Ringing endorsements for a traditional bell-maker
IT IS a business steeped in tradition. John Taylor & Co has been making bells for customers around the world since the 14th century.
The company, which has been at the same location in Loughborough, Leicestershire since 1839, now operates the largest bell foundry in the world.
It creates bells for places of worship around the world including the ones which are pictured here which are destined for America.
A spokesman for the company said: “Whilst virtually all other bell founders cast their bells using self-setting sand moulds, we still make our bell moulds from the more labour intensive loam process as bell founders have done for centuries past.
“The making of our moulds takes a considerable amount of time as each layer is dried in a kiln overnight before the next is added, with all inscriptions and decoration being pressed into the final layer of wet loam as the mould is completed.
“Although this is costly for us, the world’s finest bell experts assure us that the use of loam is a vital factor in producing the sweet-toned bells for which our foundry is known.”
From 1784 the business was operated by members of the Taylor family, and moved to Loughborough as a condition of a contract to recast the Parish Church bells.
The foundry was moved to its present site in Loughborough in 1839.
The firm continues a line of bell founding which has been unbroken since the middle of the 14th century.
Recently the firm created a new ship’s bell for the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier,
HMS Queen Elizabeth. And the company created eight bells Skipton Parish Church in 1921 which are “universally acknowledged as being in the top league”.
Last year the centenary of the bells was marked by a bellringing festival.