Liverpool Town Hall bell to ring after 100 year silence

by Angela Johnson. Published Thu 19 Nov 2009 10:23, Last updated: 2009-11-19

Liverpool Town Hall

Liverpool Town Hall bell will soon be ringing after falling silent for 100 years.

The city’s Lord Mayor Councillor Mike Storey has asked for the Town Hall clock to be repaired and to reintroduce ‘Little Ben’ to Liverpool.

Engineers have already started work on repairs to the clock and bell which will be completed by the end of the week.

A brief test will take place tomorrow and the bell will then be silenced until midnight New Years Eve when the newly refurbished bell will ring out across the city.

Liverpool’s Lord Mayor Councillor Mike Storey said: “The Town Hall bell is a hidden treasure which has remained unused for a century. As soon as I heard about the bell I pledged to bring it back into use for the city.

“There are various theories into how it fell into disrepair but the most important thing is that it will be brought back into use and its distinctive chimes will ring out on New Year.

"We are also repairing the famous Town Hall ‘Rogers’ clock, which is a tremendously important part of the city’s history, so Liverpool’s citizen’s can be right on time for many years to come."

The bell is located beneath the Minerva (the top of the Town Hall’s impressive dome) The bell was thought to have been taken out of commission when structural alternations were carried out to the dome during World War One, when some of the bell’s components became unusable.

The clock’s four, 8ft diameter, glazed skeleton dials have an unique movement and are the only known example of the workmanship of Rogers of Liverpool dated 1883.

This bell is hung ‘dead’ which means it does not swing but houses an internal bell hammer. It weighs roughly half a tonne.