke, individual process – you can’t re-use a mould once it’s been used.”
Taylor’s is an international business. “We cast a bell recently for Canberra in Australia and there are two waiting to go to Sri Lanka,” says Wilby. Much of this international trade is a remnant of the British Empire: “Wherever the colonialists went, they wanted their bells too, so they took them with them.”
Getting Taylor’s up and running properly again is about more than just bell founding. Some of the money will be used to broaden public access. “Bells are integral to life in Loughborough and we love seeing the bells shipped all over the world,” says Nicky Morgan, the local MP and Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. “Our bell foundry is a key element in the town’s heritage.”
Bell founding has “taken this clumsily spelt word, Loughborough, all around the world,” adds Wilby. The time to act is now, says Dr Robinson. “There is something really magical about bell casting, creating a series of musical instruments from this raw metal. It’s something that local people love – the chime of the bells and having something world-beating right on the doorstep. To face the loss of that because the building is in such a bad state is unimaginable.”
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