Ready to spring forward?

All change

We are all about to lose one hour's sleep this coming Sunday morning, 30th of October 2025. One o'clock (am) will 'spring' forward' and instantaneously transmute into two o'clock. It's the price we must pay for a joyous season ahead of (hopefully) blue skies, warmer weather and long, long days.

To a Brit it can conjure gentle images of country pub beer gardens, the thwack of leather on willow resonating from a distant village green as golden light washes idyllically over a rural, evening landscape.

Village Cricket. A countryside summer staple

In reality it may sometimes just mean more light reflecting on the tv as we digest our evening quota of soaps and reality shows. But we can always aspire...

History of time

Prior to 1880, Britain had no official time. Cities towns and villages kept their own local schedules, completely governed by the sun.

In the early 1880s as railway networks began to spread across Britain, the need for a unified horological standard became obvious as train schedules needed to match at departure and destination locations.

On 22nd September 1847, the Railway Clearing House recommended that every railway company in Britain adopt Greenwich time at their stations.

Former railway Clearing House HQ: Eversholt St, London

The companies did so, which quickly influenced the synchronisation of almost all public clocks in the country to Greenwich Mean Time by the mid-1850s.

This standard was later formalised as Britain’s official time in 1880 through the Definition of Time Act.

The Elizabeth Tower’s “Great Clock” began publicly displaying time on May 31, 1859 for much of London. The bell known as Big Ben, housed within the tower, didn’t sound its tradition-rich chime until several weeks later, on July 11, 1859. This marked the beginning of its role as a national timekeeping system, with the clock mechanism driving the hands and the bell announcing the hours.

Arguably making the Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben one of the very first Tick Tock influencers...

Time gets updated

in 1916 a growing movement of supporters, including the young Winston Churchill, led by a colourful character named William Willett finally persuaded the UK government to adopt British Summer Time, changing the clocks twice a year.

The argument that convinced David Lloyd-George and his Liberal parliament to pass the emergency law (which later solidified as the 1925 Summer Time Act) was that during frugal, wartime Britain energy savings would be made. Artificial lighting would be less necessary, saving fuel during Britain's hour of need.

Willett himself was (perhaps apocryphally) said to have intimated privately that his real motive was to facilitate his love of late evening golf sessions. Sadly for the Surrey building magnate he passed away from influenza before enjoying the fruits of his campaign.

Last time?

There is a popular argument gaining significant traction in the UK, that Daylight Savings has outlived its usefulness and needs to be repealed.

Spain is said to have already made the decision to abolish the biannual changes. And many observers expect this change to spread outwards to the rest of Europe and the UK.

DST detractors cite negative mental health effects of the time change, as well as loss of productivity. They may well be right.

As the saying goes: "Only a fool would cut the top off a blanket, sew it to the bottom and convince himself he had a bigger blanket."