Fourteen brand guides to bell foundries and handbell makers — who owns each name, where the bells are cast, and which famous foundries have closed.
Bell founding is one of the oldest family trades in Europe, and one of the most concentrated. A handful of foundries cast most of the world’s church and civic bells, and several of the best-known names in this hub have changed hands, closed or moved in the last decade.
Copper, tin and heat
Bell metal is a bronze of roughly four parts copper to one of tin — “approximately 78% copper and 22% tin,” according to the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America. Tin is the costly part: the US Geological Survey says the average New York price of refined tin rose 13 per cent in 2025, to 1,600 cents a pound.
Famous bells, other foundries
Famous bells often have more complicated histories than their makers’ names suggest. Big Ben is Whitechapel’s 1858 recast of a bell first cast in Stockton-on-Tees; the Liberty Bell on display in Philadelphia is the 1753 recast by Pass and Stow; the 2012 Olympic Bell was designed in London and cast by Eijsbouts in the Netherlands; and the World Peace Bell in Kentucky was cast by Paccard in France. Notre-Dame de Paris’s north-tower bells, cast by Cornille-Havard in 2013, were restored after the 2019 fire and returned to the cathedral in September 2024.
Closures and survivals
London’s Whitechapel foundry cast its last tower bells in March 2017; the American Meneely foundries closed in 1951–52; Petit & Fritsen’s activities passed to Eijsbouts in 2014. Others survive as family firms: Paccard in its seventh generation, Grassmayr in its fourteenth, and Taylor’s in Loughborough under a charitable trust. Heritage Crafts lists bell founding in Britain as “critically endangered.”
How to use these guides
Each guide covers who owns the name today, where the products are made — by the maker’s own account and, where it differs, by other sources — and the brand’s visual identity. A company’s description of itself is attributed to the company, and where a business has closed we say so plainly. The table at the end gathers the essentials.
The bell foundries
The great European and American foundries, and the handbell maker that sold its carillons.
- Royal Eijsbouts — The Dutch family firm founded in Asten in 1872 as a tower-clock factory, which began casting its own bells only in 1947, cast Notre-Dame de Paris’s bourdon Marie, and absorbed its last Dutch rival in 2014.
- Paccard — The bell foundry founded in 1796 by Antoine Paccard, blacksmith and mayor of Quintal in Savoy, now run by the seventh generation at Sévrier on Lake Annecy, and caster of Sacré-Cœur’s La Savoyarde.
- Grassmayr — The Innsbruck bell foundry that dates its first bells to 1599 in the Ötztal, now run by the fourteenth generation of the family, with a bell museum inside the working foundry.
- Whitechapel Bell Foundry — The London foundry that said Guinness listed it as Britain’s oldest manufacturing company, recast Big Ben in 1858, cast its last tower bells on 22 March 2017, and whose name lives on through other makers.
- Taylor’s Bellfoundry — The Loughborough bell foundry that has cast bells in the town since 1839, cast Great Paul for St Paul’s Cathedral, was rescued from administration in 2009, and is now held by a charitable trust.
- Verdin — The Cincinnati family firm founded by two Alsatian brothers, dating itself to an 1842 clock and bell installation, now in its sixth generation, headquartered in a former church, and owner since 2014 of Schulmerich’s carillon business.
- Schulmerich — The Pennsylvania company founded by engineer George J. Schulmerich in 1935, which made North America’s first English handbells in 1962, sold its carillon business to Verdin in 2014, and now makes handbells as Schulmerich Bells in Hatfield.
More bell makers
American, Dutch, German and French foundries, a bellhanger and a handbell maker.
- Meneely — The bell-founding name that split into two rival New York foundries, West Troy and Troy, which together cast some 65,000 bells, including Independence Hall’s Centennial Bell, before both closed in 1951–52.
- Petit & Fritsen — The Dutch bell foundry that traces its origins to 1660, cast bells in Aarle-Rixtel from the 1780s, became Royal in 1976, and handed its activities to Royal Eijsbouts in 2014; its listed foundry now houses a brewery and a distillery.
- Rincker — The family bell foundry in Sinn, Hesse, which traces its bell-founding to at least 1590, has worked in Sinn since 1817, and says it has cast more than 20,000 bells, including for Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
- Cornille-Havard — The Villedieu-les-Poêles bell foundry whose 1865 workshop cast eight new bells for Notre-Dame de Paris in 2013, restored them after the 2019 fire, and receives tens of thousands of visitors a year.
- Whites of Appleton — The Oxfordshire church bellhangers founded by Alfred White in 1824, which make bell frames and fittings in Appleton and bought Whitechapel Bell Foundry’s pattern equipment when the London foundry closed in 2017.
- Malmark — The Pennsylvania handbell maker incorporated in 1973 by Jacob Malta, Schulmerich’s former chief engineer, which fought a decades-long ‘bell war’ with its old employer and says its handbells are made in the USA.
- McShane Bell — The bell name founded in Baltimore in 1856 by Irish immigrant Henry McShane, run by the Parker family from 1942, sold in parts in 2019, and now McShane Bell Company of Maryland Heights, Missouri.
At a glance: who owns the name and where it is made
Taken from each guide’s fact panel, as of October 2026. Ownership and production change; follow the link for sources and detail.
| Brand | Origin | Owner | Where made |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cornille-Havard | Villedieu-les-Poêles, Normandy (1865 workshop) | Paul Bergamo (since 2012) | Villedieu-les-Poêles, France |
| Grassmayr | Habichen (Ötztal), Tyrol (1599) | Grassmayr family (14th generation) | Innsbruck, Austria |
| Malmark | Pennsylvania, USA (incorporated 1973) | Malmark, Inc. (Malta family, per press) | Plumsteadville, Pennsylvania |
| McShane Bell | Baltimore, Maryland (1856) | See guide | Not stated by the company |
| Meneely | West Troy (Watervliet), New York (1826) | Both foundries closed 1951–52 | See guide |
| Paccard | Quintal, Savoy (1796) | Paccard family (Paccard Frères holding) | Sévrier (Haute-Savoie), France |
| Petit & Fritsen | Southern Netherlands (traces to 1660) | Activities taken over by Royal Eijsbouts, 2014 | Aarle-Rixtel until 2014; now Asten |
| Rincker | Hesse, Germany (at least 1590) | Rincker family | Sinn, Hesse |
| Royal Eijsbouts | Asten, Netherlands (1872 (clocks); bells from 1947) | Eijsbouts family | Asten, Netherlands |
| Schulmerich | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1935) | Schulmerich Bells, LLC (handbells) | Hatfield, Pennsylvania |
| Taylor’s Bellfoundry | St Neots, then Loughborough (1784; Loughborough 1839) | Loughborough Bellfoundry Trust (since 2016) | Freehold Street, Loughborough |
| Verdin | Cincinnati, Ohio (1842 (first installation)) | Verdin family (sixth generation) | Cincinnati, Ohio (Verdin says) |
| Whitechapel Bell Foundry | London (traditional date) (1570) | Hughes family | Cast by other makers under licence of the name |
| Whites of Appleton | Appleton, Oxfordshire (1824) | Whites of Appleton Ltd (Haseldine PSC since 2025) | Appleton, near Abingdon |
Frequently asked questions
Who cast Big Ben?
The Great Bell now known as Big Ben is the Whitechapel Bell Foundry’s 1858 recast of a bell first cast by John Warner & Sons in Stockton-on-Tees in 1856, which cracked.
Is the Whitechapel Bell Foundry still open?
No. It cast its last tower bells on 22 March 2017; the name and bell patterns passed to other companies, as our guide explains.
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