Bells That Still Can Ring

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BBC Radio 4 - Bells That Still Can Ring

The stories of some of Britain’s most iconic bells – and how they were cast and tuned.

An exploration of John Taylor & Co’s bell foundry in Loughborough and some of their most iconic bells - including Great Paul at St Paul’s Cathedral and AC/DC’s 'hell’s bell'.

John Taylor & Co in Loughborough is the only major bell foundry left in the UK. The bells it has produced ring at St Paul’s Cathedral and chime in clocks, bell towers, churches, universities, and public buildings in over 100 countries.   

It is also a place full of history. The foundry moved to its current site in 1859 and, with its many Victorian workshops, is slightly reminiscent of Hogwarts. More large bells have been cast here than at any other bell foundry in Britain. And it still attracts engineers who are passionate about producing the perfect bell. In this programme, we hear from some of them, including foreman Anthony Stone and bell tuner Girdar Vadukar.  

The largest church bell in Britain, Great Paul, which weighs in at nearly 17 tons, was cast at Loughborough in 1881. Three furnaces were needed to melt the metal, and the bell had to cool down in its pit for six days before they were able to lift it out and take the casings off. An agricultural steam engine then pulled the bell to London on a specially adapted cart. After adventurous months on the road, it was finally hung at St Paul’s Cathedral – and as the Surveyor of the Fabric, Oliver Caroe, explains, this took enormous ingenuity and a hefty dose of whale oil. 

More recently, the bell used for the AC/DC track Hells Bells was cast at Loughborough. The band’s ambition was to take the bell with them on their Back in Black tour in 1980 - a logistical nightmare because of the bell’s great weight. At New York’s Nassau Coliseum, still in its wheeled packing case, the bell crashed straight through the stage.   We hear from Tony Platt, recording engineer on the Back in Black album, who recorded the AC/DC bell using the ‘silver bullet’ mobile studio belonging to Ronnie Lane from the Faces, parked inside the bell foundry;  and Gregg Praetorius, producer of the Nassau Coliseum show and author of Babysitting a Band On The Rocks. 

At St Mary’s church in Putney in South West London, in 1973, a set of Loughborough bells alerted local residents to a fire set by arsonists when they “rang themselves down” as the fire burnt through the wooden stays holding them in place. 

What resonates strongly is the enormous passion everyone in this programme has for bells – not just their sound, but the entire sensuous experience of producing and using them. And the fact that they are likely to outlast the people who made them, in many cases by hundreds of years. 

Presenter: Andres Williams
Producers: Caroline Donne and Ewan Newbigging-Lister  
Sound Designer Calum Perrin
Editor: Kristine Pommert
A CTVC production for BBC Radio 4

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