In the UK the clocks go back 1 hour at 1am on the last Sunday in October.
The period when the clocks are 1 hour ahead is called British Summer Time (BST). There's more daylight in the evenings and less in the mornings (sometimes called Daylight Saving Time).
When the clocks go back, the UK is on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
The main purpose of Daylight Saving Time (called "Summer Time" in many places in the world) is to make better use of daylight allowing us the longer daylight hours during the evenings so much loved by so many people; farmers, gardeners, cricketers, and other sports people and so many more. We change our clocks during the summer months to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening.
During WW2 the country had double summer time to allow our farmers, and others, to take advantage of the extra daylight, gladly that is no longer the case today. The concept of time change is challenged by many people not least those living in the far North of Scotland, and the remote Islands, for whom the days grow very short and have low light levels during the Autumn and Winter months. Returning to GMT means that the evenings will become darker sooner for all of us, with ‘the night’s drawing in’ and the daylight becoming weaker as we move toward December 21st, following which we gain a few minutes of daylight each day as we reverse the process and progress toward Spring.
Our Countryside is wonderful whatever the time of year, but in Autumn we can enjoy the delightful golds and tans, browns and greens as we look over the landscape, the nights may be drawing in but there is still so much to see and do in and around the Town.
By setting them back, it does mean that we'll have darker mornings and evenings, so please take care on route to and from school, work and when you're out and about.
So, please, don’t forget on Sunday 25th set your clocks back one hour. You do not need to sit up to 1 am, do it at bedtime and get an hour’s extra sleep!
