Tribute set up to city industrialist

A SPECIAL plaque is to be unveiled in Peterborough to the life of a city industrialist.

Members of the Peterborough Civic Society and the bellringers of Fotheringhay Church have joined forces to remember the life and times of Henry Penn and to buy and put up the plaque.

Mr Penn is famous for bellmaking and cast more than 250 bells for churches all over the country.

His foundry was on a site close to the present magistrates’ court and was active throughout the first quarter of the 18th century.

His bells were floated to their destinations down a canal called “Bell Dyke” that linked his foundry to the River Nene.

His work included casting a full ring of bells for Peterborough Cathedral in 1709 and one of these, the so-called “City Bell”, still strikes out the time on the Cathedral clock.

And tomorrow at 12.30pm bell-ringing enthusiasts will be gathering at the Town Bridge end of Henry Penn Walk (opposite Charters) to mark the long awaited opening of the footpath alongside the river to unveil the plaque in Mr Penn’s memory.