London 2012 Ceremony Bell | 23 tonnes | Relocation

[Its AlL gUUd]

I'm so glad its not as big as I'd imagined as it would've taken up alot of floorspace in the stadium. Especially as it is supposed to stay there throughout the ceremony.

[bertyboy]

Does it have a custom clapper? Or will it be rung by a hammer? Also, does anyone know what note it is?

[MartinLeRoy]

Originally Posted by R.K.Teck

Be cool if after the ceremony it was stuck on a pole in the park and they ringed it every time a games/world record was broken!

That would be cool.

[JohnTaylors]

This bell has definitely been cast in the Netherlands. Taylors of Loughborough could have cast it. There is the capacity in Loughborough for such a bell. Taylors were not given the opportunity to officially quote. This has been the subject of correspondence between John Taylors and LOCOG. As the primary UK producer of large bells in Britain, John Taylor & Co is upset not to have been asked to quote. An (unwritten) approach from LOCOG to Taylors last year was used apparently only to verify the price from Whitechapel. As part of this approach John Taylors were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement before any conversation could take place. At no point during the conversations were we told that this was not a serious approach designed to lead to a business contract. We have now been told the choice of Whitechapel was influenced by Danny Boyle as he wanted to use the connection with East London during the opening ceremony. John Taylor & Co are disappointed by a seemingly lack of transparency, lack of an equal opportunity to compete, and by the bias towards a London based business. At every point necessary during conversations with L2012 Ceremonies John Taylor & Co has made it clear that this bell could be produced in Loughborough. It is only once in every few decades that opportunities to cast very large bells arise, and it is a great shame this is not a British product with the majority of the expense being recycled in the country towards the revitalisation of an industry which struggles to survive in this economic climate.

It is inevitable this will reach the press. We have delayed approaching the media whilst we have been in subsequent correspondence with LOCOG, L2012 Ceremonies and our MP, Nicky Morgan, to attempt to establish the facts.


Acting Managing Director, John Taylor & Co

[pagey17]

Surely the afro carribean/slavic population of London could have created something out of their engineering expertise as appose to it being done by the Dutch.

[jdjones]

Originally Posted by JohnTaylors

This bell has definitely been cast in the Netherlands. Whitechapel has done little in its production other than verify the profile with Eijsbouts and attempt some tickling, called tuning, which is a useless operation on a bell of this size. Taylors of Loughborough could have cast it. There is the capacity in Loughborough for such a bell. Taylors were not given the opportunity to officially quote. This has been the subject of correspondence between John Taylors and LOCOG. As the primary UK producer of large bells in Britain, John Taylor & Co is upset not to have been asked to quote. An (unwritten) approach from LOCOG to Taylors last year was used apparently only to verify the price from Whitechapel. As part of this approach John Taylors were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement before any conversation could take place. At no point during the conversations were we told that this was not a serious approach designed to lead to a business contract. We have now been told the choice of Whitechapel was influenced by Danny Boyle as he wanted to use the connection with East London during the opening ceremony. John Taylor & Co are disappointed by a seemingly lack of transparency, lack of an equal opportunity to compete, and by the bias towards a London based business. At every point necessary during conversations with L2012 Ceremonies John Taylor & Co has made it clear that this bell could be produced in Loughborough. It is only once in every few decades that opportunities to cast very large bells arise, and it is a great shame this is not a British product with the majority of the expense being recycled in the country towards the revitalisation of an industry which struggles to survive in this economic climate.

It is inevitable this will reach the press. We have delayed approaching the media whilst we have been in subsequent correspondence with LOCOG, L2012 Ceremonies and our MP, Nicky Morgan, to attempt to establish the facts.

If any journalists wishes to contact me then my email address is richard.grimmett@taylorbells.co.uk and my office telephone number is 01509 212241.

Richard Grimmett
Acting Managing Director, John Taylor & Co

Bizarre that you would hold off from telling the press but would post here on skyscrapercity.com (the biggest forum on the net btw!). Why all the secrecy, tell the press, let them do their work. Oh and also, you don't need to make a new profile everytime you want to say something JohnTaylor, or should I call you Shadow@ce, OldRinger, Frustie??

[JohnTaylors]

Originally Posted by jdjones

Bizarre that you would hold off from telling the press but would post here on skyscrapercity.com (the biggest forum on the net btw!). Why all the secrecy, tell the press, let them do their work. Oh and also, you don't need to make a new profile everytime you want to say something JohnTaylor, or should I call you Shadow@ce, OldRinger, Frustie??

