A view of the old Ironworks on site at the Stockton Stone & Concrete Company. The original bell known as ‘Big Ben’ was cast here in 1856. Unfortunately this bell cracked during testing, and it was broken up and recast as the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London.
‘The casting of the bell for the Great Clock of Westminster Palace, at Norton, Stockton-on-Tees’ from the illustrated London News of the Old Ironworks at Norton (23 August 1856)
Photograph and details courtesy of John Wilson.
The first Great Bell for St Stephens Tower, the House of Parliament, London, was first cast in Norton, Stockton on Tees. Historical information compiled from various www-sources states:
In 1844, Parliament decided that the new buildings for the Houses of Parliament, then under construction, should incorporate a tower and clock. The commission for this work was awarded to the architect Charles Barry. The Astronomer Royal, George Airy was appointed to draft a specification for the clock. One of his requirements was that: “the first stroke of the hour bell should register the time, correct to within one second per day, and furthermore that it should telegraph its performance twice a day to Greenwich Observatory, where a record would be kept.” Eventually, on 6th August 1856, a great bell weighing 16 tons was made to his specification, by John Warner & Sons at Norton, Stockton-on-Tees, but this bell cracked irreparably while under test in the Palace Yard at Westminster. A new replacement bell was made by George Mears, then the owner of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, who undertook the casting of the bell now universally known as “Big Ben”. Warner also made the 4 quarter past-the-hour bell albeit in their London Foundry, based in Jewin Crescent, in the area now known as The Barbican, in the City of London.