Taylor's Bell Foundry Museum - Loughborough, Leicestershire
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SMacB
N 52° 46.393 W 001° 11.930
30U E 621503 N 5848563
The museum at John Taylor & Co, tells the story of the Bellfoundry going right back to its links with bellfounding in the 13th Century.
Waymark Code: WMQEHB
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/16/2016
Views: 2
The museum is located over two floors, where there are lots of displays to look at, including a room full of bells from different ages and different founders - The display has a wooden mallet so you can sound the bells and see for yourself which sounds best. To learn about the foundry past and present you will have to book onto one of their guided tours.
Tours can sometimes be arranged on dates when bells or other casting is taking place, and visitors can watch the whole spectacular process from the safety of a viewing platform above the foundry floor - it is advisable to check availability for these tours.
The museum also has a shop selling souvenirs and unusual bell related gifts which are ideal as presents for any campanologist.
"John Taylor & Co. continues a line of bellfounding which has been unbroken since the middle of the 14th Century, when Johannes de Stafford was active only 10 miles from the site of the present foundry.
From 1784 the business was operated by members of the Taylor family, and in 1839 it moved to its present position in Loughborough, and is now proud to operate the largest bellfoundry in the world.
Centuries of experience, together with up to the minute advances in technology, has put Taylors at the forefront in the design and manufacture of bells, their fittings and frameworks. We produce single bells, peals of bells, chimes and carillons, together with sets of musical handbells and other small bells for customers worldwide.
Taylor Five Tone Principle - Beautiful Harmonically Tuned Bells
After many years of experimentation Taylor's perfected their five tone principle of bell tuning in 1896, producing purity and sweetness of tone and allowing bells to sound with full and rich mellowness. This gives Taylor bells their special characteristic and sets them apart from all other cast bronze bells. The Bell Master and the Bell Tuner work on five principal harmonics, the hum, fundamental, tierce, quint and nominal but these in turn influence and affect many others. When the correct frequency for each of these harmonics has been achieved, the bell is in tune with itself. In a set of bells, each bell is tuned using the same standards applied to its own frequencies and thus each bell in the set is not only in tune with itself, but also with each bell in the set."
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