John Taylor & Co

John Taylor & Co, formerly trading as Taylors, Eayre & Smith Ltd and John Taylor Bellfounders Ltd, and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell foundry, located in Loughborough in the United Kingdom.

The company manufactures bells for use in clock towers, change ringing peals, chimes, and carillons. In 2005, Taylor's merged with Eayre & Smith Ltd (bellhangers) to form Taylors Eayre & Smith Ltd.^[1]

The site has a museum of bells, the only one of its kind in the UK.

History

The present company is part of a line of bellfounders dating back to Johannes de Stafford in the 14th century.^[2] The Taylor family became involved in 1784 and a foundry was established on the current site in 1839. The Taylors also had foundries in Oxford and St Neots between 1786 and 1854.^[3] Taylors were the first bellfounder to adopt "true-harmonic" tuning in the late 19th century.^[4] The foundry is based in buildings on Freehold Street, and as of September 2009 employed 26 people.^[5]

On 18 September 2009 the company went into administration.^[6][7] Simon Chandler and Steven Wood, of the Nottingham office of accountants Mazars, were appointed joint administrators. Mazars had previously been acting as advisors to the company during attempts to secure extra funding.^[5] On 2 October 2009 it was reported that the administrators were "optimistic about its future."^[8] On 15 October 2009, in a statement released by UK Bellfounders Ltd., a consortium of ringers, members of the bell industry and other investors, it was stated that the foundry would reopen on Monday 19 October, reverting to the previous name of John Taylor & Co.^[9][10]

Notable bells

In 1881 Taylor's cast the largest bell in Britain, "Great Paul", for St Paul's Cathedral in London, weighing 17,002 kilograms (37,483 lb) or more than 17 metric tons.

Many churches across the world have used bells cast at Taylor's Bell Foundry, including:

• Gozo Cathedral, 11 Bells
• Liverpool Cathedral bourdon bell "Great George", at 14,900 kg or more than 14 long tons 13 cwt, it is the second largest bell in Britain.^[11]
• Carlisle Cathedral, 13 bells
• Loughborough Carillon, (War Memorial) 47 bell carillon
• Monument, Canberra, 53 bell carillon
• Manchester Town Hall, 23 bell carillon
• Yale Memorial Carillon, 54 bell carillon
• Singing Tower Carillon at Bok Tower Gardens, 60 bell carillon
• Edith Adamson Memorial Carillon, 25 bell carillon, Newcastle Civic Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne
• Baird Carillon, 55 bell carillon, Burton Tower, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
• Kibbey Carillon, 53 bell carillon (1963), Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C., USA
• Berkeley Carillon, Sather Tower original (1917) 12 bell chime by Taylor (later expanded to carillon), University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
• WWII Memorial Carillon, 53 bell carillon, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
• Stanton Memorial Carillon, 50 bell carillon (originally a 10 bell chime in 1899, expanded in 1920, 1954, 1967), Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
• Luray Singing Tower, 47 bell carillon (1937), Luray, Virginia, USA
• Wellesley College Carillon, 32 bell carillon, (1931, last enlarged in 1990), Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA
• Duke Chapel carillon, 50 bell carillon (1932), Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
• St. Elisabeth's Church, Reddish
• St. Mary's Church, Southampton^[12]
• St. Nicolas' Church, North Stoneham, Hampshire^[13]
• Wells Cathedral, 2 bells cast in 1877
• Rock band AC/DC's "Hells Bell", which was originally used on the "Back In Black" tour, 1980.

Bell Master

The current Bell Master is Andrew D Higson. In 1963, Paul Taylor appeared on the American TV panel show "What's My Line?", challenging the panel with his occupation as a bell maker.

References

External links

• Company website
• Panorama of the foundry
• History of the Taylor family