Stratford Bell Tower (1981)

The Stratford bell tower in Miranda Street was erected in 1981 to house a set of five memorial bells first installed in the Post Office clock tower on Broadway in 1924.

Assessed as an earthquake risk the bell tower will be demolished in March 2022. The Stratford District Council intends to find an alternative way to display the bells. 

A new Post Office for Stratford was erected in 1924 and incorporated into the design was a clock tower. The Post Office was officially opened by the Postmaster-General Hon. J.G. Coates in June 1924; however the clock and the bells were not ready. 

The clock was one of two war memorials (the other was the Victoria Park gates) organised by the town in 1924 to remember those soldiers who lost their lives in the Boer War and World War One. 

The clock and chimes were finally installed and unveiled on Armistice Day, 1924. The company Littlejohn & Son was responsible for the making the clock, which the mayor explained were guaranteed to “last one hundred years…and therefore…they (the Stratford residents) should not grumble at the few months delay in getting it going”. 

The memorial bells were imported from England and the Taranaki Daily News reported on 18 March 1924 that the bells had left England on 9 February aboard the Port Pirie. They were due to be unloaded in Wellington on 20 March 1924. 

Also delayed was the memorial tablet which did not arrive in Stratford until December 1924. The tablet (made by Messrs. Swan and Son of Dunedin) read, “Memorial clock installed by the citizens of Stratford in honour of all those from Stratford and surrounding districts who served in the Great War, 1914-1919 and in the South African War, 1900-02. Unveiled by Mrs J.W. McMillan, November 11,1924”. 

In the early 1960s a new Post Office was built in Miranda Street and the old Post Office, along with the clock tower were eventually demolished in 1967.

The bells were removed from the clock tower when the Post Office closed in 1963 and stored until the construction of the bell tower in 1981. 

Work began on the $34,000 bell tower in 1980 with the formation of the pre-stressed concrete towers by Agnew Construction Ltd. In January 1981 a large crane was used to place the large concrete sections in place. On 12 March 1981 the memorial bells were craned into place near the top of the structure. 

On 14 April 1981 the Daily News reported that the bell tower was complete but that the architects (Laurenson, Robinson and Jim Boon) “were awaiting the delivery of solanoids to actuate the bell hammers and when those arrived the work would be completed.” 

In August 1981 the council addressed concerns of locals at the possibility of not getting a good night's sleep and agreed that bells would only chime on the hour between 11.00 am and 5.00 am. Concerns were being expressed at the delay in the time Obertron Industries were taking to complete the electrical side of the project. It was hoped the bells would be working within a few weeks.

Finally on 29 October, six months after completion, the “bells tolled in Stratford for the first time”. They were synchronised with the town clock and programmed to chime every quarter hour during the day in sequence with the striking of the town clock - hourly at night. 

The bell tower survived another brush with destruction over twenty years ago. In 2000 a maintenance report revealed that it would cost $2,064 to carry out remedial work on the bell tower and that “the recent operation of the bells had been below expectation”.    

Councillor Margaret Arthur came to the rescue, arguing that, “I think it is our duty to maintain the bells up to order, it is a war memorial and deserves to be maintained”. 

In 2022 however, the Startford District Council deemed the bell tower was a "significant earth quake risk" and April of that year it was demolished. The bells were once more placed into storage.