Taylor'S Bell Foundry (That Part On West Side Of Cobden Street)

Taylor's Bell Foundry (West Side of Cobden Street), Loughborough

This complex of erecting, finishing and tuning shops, carpenter's shop, smithy, offices and carillon tower forms part of a bell manufactory. The buildings date from 1859, with later additions and alterations made throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Significant work was undertaken in 1898 to the designs of architects Barrowcliffe and Allcock of Loughborough.

The buildings are constructed of red brick with Welsh slate roof coverings and areas of fixed glazing. The complex evolved from a former courtyard plan, with the courtyard now roofed over and the site extended to the north-westward.

The complex comprises various ranges of one and two storeys and incorporates two towers. The main two-storey range facing Freehold Street is late 19th century. Its street frontage has six 20-pane windows to the left and five 4-pane sash windows to the centre right and far right. The ground floor contains two doorways and a large double doorway to the left, four 24-pane windows to the centre, then two 4-pane sash windows to the centre right and a double doorway with a further 4-pane sash window. All openings have brick cambered heads. The elevation features a moulded brick string course and moulded brick eaves below a brick parapet. At the right-hand end are various sash windows with margin lights. To the far left stands a three-stage corner tower dated 1898. Its first stage has a 9-pane window set within a stone Gibbs surround. The second stage contains a circular window with a keyed stone surround. The third stage displays four rusticated stone pilasters on each face, a stone cornice, and a parapet with curved top, stone coping and ball finials. The left side facing Cobden Street is similarly detailed with a date stone set within the parapet. The range to Cobden Street has a tall tapering square brick stack, irregular fenestration and a double doorway. The single-storey rear range facing Peel Drive (formerly Chapman Street) is the original foundry building dated 1859. It has five iron-framed 25-pane windows and two similar 45-pane windows to the left. Stone plaques within the walling are inscribed 'J.V.T 1859'. To the rear of the main range is an attached early 20th-century carillon tower of three stages with plain-tile hipped roof. The bottom stage has two sides open, supported on an iron column and girders. Above these, on each face, are two 2-light leaded casements. The third stage is open, with timber framing between brick corner piers and attached carillon bells.

The interior of this part of the foundry is where the finishing of bells and bell frames and the tuning of bells takes place, utilising specialist machinery, some unique to bell manufacture. The tuning shop contains four fixed bell-tuning machines, three of which were specifically designed for the foundry and originally belt-driven from line shafting. The fitting and turning shops contain lathes and planing and drilling machinery, while the carpenter's shop and forge house retain woodworking and smithy equipment. The smithy retains a modified former steam hammer. Above the carpenters' shop is a loft serving as the pattern store. Within the erecting shop and bell-tuning areas are travelling cranes mounted on wall-mounted runners supported by cast-iron brackets or masonry piers to facilitate the moving of large castings. Although the furnaces of the original foundry area and their chimneys have been removed, their location is marked by arched recesses in the north wall of the old foundry building. Following the fire of 1891, tensioned metal roof trusses were introduced in some parts of the site, notably in the erecting shop, though earlier timber roof structures survive in the carpenters' shop, the erecting and tuning shop and the tuning room. Much of the ground floor of the office area has been altered, but a late 19th-century turned baluster stair leads to first-floor rooms including a strong room, archive store and an office with fitted bookshelves and cupboards containing the company's order books and other historic documents.

The Taylor family, originally bell founders in St Neots and elsewhere, came to Loughborough in 1839. In 1858, J.W. Taylor purchased this site and began constructing new foundry buildings. An engraved letterhead of pre-1886 shows the buildings as similar in appearance to those now existing, including the part on the east side of Cobden Street, with three stacks. The business prospered and was reported to have been at one time the largest bell foundry in the world. Taylor's cast bells for St Paul's Cathedral, London, including in 1881 'Great Paul', the largest bell in the former British Empire and the largest properly rung bell in the world. The moulds for this bell survive in the rear yard to the handbell foundry. Bells and carillons have been exported from this foundry to all parts of the former Empire, the USA and Holland. It remains the only operational purpose-built bell foundry in England and one of only two bell foundries remaining in the country.

This part of Taylor's Bell Foundry forms a group with the section to the east side of Cobden Street.