THE great Titanic bell topic seems to be unsinkable. Several times it has popped up over the past year, as readers continue to wrangle over whether the famous liner's 150lb bronze bell had St Helens connections.

Quite a number of folk have insisted that it had. Others scuppered the suggestion, claiming the bell had Liverpool origins.

Now reader John Carberry enters the mix in supplying an evening paper cutting, stating that the bell was crafted by Utleys of St Helens. The family firm, it goes on, also had an order for 900 port lights and windows for the doomed super-liner, plus a bell for the crow's nest.

Tom Utley, grandson of the man who founded the company in 1851, is quoted as saying that the firm had another massive order for the Titanic's sister ships, the Olympic and the Britannic. Though some Utleys archives were destroyed in the war, records still existed for the older orders.

Utleys, still very much in business, also proudly lay claim to fitting windows of the QE2, and the Queen Mary, plus recently finishing a yacht belonging to the Sultan of Brunei.

John Carberry adds a footnote, saying that he believes the company was previously located in Merton Bank, St Helens, before moving to Sutton industrial site.