Big Ben is 150 - and a peal will ring at Llanover
According to one tradition, Big Ben was nicknamed after Baron Llanover, Sir Benjamin Hall, who was Commissioner of Works at the time of the building of the current Houses of Parliament and something of a giant of a man. He apparently gave an impressively long speech about an appropriate name for this monster (the largest bell in Britain at the time). After he had finished and sat back in his seat some wag apparently called out “Let’s call him Big Ben and have done with it”. However, like most nice stories it has no actual recorded proof.
On 10th April 2008, to mark the 150th anniversary of the casting of what is arguably the most famous bell in Britain, a team of bell-ringers, all of whom are based at churches around the Diocese of Monmouth, will attempt to complete a full peal, lasting approximately two and a half hours on the five bells of St Bartholomew’s Church, Llanover, in whose churchyard Sir Benjamin Hall lies buried. Like Big Ben, these bells were made by the Whitechapel Bell-foundry (the oldest manufacturing company in Britain). They were cast in 1907 from the metal of the ring of bells which Sir Benjamin would have heard. However they are somewhat lighter than BIg Ben, the heaviest of them weighs a quarter of a ton. The peal attempt will commence after Big Ben has struck noon (via the radio).
Nick Jones