The Loughborough Bell Foundry
Taylor’s Bell Foundry has probably cast more large bells than any other Foundry in the history of bell founding – unlike other founders we have never farmed out our casting to other foundries, and all the large bells with the Taylor name on them have been cast here. More than 200 bells weighing between 2 […]
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Heritage England rates the importance of the Foundry so highly that it is Listed as a Grade 2* Building. The listing also extends to many of the ancient machinery that is still in use – often after a century or longer! So when one of our milling machines gave up the ghost a few weeks […]
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Kart joined our carpentry department a few years ago and has proved to be a really valuable member of our team. Sadly she is leaving us to move to Estonia where her partner has accepted a university study placement. I’m sure she’ll miss us and we’ll certainly miss her. She goes with our very best […]
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Taylor’s recast the Great Bell of Tong in 1892 and hung it for full circle ringing with a massive hardwood headstock. Having served well for nearly 130 years the headstock has now been replaced with one made from cast iron. The bell was brought back to Loughborough for its refit. The photo shows the bell […]
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Our Handbell Department is always busy coping with a steady stream of work, both refurbishing old sets of bells and manufacturing new sets. We pride ourselves on being able to cast and tune handbells to match the work of any founder, and are often called upon to replace cracked bells within existing sets, or extend […]
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We hope to embark on a major restoration of the Bell Foundry soon and this etching shows just how much of the original buildings still survive. Taylor’s moved to Loughborough in 1839 as a condition of the contract to recast Loughborough Parish Church’s bells – at this stage a lease of some existing buildings in […]
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Bridgwater in Somerset will shortly house Britain’s latest ring of twelve. The grand back eight were fully restored by Taylor’s in 1901, and all of the components supplied at that time are being restored and re-used in the “new” ring. Four new treble bells and a flat 6th bell have been cast and a thirteen […]
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Traditionally bells were cast underground to protect the founder in the event of a pot bell case splitting. After the invention of cast iron bell cases in the mid 19th century this was no longer necessary as the new cases could contain all the forces generated during a cast. However, bells cast above ground cool […]
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Many followers of this website will be aware that, following Government advice, most of the workforce at the Foundry was furloughed during the worst of the Covid19 epidemic. Work will resume tomorrow (26th May) in line with Government guidelines to allow safe working, and following the C of E announcements enabling contractors to work on […]
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