Whitechapel Bell Foundry

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32430, 17 October 1970, Page 12

Whitechapel Bell Foundry

Among the oldest and best-loved sounds of London are the bells of its many churches. This year the firm which made many of them, and whose bells have found their way to the four corners of the world, is celebrating its four hundredth anniversary. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was started by Robert Mot in 1570, ' and when a 8.8. C. reporter, David Arculus, visited it recently he discovered that it is the oldest of the world’s seven existing bell foundries. Probably the most famous bell it cast is Big Ben, in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament To many, Big Ben is the voice of London, and heard around the earth when it strikes in the 8.8. C. World Service. Whitechapel also cast Bow Bells, Great Tom for St Paul’s Cathedral, the original American Liberty Bell, bells for Westminster Abbey and the carillon for St Clement Dane’s, which plays “Oranges and Lemons.” The original bells of St Clement’s were cast at Whitechapel in 1588, during the

reign of Queen Elizabeth I. They hung in the church right up to the second world war when they were destroyed by bombs. Only one survived the Blitz, the original clock bell. Immediately after the war the foundry made a new peal which today rings out the old tune as proudly as ever. Many of Robert Mot’s original bells are still in use 400 years after they were cast Amongst them are the fifth and seventh bells of Westminster Abbey. Other Westminster bells were made by the foundry over the centuries until the full peal was completed in 1919. The bells of Bow were originally made in 1738 and 1762 and re-cast after being destroyed in the last war. And Great Tom hung in Palace Yard, Westminster, until his campanile was demolished early in the eighteenth century, after which he was moved to St Paul’s. As for the American Liberty Bell, one of today’s master founders, Douglas Hughes, is fond of pointing out that it was ordered 24

years before Independence was declared; if only the British Government had consulted the Whitechapel Foundry, he says, they might have found out that their American colonies were about to embark on a war of independence! Today Whitechapel is making 2400 smallscale replicas of the original Liberty Bell. Each of the replicas is intended to mark one month in 200 years of independence, the bi-centen-ary of which will be celebrated in 1976. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry is still very much a family business. The present master founders are the brothers William and Douglas Hughes. Their family has been at Whitechapel since 1884. But even this record is beaten by the foreman of the Handbell Shop, Ernie Oliver, whose family has been making bells at Whitechapel in an unbroken father-to-son line right back to 1730. The Foundry employs 40 men, yet it sends bells all over the world. Africa, Japan, Australia, America and India are all its customers.