Page 146 - NT 2022 Almanac

The days are getting shorter and shorter. However, we still have light evenings until the clocks change on 30th October. This means we get an extra hour in bed the night before. It can be confusing if you are a baby or a pet as it messes around with your mealtimes!
Why Do the Clocks Change?
We didn’t always bother with changing the clocks. In the old days, people went to bed when the sun went down and got up again when it rose. Midday was several minutes earlier in the east of the country than it was in the south, and several minutes later in the west. This meant that town clocks across the British Isles showed different times. The building of the railway network changed all that because the time had to be the same all over the country, or people would not have had the faintest idea when to catch a train.
Then a man called William Willett suggested to parliament that if the clocks changed, we would all enjoy more daylight in the autumn and winter months. So, since 1916, the clocks have gone back one hour in October and in March the clocks have been put forward by one hour. This is known as ‘daylight saving’.
In spring, the clocks spring forward an hour, and in the autumn, they fall back.
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