Gone but what happened to the Sunderland Town Hall bells?

Sunderland’s old Town Hall has gone forever, but the bells that used to chime in the clock tower still remain in the town – locked away in storage. And now people are asking: “What is going to happen to the bells?”

Since the demolition of the old Town Hall, many letters have been written to the Echo on the subject and the matter has been discussed by local councillors.

Last week the Town’s General Purposes Committee showed its sentimental attitude towards the bells that once chimed out every quarter and on the hour, when it refused an application from York Colleges’ Guild of Change to buy the bells for £2,000.

The chairman, Coun Alan Waistell, felt the bells still had a sentimental value and suggested that they should be out on display in a park.

“The idea is ridiculous,” Mr D Lowther, of Coley Terrace, Fulwell, told the Echo. “If £2,000 has been offered for their purchase then they are valuable items and hardly to be considered for some useless object d’art. A silent bell is as much use as a squashed trumpet. “It is not for the want of a glimpse of these bells that people grow sentimental, but rather the sound.” Give us your memories of Sunderland’s old-style town centre by emailing chris.cordner@ jpress.co.uk