BRITAIN’S oldest manufacturing firm The Whitechapel Bell foundry, is set to close at its current site and bring an end to a family business that has run for almost 500 years.

The foundry, which made Big Ben and was established in 1570, when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne, will stop trading at Whitechapel Road in London next year.

The company said it intends to complete all projects currently on its books but will not take on new contracts while discussions about its “future” are ongoing.

Owners Alan and Kathryn Hughes, whose family have owned the foundry since 1904, made the decision to shut down with a “heavy heart”.

They said: “We have made this decision in response to the changing realities of running a business of this kind. The Bell Foundry in Whitechapel has changed hands many times, but it has always been a family business.

“The business has been at its present site over 250 years. So it is probably about time it moved once again.”

With a history spanning the reign of 27 monarchs, the foundry is listed in the Guinness Book Of Records as the oldest manufacturing firm in Britain. Based in Whitechapel Road since 1738, its most famous creation was Big Ben, the bell in the Palace of Westminster.

Cast in 1858, at 13.5 tons it is the largest bell ever made at Whitechapel, and a cross-section of the bell still surrounds the entrance door to the foundry.

The company also made the Liberty Bell, the famous symbol of American independence.

During the war years the foundry ceased making bells, switching to manufacturing castings for the Ministry of War. In the aftermath of the Second World War the foundry was busy replacing peals lost to bombing raids and fires, including the bells of London’s St Mary le Bow and St Clement Danes churches. But in May the famous foundry will have cast its last bell after 447 years in business.