More on the church clock

Regular readers will know of the appeal that's to start soon for an automatic winding system for the church clock at St James' – see Audlem Online stories on Sunday and yesterday. Ruth, one of the bell ringers, and John Kemble have been in touch to say that the combined weight of the three clock weights is about 7 hundredweight and the clock winding over the past 97 years has involved raising these weights about ten miles, or roughly twice the height of Everest!

For those that love trivia, when Audlem Church was built, there were two hundredweights in England, one of 100 pounds – hence the weight's name – and one of 108 pounds, used for wax, sugar, pepper, cinnamon and nutmegs. In 1340, King Edward III changed the value of the stone from 12½ pounds to 14 pounds. Since a hundredweight is 8 stones, the 100-pound hundredweight became 112 pounds.

And just to add to the confusion for our American readers, the United States obviously thought Edward III got it wrong and their hundredweight is still 100-pounds.

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