Rochdale Town Hall clock chimes to replace Big Ben during repairs

Rochdale Town Hall clock

The BBC has bowed to pressure and replacement live bells will be broadcast from across the UK, including from Rochdale Town Hall, while Big Ben is silenced for a three-year repair programme.

Mayor Ian Duckworth and Council Leader Allen Brett backed Jake Berry, the Northern Powerhouse minister, who in January wrote to Lord Hall of Birkenhead, the BBC director general, and urged him to broadcast the chimes from the clock above Rochdale Town Hall until Big Ben is back in full working order.

Speaking to Rochdale Online, Mayor Duckworth said: "In August last year I contacted national media suggesting Rochdale’s Town Hall chimes could replace those of Big Ben due to it being silenced due to refurbishment.

"Some months later Jake Berry, Northern Powerhouse minister, made the same suggestion.

"On Friday, the Daily Telegraph, who had contacted me earlier in the year regarding the idea, rang to inform me that Rochdale Town Hall bells will be broadcast over this year’s Christmas holiday."

Lord Hall also told Mr Berry that “whatever happens” the bells of Rochdale Town Hall will sound this Christmas on Radio 4.

• www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/24/bbc-bows-pressure-silence-bongs-agrees-celebrate-bells-around/

The original Rochdale Town Hall tower, built in five stages, was 240 feet high topped with a wooden spire with a gilded statue of of St George and the Dragon, both of which were destroyed by fire on 10 April 1883.

The clock was enclosed in a cast-iron framework, and the bells were hung in the lower stages of the spire. There were twelve bells which were equipped with a carillon of fourteen tunes, and chimed every hour and every quarter hour, as at Westminster.

The carillon was never restored, nor anything placed upon the summit of the spire. The cause of the fire was never fully established but it caused such damage that the new tower had to be erected fifteen yards further to the east.