LARGEST - Working bell foundry in the World - Loughborough, Leicestershire
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SMacB
N 52° 46.400 W 001° 11.928
30U E 621505 N 5848577
John Taylor & Co is the world's LARGEST working bell foundry, located in Loughborough, Leicestershire.
The Foundry also has a museum of bells and bellfounding which is the ONLY one of its kind in the UK.
Waymark Code: WMQEHQ
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/16/2016
Views: 1
"The present company is part of a line of bellfounders dating back to Johannes de Stafford in the 14th century who was also a mayor of Leocester. 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. Taylors were the first bellfounder to adopt "true-harmonic" tuning in the late 19th century. The foundry is based in buildings on Freehold Street which are Grade 2* listed.
On 18 September 2009 the company went into administration. Mazars, who had previously been acting as advisors to the company during attempts to secure extra funding were appointed Administrators. On 2 October 2009 it was reported that the administrators were "optimistic about its future." 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. Before September 2009 the foundry was employing 26 people and since then the new company employs 21 including 4 Apprentices. In 1963, Paul Taylor, last of the Taylor family in the business, appeared on the American TV panel show "What's My Line?", challenging the panel with his occupation as a bell maker. His widow, Mrs Merle Taylor is Hon President of the new company. The National Twelve Bell Contest is competed for annually by the leading teams in England for "The Taylor Trophy"."
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