Bells, Trains and More!

Bells they are a-ringing, and things they are a-changing down at the Bellfoundry!

The only remaining dedicated bellfoundry in the country is entering a new phase of its life! Thanks to funding initiatives over the past few years, amongst other things, the Bellfoundry Museum has had a makeover!

Staff from the Bellfoundry Trust have been working hard on developing an amazing new offer designed to share with you some of the history of one of Loughborough's most important industries, where you can also experience the thrill of metal casting.

As if that weren't enticing enough, the Bellfoundy Trust has teamed up with another of Loughborough's most important and exciting heritage sites to offer you an unforgettable day out! Read on to find out more!    

Museum & Tours

Come and learn about a key part of Loughborough’s rich history at Taylor’s Bellfoundry Museum, home to the UK’s last bellfoundry.

At our Museum, you will not only learn about Taylor’s 250-year legacy, but also about the critically endangered heritage craft of bellfounding. Did we forget to mention that there are plenty of bells to hit? We are not the loudest museum in town for nothing!

Keen to see the bellfoundry process and its craftsmen in action? Then a bellfoundry tour is for you! Led by our experienced and knowledgeable tour guides, come and be immersed in our Victorian factory, watching history being made.

*** New for 2025! ***

** All our tickets now include an annual pass for our Museum! **

* Pay once and get a year’s worth of visits and hitting bells! *

We look forward to welcoming you to our Museum, and on our tours!

A visitor to the museum striking one of the bells on display 
©Reproduced by permission of the Bellfoundry Trust

Visitors enjoying a tour around the Bellfoundry works 
©Reproduced by permission of the Bellfoundry Trust

Bellfoundry Story

How did John Taylor come to set up a bellfoundry here in Loughborough?

The Taylor family had been bellfounding in both Huntingdonshire and Oxford since the 1780s. In 1838, the Loughborough Parish Church put out an advert for a bellfounder to re-cast and re-hang their bells. But the job had to be done in Loughborough itself. John Taylor applied and won the job, moving his bellfoundry up to Loughborough. He originally set up shop in Packhorse Lane, before, 20 years later, buying a piece of land (known as the Cherry Orchard) and building a purpose-built bellfoundry, which still stands today.

Taylor’s have not only left their mark on Loughborough as a town, with both the Parish Church and the War Memorial Carillon ringing Taylor bells, but in the UK and all over the world, there are Taylor bells that will ring for many centuries to come. We have even cast the largest and heaviest church bell in the UK. Want to know more? Why not pop into our Museum to learn more about Taylor’s legacy and the bellfounding process!

John Taylor ©Reproduced by permission of the Bellfoundry Trust

Saturdays with the Bellfoundry & Great Central Railway

Trains & bells make the perfect Saturday trip out in Loughborough!

Come and see two of Loughborough’s industrial heritage sites in one day.

On the first Saturday of the month, Taylor’s Bellfoundry Museum and the Great Central Railway are teaming up to offer an all-day joint ticket to visit both sites.

For £12.50 you get:

*  Access to Taylor’s Bellfoundry Museum

*  Access to the Great Central Railway’s museum

*  Hot drink & cake at the Great Central Railway’s café

You can book your tickets here:

https://loughboroughbellfoundry.merlintickets.co.uk/ (click on Events) [1]

We look forward to welcoming you to our Museum!

A perfect Saturday spent at the Bellfoundry Museum and the GCR 
©Reproduced by permission of the Bellfoundry Trust

Friends of the Bellfoundry

This year, we are re-launching our membership scheme, Friends of the Bellfoundry.

This membership is perfect for anyone who enjoys bells and bellringing, industrial or local history!

For £50 a year, you get:

*  Access to a members-only Casting Tour (once a year)

*  Free Museum entry for you AND your party

*  15% discount in the Museum Gift Shop

*  An exclusive joining gift

·   Your membership fee goes to the Loughborough Bellfoundry Trust. We are a charity based at Taylor’s Bellfoundry, whose aim is to protect the Grade II* listed buildings, and inspire a love for bellfounding, its history, and associated crafts for generations to come.

