Members of the Weyburn Parks Board and city staff were on hand to unveil the post office bell monument on Wednesday by City Hall. The monument houses the bell formerly used in Weyburn’s original post office building.
Cast by the John Taylor Bell Foundry in Loughborough, England, in 1913, the same year that Weyburn was officially incorporated as a city, this bell holds a lot of history.
The bell, with a diameter of 34 inches and weighing 797 pounds, was first dispatched to Liverpool and then sent to Montreal with five other bells all destined for municipal buildings in Canada. Some of the other bells found their homes in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.
This bell hung in Weyburn’s old post office as part of the clock mechanism in the clock tower, and because it was part of the clock mechanism it did not feature a clapper. It hung in the old post office until it was torn down in 1986. The bell was salvaged and was acquired by Norman Mryglod, and in 2013, it was donated to the City of Weyburn.
Coun. Dick Michel, who emceed the short ceremony, noted that the City Hall was chosen as its resting place because it served as the post office after the original building was demolished, as well as the city’s federal building.
Quoting Benjamin Franklin, Coun. Michel said, “‘Well done is better than well said’, and with that I would like to take a moment and thank Bob Satre for the design of the Bell Monument, it looks fantastic and is certainly well-done. I would also like to thank Norman and the late Sandra Mryglod for the donation of the bell in loving memory of their son Glenn Mryglod.”
Coun. Michel also thanked former councilor Nancy Styles for her work as a member of the Parks Board on this project prior to the civic election last fall.