Not as you say JDJones. I have been wanting to post for quite some time - since finding this thread when googling to get other information on the Olympic Bell - and have watched the correspondence with increasing frustration. My hands have been tied whilst we established exactly what had gone on and waited for responses from LOCOG. We now have this, as of yesterday morning the jigsaw was completed. First journalist interview is this afternoon.

[jdjones]

Originally Posted by JohnTaylors

Not as you say JDJones. I have been wanting to post for quite some time - since finding this thread when googling to get other information on the Olympic Bell - and have watched the correspondence with increasing frustration. My hands have been tied whilst we established exactly what had gone on and waited for responses from LOCOG. We now have this, as of yesterday morning the jigsaw was completed. First journalist interview is this afternoon.

I look forward to the evidence based article by a reputable source.

[RobH]

Why would someone register to post lies about a bell? That's hardly trolling 101.

This doesn't read like trolling to me in either its tone or its content.

I might be wrong, but I reckon he's genuine enough.

[jdjones]

Originally Posted by RobH

Why would someone register to post lies about a bell? That's hardly trolling 101.

That's pretty much what trolls do.

Anyway, I may have reacted quite coldly, but what evidence do we have of what he is saying? Someone posted a blurry photo of a bell a few weeks ago, but not proof. His post reads to me like sour grapes, that Whitechapel got a contract that his company didn't, a bit like West Ham vs Tottenham re the Stadium. He may be right, and I will be the first to retract my accusations, but go through the correct channels for sobbing out loud instead of posting on a bloody forum, even a local paper would do, otherwise you just look like a conspiracy theorist crackpot.

[annamaria4711]

Originally Posted by JohnTaylors

This bell has definitely been cast in the Netherlands. Whitechapel has done little in its production other than verify the profile with Eijsbouts and attempt some tickling, called tuning, which is a useless operation on a bell of this size. Taylors of Loughborough could have cast it. There is the capacity in Loughborough for such a bell. Taylors were not given the opportunity to officially quote. This has been the subject of correspondence between John Taylors and LOCOG. As the primary UK producer of large bells in Britain, John Taylor & Co is upset not to have been asked to quote. An (unwritten) approach from LOCOG to Taylors last year was used apparently only to verify the price from Whitechapel. As part of this approach John Taylors were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement before any conversation could take place. At no point during the conversations were we told that this was not a serious approach designed to lead to a business contract. We have now been told the choice of Whitechapel was influenced by Danny Boyle as he wanted to use the connection with East London during the opening ceremony. John Taylor & Co are disappointed by a seemingly lack of transparency, lack of an equal opportunity to compete, and by the bias towards a London based business. At every point necessary during conversations with L2012 Ceremonies John Taylor & Co has made it clear that this bell could be produced in Loughborough. It is only once in every few decades that opportunities to cast very large bells arise, and it is a great shame this is not a British product with the majority of the expense being recycled in the country towards the revitalisation of an industry which struggles to survive in this economic climate.

It is inevitable this will reach the press. We have delayed approaching the media whilst we have been in subsequent correspondence with LOCOG, L2012 Ceremonies and our MP, Nicky Morgan, to attempt to establish the facts.

If any journalists wishes to contact me then my email address is richard.grimmett@taylorbells.co.uk and my office telephone number is 01509 212241.

Richard Grimmett
Acting Managing Director, John Taylor & Co

Hello JohnTaylors...this is Eddie Nestor's drive time FB page
copy you story and send it to him.....his slot is prime time Radio listening in London... http://www.facebook.com/EddieNestorsDrivetime

[JohnTaylors]

<http://www.grimmett.org/loughboroughecho.pdf>

and

<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9215198/London-2012-Olympic-bell-made-in-Holland.html>

plus Daily Mail, Daily Sport, BBC Radio Leicester, and several more.

[jdjones]

I stand corrected...

[OldRinger]

Exactly as I said a couple of months ago. The bell was made in the Netherlands. I did contact "The Times" in January to explain that the Whitechapel Foundry could not make the bell, but they chose to ignore me. And, by the way, "Oldringer" is NOT a pseudonym for anyone else.

[cnapan]

Originally Posted by JohnTaylors

It is only once in every few decades that opportunities to cast very large bells arise, and it is a great shame this is not a British product with the majority of the expense being recycled in the country towards the revitalisation of an industry which struggles to survive in this economic climate.

