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.

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, or in the case of guest blogposts, with the named Guest Blogger. However, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

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

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.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

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Lynne

Photographing the Bellfoundry

Focus on the Foundry

Over the next couple of weeks, four of the projects that I’ve been involved with are coming to their conclusion, so I thought you might be interested to hear a little about these projects.

The first of these was the Focus on the Foundry photography sessions, which started three years ago, the aim of which was to capture the changes that were happening down at the Bellfoundry, and at the same time help the twelve people who took part to take better photographs. The professional photographers leading the project were from a collective called Mass. Here’s their main website presence  https://www.mass-collective.com/info   , but they have also documented the works happening at the Bellfoundry, which includes not only photographs, but also audio clips – of some of the bellfoundry workers, and the on-site carillon. https://www.mass-collective.com/chime-ding-cast-tin

Over the three-year period, the group of enthusiastic amateur photographers met 12 times, and at each day-long session were tutored in a specific aspect of architectural photography, before being let loose around the factory, the grounds, and the museum, to practice the skills learned. After each session, each participant selected 20 photographs from the ones they had taken, to share with the photographers from Mass. You can imagine, I’m sure, that after 12 sessions, each participant ended up with literally thousands of shots of various aspects of the Bellfoundry, and choosing only 20 from each session was sometimes quite challenging.

We were encouraged to take shots that showed the changes and developments to the works, but also to concentrate on things that appealed to us. Hence, the eventual collective output was hugely varied! Some people preferred to take photographs of the workers; others preferred photographing the work tools. Some of the photographers focussed on the fabric of the building, others on the stream of visiting bells, different at every visit we made. Detailed, close-up shots, were contrasted with long distance shots which brought the workspaces to life!

As the culmination of three years’ work, we made a selection of 6 or 7 of what we and the photographers from Mass considered to be our best photographs. These were to appear in an exhibition at the Bellfoundry, which showcased the changes at the Bellfoundry over time, and showcased our new photography skills.

A launch event was held, and it was lovely to see so many people there, and to re-connect with others who had been part of the project. As well as becoming better photographers, I’m sure we all found some friends for life! Not quite as intense as Pottery Throw-Down, or Bake-Off, but some strong bonds were formed.

The exhibition is staged in the newly re-imagined Bellfoundry Museum, a space which brilliantly tells the story of the Taylors Bellfoundry. I’m not sure how long the exhibition is being hosted for, but there are displays on the ground floor, on the stairs, and in the Interpretation Room. I believe there are plans to site some of the photographs permanently in the main reception area.

The Museum is open 10am – 4pm (last entry at 3.30pm) November to March, on Wednesday to Friday and the 1st Saturday of the month, which increases to Tuesday to Friday and the 1st Saturday of the month during April to October. You can find more detail on the website https://belltrust.co.uk/           

Thank you to everyone involved for the wonderful experience!

Here's a few of my photos that didn't make the exhibition!

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). Photographing the Bellfoundry. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/03/photographing-bellfoundry.html  [Accessed 16 March 2025]

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

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