For more information or to express interest, please contact us at info@belltrust.co.uk

Volunteering

If you love engaging with people as much as you love history, why not consider volunteering with us as a tour guide? Come and join our friendly group of volunteers who can quickly bring you up to speed on all things bells. All you need to bring is a strong voice and confidence talking to groups. Tours take place weekday mornings and afternoons and the first Saturday of every month. [2]

All volunteers get free access to our Friends scheme. Contact us on info@belltrust.co.uk

A volunteer getting hands-on with a tuning fork 
©Reproduced by permission of the Bellfoundry Trust

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NOTES

[1] You can find out more information about what’s happening down at the Great Central Railway on the GCR’s website: https://www.gcrailway.co.uk/

[2] You can find the answers to some frequently asked questions (FAQs) about volunteering on the Trust’s website: https://belltrust.co.uk/volunteers/

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About the author

This post has been written by members of the Bellfoundry Trust, a small team dedicated to running the Bellfoundry Museum, and the Bellfoundry Tours, as well as looking after the Volunteers who dedicate their time to ensuring visitors to the Bellfoundry experience the best possible visit.

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Please note, the views expressed in this Guest Blog Post are the views of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the blog owner, lynneaboutloughborough.

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

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Bellfoundry Trust (2025). Bells, Trains and More! Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/05/bells-trains-and-more.html  [Accessed 1 June 2025]

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If you like this you might also like that

This week, thanks to those lovely people at the Carillon Tower and War Memorial Museum, I was at an event that reminded me of why I started this blog, over 5 years ago now. In an attempt to ensure that Loughborough didn't make it into a book called 'Crap towns' (it appeared in the top 100 so was in danger of, but luckily only the worst 50 made the book) I began to think about what Loughborough had to offer its residents, its students and its visitors. 

Shops, of course, were - and still are - very important to the town's economy, as are the pubs, the cafes and the restaurants. The huge variety of markets, along with the November fair are also a big part of the town's heritage and help to attract visitors. Alongside this, we also have a rich variety of museums, huge signs of our industrial heritage and a wide variety of cultural venues and events. But ...

Loughborough is not a traditional tourist destination, and is surrounded by three cities with a bigger offering than we have, and these probably also have more investment in resources. With access to those resources (I'm talking both money and people here) marketing and promotion of the attractions in these cities is likely to be more intense, more prolific and will reach a wider audience, and is therefore bound to result in more visitors.

So, we're a relatively small market town, with quite a big heritage offering, all of which is within quite a small geographical area. I suppose one disadvantage of this is there is no suitable bus service between the different locations, but for many people the distance might be walkable, and certainly there are plenty of available car parks. 

I'm sure I've probably blogged about all Loughborough's museums before, but maybe in different posts, not all in the same one (hmmm, on having a look I did actually blog about four of them in one post). And, I've shared some of Loughborough's cultural heritage in some of my walks - like the Loughborough Sculpture, Art and Architecture Trail. Of course, there's more: as a trained Loughborough tour guide, I've taken people on walks around the themes of Hidden Loughborough, and Loughborough's Links with War and Remembrance, as well as walks of a general nature.

When I first came to Loughborough, we used to have a Tourist Information Centre, located inside John Storer House. The TIC was part of the, can't quite remember what it was called, but something like the English Tourist Board (honestly, you'd think I'd remember since I actually worked there for a short while) and most towns had one. They used to be the keepers and sharers of local information - places to visit, groups to join etc. - leaflets galore, holiday brochures for other parts of the country (and operated a booking system), and a whole host of other useful stuff. 

I'm not sure what happened to these TICs, but many closed down (including the one in Leicester which I think was in St Margaret's bus station) and Loughborough's was one of these. I think I'm beginning to ramble a bit now, and I can't quite remember what the point of this post was ...

Oh, yes, it might have been something to do with publicising places to visit. The Charnwood Museum has lots of leaflets about local places and things to do locally, as does the public library, so if you're looking for somewhere to visit or something to do, these are good places to look. Maybe places could advertise other complementary places, you know, like on online when you buy something and they say "If you like this ... then you'll like that." or "Other people who bought X also bought Y." Worth a try!

