I went on a small pilgrimage this morning to see the Whitechapel Bell Foundry with an ardent visiting campanologist. I had learned something of the interest and enthusiasm of campanologists for the fons et origo of bells all over the world, but I hadn’t known that there are 80,000 bell ringers in Britain alone, that they have their own magazine Ringing World, and that they are all as upset as I am at the sale of the Bell Foundry and the loss of its deep rooted skills and historic traditions.

They all hope, as I do, that Robert Jenrick, if he is reappointed Secretary of State as he well may be, will intervene to find a creative solution to its future:-