Changing clocks

[hawk123]

Why do the uk put clocks back and forward at certain times of the year

[TheHitMaker]

It was originally done so that the farmers wouldn't have to get up and milk the herd in the dark. A lot of countries do the one hour alteration and it has the effect of balancing out the light at the beginning and end of the day.

[Napoleon]

Why shouldn't farmers do their milking in the dark? Won't the cows wake up for it?

[geofbob]

In case you are confused, hawk123, it ought to be said that the clocks going backwards and forwards is not just to do with farmers milking cows. The clock going back by one hour in the autumn is designed to give all of us more daylight in winter evenings. It is also not just in the UK that "daylight saving" occurs - all the other European countries do the same. It is also a very old idea - Benjamin Franklin first thought it up in the 18th Century, though it wasn't adopted until about 90 years ago (in WW1). Incidentally, the real argument with the Scottish farmers is over the possible adoption by the UK of the same time zone as Europe, which would put our clocks on one hour permanently, and make the mornings dark for much of the year in the North.

[geofbob]

Let me make a slight alteration in my above comment. In the second sentence I referred to the clock going BACK in autumn; but the real adjustment is that the clock goes FORWARD by one hour in the spring, taking us from what used to be called GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) to BST (British Summer Time) to give us more daylight in summer evenings, rather than in the mornings.

[wildwood]

Thank you for the last comment geofbob.
I thought I was going nuts :-)

[Gef]

The change (to BST) is in the summer not the winter. It makes sunrise later (when most of us are still in bed anyway) but gives an hour of "extra" daylight at the end of the day so that farmers etc can work later. I think this was introduced during one of the World Wars. It makes no difference whatsoever to the number of hours of daylight.

[Pickle]

I always understood it was because of milking times. Cows are ready to give milk when it gets light. If the clocks didn't go forward in the summer, the farmers would have to get up and milk them at 5am. Or more to the point, they'd have to pay the farm hands for an extra hour in the summer.