to g''''); the University of Kansas,
and the Carillon Tower, Canberra, Australia (each 53 bells, f to b''''); and the
War Memorial, Loughborough, Leicestershire (47 bells, g to g'''').English firm of bellfounders. Its exports of carillons between World Wars I and II, with those of Gillett & Johnston, made the carillon widely known outside Europe for the first time. In the 19th century it contributed more than any other foundry to improvements in the tuning of tower bells. By the late 20th century it was the world’s largest bell foundry, manufacturing bells for cathedrals and churches worldwide, and making handbells, fittings and bell ropes. One of Taylor’s most famous bells is Great Paul at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, cast in Loughborough in 1881. It weighs nearly 17 tonnes and is the largest bell in Britain.
The Taylor family began making bells at St Neots, Huntingdonshire, in 1784, and after moving to Oxford and to Devon established their foundry at Loughborough, Leicestershire, in 1839. In 1896 the Taylor brothers, John William jr and Dennison, introduced what became known as the ‘Taylor true harmonic principle’ for fine-tuning of bells. As a result, from 1897 they were able to make properly tuned replacements for faulty and missing bells in Dutch carillons. Between 1911 and the end of World War II (before the Dutch regenerated their own bell-tuning skills) they provided bells for ten new carillons in the Netherlands (only one of these, at Zwolle, survived World War II).
The
firm makes carillons as well as bells for swinging peals. Its carillons include
those at Rainbow Bridge, Niagara Falls, Canada (55 bells, e to a'''');
Mountain Lake Sanctuary, Lake Wales, Florida, the University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, and Washington (Episcopal) Cathedral (each 53 bells, d to g''''); the University of Kansas,
and the Carillon Tower, Canberra, Australia (each 53 bells, f to b''''); and the
War Memorial, Loughborough, Leicestershire (47 bells, g to g'''').
Since 1987 the company has operated the Bellfounding Museum on its main site in Loughborough. A history of the company from 1784 to the mid-1980s is given in T. Jennings: Master of my Art (Loughborough, 1987).
PERCIVAL PRICE/CHARLES BODMAN RAE