At noon everyday for the past 59 years the chimes of the Freedom Bell have been heard in Berlin.
The bell was a gift to the city in 1950 as an expression of American friendship and support.
It was cast by famed bell-makers Gillett and Johnston based on Whitehorse Road in Croydon.
The bell, at 8 feet tall and a whopping 10 tons, is reportedly the largest made at the Croydon foundry.
It was commissioned by the National Committee for a Free Europe, an anti-communist organisation formed in New York in 1949.
At the time, Gillett and Johnston enjoyed an unrivalled reputation.
Cyril Johnston is credited as the man who rediscovered the art of bell tuning, an art form which had been lost for more than 200 years.
He perfected the technique of tuning bells, his method was widely acknowledged to be the best in the world.
A letter sent to a newspaper, held at Croydon Local Studies Library and Archive Service, pays tribute to his expertise, reading: "The bells that he has made are sounding melodiously in America and Canada, and elsewhere, when you and I are in bed and asleep.
"They are ringing here, there and everywhere in England while we are at work. They will go on ringing through the centuries, for there is no limit to the life of a bell."
One of the people who worked on making the bell was John Dale who posed proudly beside it on the day before it was shipped to the USA.
He was 18-years-old at the time and this photo is one of the few his daughter Elaine Williamson has of him, he died when she was 11-years-old.
She said: “I have very few photos of him at this time, he was 18 and only lived to the age of 38 when he died just after my 11th birthday.
“We believe my father should be in the photo, his brother Gerald has definitely been identified by a cousin but we are not 100 per cent sure who my dad is.
“My mother does not agree with my brothers and I, so we are obviously very desperate to know for sure.”
She is hoping Croydon residents might help her identify her father.
She thinks he was an apprentice at the time the bell was made and went on to become a carpenter/joiner.
At the casting ceremony, the American Ambassador threw a half crown and a lapel badge bearing the slogan ‘American Fight for Freedom’ into the molten metal which took eight days to cool.
It was taken through 26 cities in the USA, where 16 million Americans donated money and signed the declaration of freedom.
After crossing the Atlantic again, the Freedom Bell arrived at its final resting place in Berlin.
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