I am saddened by this but not surprised. The further people climb the greasy pole, the less they seem to care about the people who actually make stuff in our country.

It won't be any consolation, but yours isn't the only local industry which was ignored in favour of a foreign competitor.

London is a world centre for digital imaging, television and film production and vfx. Who did Seb Coe's team choose as Digital Imaging Services Supplier?

The chinese company Crystal CG (who did the imaging for Beijing)

http://www.crystalcg.com/en/news.aspx?nid=114

So, whether it be one of the world's oldest industries or one of the newest, the olympic committee aren't afraid to totally pass over local talent.

Most of the merchandise on sale is being manufactured abroad too:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/n...ilippines.html


The olympics seems to be about prestige and the egos of the politicians who strive to get the games.

Imagine if we'd blown 10 billion quid on new sports facilities instead. Now *that* would be a legacy.

Instead, the main beneficiaries are the sponsors and their guests, a load of mainly foreign construction firms buoyed up by yet more gobs of money thrown their way by our feckless leaders, and no doubt 3-4 weeks of hysteria and even more traffic jams in London...

I might watch it still :-)

[cnapan]

Originally Posted by jdjones

I stand corrected...

Would it be too much for you to actually apologise?

[bertyboy]

Unfortunately, Locog, being a quasi-governmental body, are bound by EU tendering laws when selecting suppliers. They can't select someone because they are British; the winning supplier must demonstrably show that they are the best technical and value-for-money choice.

[RobH]

Unfortunately, Locog, being a quasi-governmental body, are bound by EU tendering laws when selecting suppliers. They can't select someone because they are British; the winning supplier must demonstrably show that they are the best technical and value-for-money choice.

This is essentially a similar argument as the Siemens / Bombardier trains contract isn't it?

But in the case of this bell the contract was awarded to a British company and it was they who decided to subcontract a part of it.

The tickets were of course printed in the US, and a lot of the tacky merchandise will be made in cheaper markets as is nearly always the case with that sort of thing (it's the claim that some of it is being produced in sweatshops that worries me in this case, not the fact that's it's being made in China or wherever which is kind of what I'd have expected anyway).

But then again the steel for the venues was forged in the N.W., the huge number of plants and trees for planting in the Olympic Park came from Norfolk, most of the construction contracts are UK based and whilst the animations of the mascots went to a Chinese firm as cnapan says they were created in the UK as was a lot of the design work on the Games.

I'd be interested to see a % split as to how much work has been awarded to companies in the UK vs abroad. Of course, as well as the EU laws (which it's arguable we follow more stringently than other member states in these instances - that was certainly the argument made by those against the Siemens Contract), the ODA/LOCOG have to keep an eye on costs. So it's essentially a balancing act. Whether they get it more right than wrong or visa versa I really couldn't say.

[cnapan]

Originally Posted by RobH

... and a lot of the tacky merchandise will be made in cheaper markets as is nearly always the case with that sort of thing (it's the claim that some of it is being produced in sweatshops that worries me in this case, not the fact that's it's being made in China or wherever which is kind of what I'd have expected anyway)...

Once politicians claimed that we shouldn't be afraid of foreign manufacture of cheap goods, because we should produce 'higher value' things with high technology manufacture to remain competitive.

The problem is that places like China are super-modern. Most of their manufacturing is brand-spanking new. It's where they build Apple products. They're doing the visual effects for the london Olympics.

They remain competitive because of simple vast exchange rate differences. Sure, in a few decades, the huge gap between what a british worker needs to take home to pay the bills and a chinese worker takes home to take the bills will shrink. But then all we'll do is send business to the next developing country instead.

At some point we need to ask ourselves whether we should be making or growing anything at all, because logically, almost all of that activity can be done cheaper abroad.

Manufacturing and industry - and the support of it - is, in my opinion crucial to ensure that the country has a healthy balance of opportunities for people to develop. We can't all be teachers, estate agents, bar staff and politicians. Making stuff should be a part of who we are as a nation.

Given that, I don't think it unreasonable for us to help out our local industries when we have the opportunity, be it when we need some new trains built, some visual effects done or a bloody great bell made! Sure, it might cost more up-front, but then in helping support local industry, there are other extra benefits that in my opinion make the extra cost worthwhile - i.e. society benefits.

[feltip]

Been to Taylors today to see casting of new bells for a tower in Birmingham. It is so frustrating that Taylors were not given the opportunity particularly with it being so peculiarly British.

BBC were filming some of the casting so should be on news later.