Whitechapel Bell Foundry

The Entrance to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry on Whitechapel Rd

The Whitechapel Bell Foundry is a bell foundry in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. The foundry is listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The foundry's main business is the bellfounding and manufacture of church bells and their fittings and accessories, although it also provides single tolling bells, carillon bells and handbells. The foundry's premises are a Grade II listed building.

Origins

The company now known as the Whitechapel Bell Foundry dates back to at least 1570 but a continuous line of master founders in Whitechapel or nearby Aldgate exists since 1420.

The present premises on Whitechapel Road date from 1670 and were formerly a coaching inn known as The Artichoke. The company moved there from smaller premises situated on the north side of the Whitechapel Road. At an earlier date the foundry was located at Aldgate.

Traditionally, the foundry has been known by the name of the Master Founder and owner, operating from the 19th century to 1968 as Mears & Stainbank. It has since operated under the name of Whitechapel Bell Foundry.

Notable bells

The foundry has produced a number of famous bells, including many of those in the London churches commemorated in the children's rhyme Oranges and Lemons. Westminster Abbey is one of the most longstanding customers, the two bells that call people to services dating from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The current ring of ten bells was cast at Whitechapel in 1971.

One of the most historically significant bells cast at Whitechapel is the first casting in 1752 of the bell which was to become known as the Liberty Bell. This bell cracked when first rung and it was locally recast prior to its use in the proclamation of American Independence. Whitechapel cast a replacement to celebrate the bicentenary of American Independence in 1976.

Big Ben which tolls the hour at the Palace of Westminster was cast in 1858 and at 13½ tons is the largest bell ever cast at the foundry. This bell also cracked because too heavy a hammer was initially installed. The crack and the subsequent retuning give Big Ben its distinctive tone. A profile template of Big Ben surrounds the entrance door while Big Ben's original moulding gauge is retained near the foundry's furnaces.

Whitechapel supplied peals of 10 bells (later augmented to 12) for Guildford Cathedral in Surrey in the years following the Second World War, recast and augmented the bells of Canterbury Cathedral to a peal of 14 in 1981, and for the National Cathedral in Washington DC in 1964.

Many churches across the world have bells cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, including: Armenian Church, Chennai; Liverpool Cathedral; St Dunstan's, Mayfield; St Dunstan's, Stepney; St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside; St. Michael's Church, Charleston; and St Stephen's Anglican Church, Newtown, and St James' Church, Sydney, both in New South Wales, Australia.

The Whitechapel Bell Foundry designed and commissioned the Olympic Bell seen at the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games, although it was not cast on the premises. The furnaces at Whitechapel could not provide the 23 tons of molten metal required to make the bell, so it was actually manufactured at a factory in the Netherlands which normally produces ship's propellers. This bell is the largest in Europe at over 11 feet wide, and is the largest harmonically tuned bell in the world - sounding note B.

The Foundry also cast the bells used on the lead barge for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee water pageant in June 2012, which now hang in the church of St James Garlickhythe.

Master founders at Whitechapel

The names on this list are those that are cast into the surface of Whitechapel bells of different dates. Prior to Robert Mot, in 1574, the sign of three bells was often cast to indicate that it was a Whitechapel (or Aldgate) bell.

1420 Robert Chamberlain of Aldgate 1426 William Chamberlain 1456 John Daniel 1470 John Daniel's Successor 1487 IW 1500-1515 Thomas Bullisdon 1506-1522 William Culverden 1523 Thomas Lawrence 1538 John Owen 1553 Thomas Kempe 1574 Robert Mot 1606 Joseph Carter 1610 William Carter 1616 Thomas Bartlet 1632 John Clifton 1640 Anthony Bartlet 1675 James Bartlet 1700 Richard Phelps 1735 Phelps and Lester 1738 Thomas Lester 1752 Lester and Pack

1769 Lester, Pack and Chapman 1776 Pack and Chapman 1781 Chapman and Mears 1784 William Mears 1787 William and Thomas Mears 1791 Thomas Mears I 1805 Mears and Son 1810 Thomas Mears II 1844 Charles and George Mears 1861 George Mears and Co 1865 Mears and Stainbank 1873 Robert Stainbank 1884 Alfred Lawson 1904 Arthur Hughes 1916 Albert Hughes 1945 Albert and William Hughes 1950 Albert, William and Douglas Hughes 1964 William and Douglas Hughes 1972 William, Douglas and Alan Hughes 1993 Douglas and Alan Hughes 1997 Alan and Kathryn Hughes

References

• "The wider view: Britain's oldest bell foundry where chimes never change". Mail on Sunday. 8 November 2009. Retrieved 8 November 2009. 

External links

• Whitechapel Bell Foundry
• Index to carillons and chimes by Whitechapel
• Love's Guide to Church Bells of the City of London
• The Sound of Bells—Mears and Stainbank Catalogue