Just after 1875, John William Taylor I seeing the clock trade prospering around Queen Victoria’s (1887) Jubilee revived interest in installing a striking clock and associated 8 bells in a tower (80ft high) on the Bellfoundry House side of the site “…to conduct experiments with clock bells…”.
There were 8 bells in the tower with a 2cwt tenor, cast in in 1888 and installed the following year.
Sadly, the tower and its contents had a brief existence as on the night of 23rd June 1891 a fire was discovered in the wash-house and offices by a police officer who raised the alarm at about 2am and sent for the firebrigade. By the time the fire engine arrived, the fire had a good hold and the offices and store room adjacent to Freehold Street were well ablaze! There were issues with water supply for the fire engine, so the fire continued to intensify and spread to other parts of the works. The tower only completed 3 years earlier, and several buildings were “a complete wreck”. There was nothing left of the 4 storey tower and the 8 bells were completely destroyed!
In addition, a great deal of all the early records of work were also lost in this fire as Taylor’s had and still kept full records of all castings and work undertaken. The machine shop and hand-bell department were gutted in the fire. A lot of valuable hand-bells ready for delivery and criticaly, the valuable patterns were lost too!
It wasn’t until around 4am that a good flow of water to the fire engine was achieved this resulting in the fire claiming so much valuable information, handbells and the 8 clock bells. A sad loss.
The records lost are irreplaceable, but we now have a large firesafe for the surviving records and all new records going forwards.
The “workshops” were rebuilt and uses changed over the coming years, the clock was rebuilt integral to a new Carillon, originally with a 2 octave instrument of 25 bells when first installed in 1905, later increased to 4 octaves with 40 bells but sadly dismantled from 1930 onwards.
Work is going on today with bells being recovered, recomissioned and new bells being cast and tuned to restore the carillon to its former glory covering 4 octaves with 47 bells. The largest of these is No 1 a 51” bell tuned to D and the smallest, a 7.25” bell No 49 tuned to D#. (2 bells are missing form the intrument as they are not required, Nos 2 and 4).
-Tony Croft