All about St. Magdalene Church, Broadwas. [Bells] A Modest frontage on *Whitechapel Road, in the East End of London, closed its doors in May 2017, taking with it 278 years of manufacturing history on the site. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry, one of the oldest companies in the UK, has occupied those premises on Whitechapel Road since 1738. It was established in 1570, and can trace its origins to bell-founders in the Whitechapel and Aldgate areas of the City in the time of Henry V. Alan and Kathryn Hughes are the fourth generation of the Hughes family to own and run the company, which was bought by Arthur Hughes, Alan Hughes's great-grandfather, in 1904. Mr Hughes will retire with its closure, a sad move both for the family, which has been involved with the production of bells there for so long, and for those who will regret the loss of such a link with London's industrial past. The foundry has always concentrated on the manufacture of bells and their fittings: large and small bells, handbells, and bells hung for change-ringing or for carillons. It cast Big Ben for the Palace of Westminster in 1858; the Liberty Bell for the United States in 1752; sent bells to St Petersburg, in Russia, in 1747; and shipped the first Transatlantic bells to Philadelphia in 1754. During the Second World War it manufactured casings for the Ministry of War. Later, it provided the ring of ten for the new National Cathedral in Washington, DC; the "Oranges and Lemons" bells of St Clement Danes in London; and, since 2010, it has cast a complete new ring of 12 bells for St Albans Abbey. The frontage of the building is Grade II listed; and, Mr Hughes says, the family is looking for a home for the foundry's legacy of records, ledgers, and bell artefacts. But the long history of what has been for more than 100 years a many-layered family business will be over.
	1919 *Whitechapel Bell Foundry

Broadwas: St. Mary Magdalene Church; bells.

Frame	Bells	Year	Material	Maker	Truss	Layout
1	1,2,3,4,5.	1896	Deal	G. Watkins	6.A	5.1

Rings: 5 [full circle ring], tenor 4-0-20 in (468 lb or 212 kg) in C♯ (1109.5 Hz)

Bell	Weight	Nominal	Note	Diameter	Dated	Founder	Canons	Tuning	Hanging
1	2-1-20	1665.0	G#	22.00"	1977	*Whitechapel Bell Foundry	F	N	FC
2	2-3-6	1480.0	F#	24.00"	1822	*John Rudhall	R	Y	FC
3	2-3-12	1397.5	E#	24.50"	1820	*John Rudhall	R	Y	FC
4	3-1-4	1246.5	D#	26.13"	1896	*Charles Carr	F	Y	FC
5	4-0-20	1109.5	C#	28.75"	c1350	Gloucester Foundry	R	Y	FC

The  tower and bellcote at Broadwas Church are wood-framed and weather-boarded; and contain five bells, two of which are by Rudhalls of Gloucester, and two by Carr of Smethick. The fifth is of the fourteenth Century, and was cast at Gloucester, by an unknown bell-founder.
A restoration in Victorian times disclosed mediaeval paintings on the north wall of the church.

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*The Rudhall family's bell foundry in Gloucester was established in the later 17th century by Abraham Rudhall. His first known bells were a ring of five supplied to St. Nicholas's church in Oddington in 1684 and one of them still remains in the church's tower and is rung regularly. Abraham rapidly gained credence as a founder and some twenty years later, in an advertisement which appeared in The London Postman in 1705, he announced that since the first year of the reign of James II he had cast 1 ring of ten bells, 10 of eight, 32 of six, and 25 of five, which together with bells for other peals numbered 547 besides others which he could not remember. He had cast bells for 7 cities, 36 market towns, 4 colleges and 162 parishes in thirteen counties, not to mention bells for gentlemen's seats, chapels and shops. At the time of his death he was referred to as 'The Prince of English Bellfounders'. The bell foundry was carried on by *John Rudhall, who survived bankruptcy c. 1814 and died in 1835; his business was continued by Thomas Mears & Co. of the Whitechapel foundry.
	Markings showing the name of Abel Rudhall, on a church bell.

 

*Charles Carr made church bells and gun barrels, including its largest bell for the Roman Catholic cathedral in Demerara in the West Indies; and bronze guns for the King of Siam.

*Charles Carr, Birmingham based manufacturer of church bells and general bell fittings. The firm was established in 1852 are known to have cast bells from 1885 until around 1923. Charles Carr opened a bell-foundry in Smethwick in 1891, which cast bells for many churches.

Below: From Birmingham Founders Database - of 456 Bells of *Charles Carr.

Date	Church	Dedication	Number in Ring	Area	Notes
1896	Broadwas	St. Mary Magdalene	2/5	Worcestershire	Recast by Whitechapel 1977
1896	Broadwas	St. Mary Magdalene	4/5	Worcestershire	Retuned 1977