So, if you like the Charnwood Museum, you might like the Carillon Tower and War Memorial Museum. If you like the Carillon Museum who might like the Great Central Railway Museum. If you like the Great Central Railway Museum you might like Taylors Bellfoundry Museum. If you like Taylors Bellfoundry Museum you might like the Old Rectory Museum.

Similarly, if you like the temporary exhibitions in Charnwood Museum, you might like the temporary exhibitions in the Local and Family History Centre in the public library. If you like the temporary exhibitions in the public library, you might like the temporary exhibitions in the Town Hall. If you like the temporary exhibitions in the Town Hall, you might like the temporary exhibitions at the Old Rectory Museum.

If you like the temporary art exhibitions in the Town Hall, you might watch out for the Art This Way annual exhibition which is held in a variety of artists' houses during June. If you like Art This Way, you might watch out for the Art and Craft Fair at Rosebery St Peter's Community Centre in October. If you like the Rosebery St Peter's Art and Craft Fair, you might watch out for an Open House art event in April.

I could go on and on ... but I won't! I think you get the idea!!

See you next week.

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2019). Museums, libraries, books, talks and archives. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/02/museums-libraries-books-talks-and.html [Accessed 17 February 2019]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne     

             

Museums

Museums in Loughborough

Well, back in Loughborough, after a long week in Leicester, I see Spring has sprung, Easter is upon us and we all know what that means - Yes! The museums in town are now open for their summer season hours!

The Carillon Tower and War Memorial includes three rooms of artefacts, the clavier chamber, the carillon bells themselves, as well as a roll of honour to those who gave their lives in WW1 (and later conflicts). Entry to the ground floor exhibits are free, whilst the upper floors are accessible on payment of a small charge (£1). The carillon is played twice a week, at 1pm on a Thursday and Sunday (I think). The opening hours for the museum are: 1-4.30pm everyday, apart from Monday when it is closed all day. You can find the Carillon in Queen's Park Loughborough, close to the bandstand, the aviaries and the ...





... Charnwood Museum. Charnwood Museum tells the fascinating story of Loughborough and its environs, covering early history - think Walking ON dinosaurs, rather than Walking WITH dinosaurs - the geology of the area - "small areas of Precambrian and lower Cambrian rocks in Charnwood Forest and the unconformable overlying Carboniferous cover." - through framework knitting to rubbish tips, to Ladybird Books, and Edward Elgar music scripts. As well as the permanent displays, there are two exhibition areas which are used for temporary events - displays of local work, of national events, and exhibitions mostly relevant to the local area. The museum is FREE to visit, and the opening hours for the summer are: Tuesday - Saturday 10.00-4.30, Sunday 2-5pm. Beside the museum, with an entrance from the museum and from Queen's Park itself, is the Café in the Park.

Both the above museums are on facebook:

The Carillon

Charnwood Museum

Situated in the Heritage Quarter of Loughborough, next to the Parish Church (aka the Church of All Saints with Holy Trinity), is the former rectory, known as the Old Rectory, which was the home of the former vicars of the adjacent church. The building that is still standing is a 13th century stone-built manor house, which although extended many times over the years, is all that is left of the former prestigious house. Inside there is an exhibition area which houses a different display each year, whilst upstairs there are display cases which show the history of the building, the area, and even some local firms. Last year, I visited the museum and wrote about my experience. The Old Rectory Museum is FREE to enter (I think), and can be found on Rectory Place, very close to the Parish Church, and is open every Saturday, April - October, 11.00-3pm.

The final museum I would like to mention is Taylor's Bellfoundry museum. This museum is spread over two floors, and includes things like bells from different era made by different founders, artefacts pertaining to bell founding, and also has a shop which sells many bell-related items. You can take yourself around the museum, but to get the very best experience, guided tours are also offered (these must be pre-booked). The museum is a little way from the town centre, on Freehold Street, and is generally open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 10.00 - 12 noon, and 2.00 - 4pm, although it is advisable to check before making the journey. There is a small charge of approx. £4 for entry.

For an account of my visit to the Great Central Railway Museum, which is open during times the station is open, please follow this link.