Answer to SLHS Christmas Quiz Q5 "What is the weight of the largest bell in St John's Church Tower?"
12 cwt 3 qtr 0 lbs (648 kg).
The Tenor bell was originally cast in 1699 and recast in 1911.
There are 14 pounds (lbs) in a stone and 8 stones in a hundredweight (cwt). A quarter (qtr) is 2 stone.
Imperial measures stopped being legal for use in UK trade under the Weights and Measures Act 1985.
There are 20 cwt in a ton; 14 8 20 = 2,240 lbs in a ton.
lbs and tons are still in use in the USA and Canada, but 2,240 lbs is too complicated for our colonial cousins, so they use a “short ton” of 2,000 lbs. This is 20 “short hundredweight” of 100 lbs.