[Bell Historians] Apologies and Help Please

[John Arthur]

John,

It is written up in many publications and one I came across a year or so
ago was:

Betteney, Alan, A History of the ironworks at Norton and the Story of Big
Ben, 2011,Tees Valley Heritage Group

John Arthur

On Thu, 15 Oct 2026 at 09:57, John David via Bell-historians <
bell-historians at lists.ringingworld.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi All
>
> Abject apologies – I mixed up my foundries. The following version may make
> some sense abd be possible to answer
>
> I can recall reading somewhere that the original Warner Big Ben was found
> to be too big for the only access to the tower and so had to be
> deliberately broken on the quiet by testing it with unbelievably heavy
> hammers.
>
> I can no longer recall where I read this - can anyone help?
>
> If it was true, whose face would be saved? The architects ( Pugin, and
> Barry), the founder (the bell was much heavier than intended) or Beckett
> the clock designer?
>
> Enough famous names!
>
> Once again, apologies
>
> John David
>
> Vale
>
> Guernsey
>
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