THERE are plenty of South Cumbrian links with London’s Whitechapel Bell Foundry- Britain’s oldest manufacturing firm which is faced with closure next year.

The firm was started in 1570 and moved to its present Whitechapel Road site in 1738 but there are records of bell casting in the city’s East End going back to 1420.

Alan and Kathryn Hughes, whose family have been in charge for the past 100 years, hope to find a buyer for the business or it will close in May.

The church with the most recent contact with the historic London firm is St James’ at Barrow.

It has seen a major restoration of its bells and associated ringing equipment.

In September 2013 its eight bells went to Whitechapel to be retuned using new techniques.

The set of eight bells at St Bees Priory were cast at Whitechapel in 1857 and were delivered by the Furness Railway along the Cumbrian coastal route in February 1858.

St Kentigern’s Church, at Great Crosthwaite, Keswick, had six bells from Whitechapel installed in 1775.

The six bells at St Mary’s, Ulverston, were cast at Whitechapel by Thomas Mears II in 1836.

The Ulverston TSB clock tower also has a Whitechapel bell.

It was sent on May 26 in 1846 by rail from London to Fleetwood and would have continued by sea to Roa Island.

In 1752 a Whitechapel bell was sent to Philadelphia and in 1776 it was sounded to summon the city’s residents to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by the United States of America.

It also cast the 13.5-ton Big Ben which is in the Elizabeth Tower at London’s Palace of Westminster.