MANCHESTER - TH : ENGLAND -LA

*Location:

   Town Hall
   Princess, Cross and Mount Streets
   Manchester, Greater Manchester
     (Lancashire), England
   OS Ref. SJ 838 980
   LL: N 53.47953, W 2.24454

Site locator map via or
or or [StreetMapUK/titled] or [StreetMapUK/plain]
City locator maps and gazetteer page (County is wrong; other data are correct.)
Also see our own Map Use Hints.

*Player:

   (None - automatic only)

*Contact:

   Manchester Visitor Information Centre 
   Town Hall Extension 
   Loyd Street 
   Manchester  M60 2LA 
   T: 0161-234 3157   F: 0161-236 9900 
   E: manchester.visitor.centre@
       notes.manchester.gov.uk

*Schedule:

  (unknown)

*Remarks:

   Ring of 12 with sharp second, plus 
   hour bell ("Great Abel", F#, 8+ tons)
   and 10 smaller bells hung dead. 
   The hour bell was also the bass bell 
   of the previous chime.

*Technical data:

   Electric-automatic carillon of 24 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell (excluding sub-bourdon) is B  in the bass octave
   Transposition is nil (concert pitch)
   Keyboard range: (F#)B B   /    NONE  
   There are two missing bass semitones
   The instrument was enlarged in 1936
     with 23 bells made by Taylor      
   Prior history:
     In 1877, the instrument was begun with 21 bells
       by Taylor      
       (1 bells remain from that work.)
   Year of latest technical information source is 2005

Additional information on the technical history of this instrument can be found in a database printout.

*Links:

The city government Website gives the history of the building (constructed 1868-77), and has a tiny photo.

A large photo is on Wikipedia, and an even larger version is downloadable.  The hour bell is above the clock (by Gillett & Bland); all other bells are below it.

A page from Pevsner's Architectural Guides has a large photo and description of the building.

An architectural heritage page accompanies a description of the building with several photos; the two aerial photos in the text are clickable for larger versions.

An 1877 etching of the building.

Among the seven wonders of Lancashire, the Town Hall is #2, with Liverpool Cathedral (site of a Great Bell) as #1.

A tourist's tower photo (scroll down past the ads).

Where the initial phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Taylor bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.
Where the final phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Taylor bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.

Ranking among all British Isles non-traditional carillons by pitch (weight).
Ranking among all British Isles non-traditional carillons by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all British Isles non-traditional carillons by year of completion.

Index to all tower bell instruments in UK-E.

*Status:

   This page was built from the database on  5-Feb-07
   based on textual data last updated on 2007/01/22
   and on technical data last updated on 2005/07/15

Explanations of page format and keyboard range are available.

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