JRS: In article ,
dated Sun, 22 Aug 2004 21:42:03, seen in news:uk.transport.london, James
posted :
Dr John Stockton wrote in message news:c2GbxvBY3PKBFw
...
JRS: In article , dated
Sun, 22 Aug 2004 11:17:41, seen in news:uk.transport.london, Peter
Sumner posted :

Fascinated by why you say almost all of the UK. Is there some part in
a different time zone?

There is some part which, I have been told by one who should know, keeps
a time differing significantly from London Time. I doubt whether it
should be described as a zone.

Isn't there some clock in Oxford that's intentionally about 10 mins or so off?

I think I recollect it; in Bristol, or in an Oxford college. But it's
not kept slow; it is kept at local solar mean time (summer time?). The
necessary delay is four minutes per degree of longitude, which makes 10
minutes about right for Bristol.

Dacre Balsdon, writing about half a century ago, gives ten minutes as
the overall variation between different Oxford chiming public clocks.

But those are only indications, and do not correspond to the time used
thereabouts.

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v4.00 MIME. ©
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - w. FAQish topics, links, acronyms
PAS EXE etc : URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/programs/ - see 00index.htm
Dates - miscdate.htm moredate.htm js-dates.htm pas-time.htm critdate.htm etc.

In message , Dr John Stockton
writes
JRS: In article ,
dated Sun, 22 Aug 2004 21:42:03, seen in news:uk.transport.london, James
posted :
Isn't there some clock in Oxford that's intentionally about 10 mins or so off?

I think I recollect it; in Bristol, or in an Oxford college. But it's
not kept slow; it is kept at local solar mean time (summer time?). The
necessary delay is four minutes per degree of longitude, which makes 10
minutes about right for Bristol.
No, it *is* Oxford (unless there's a Bristol one, too).

The clock concerned is the one in "Tom Tower" at Christ Church
(College). They refused to adopt GMT with the coming of the railways, so
to the present day, the bell (Great Tom" rings 101 times at 9.05pm,
which is (roughly!) 9.00pm Oxford time. (Oxford is 51° 44' 60" North
and 1° 15' 24" West (of Greenwich). So Oxford Time is 5 minutes and 2
seconds behind Greenwich Time. There are those who maintain that
Oxford in, in fact, 500 years, 5 minutes and 2 seconds behind GMT but I
digress....)

The figure of 101, incidentally, represent the College's 101 original
students and the ringing was to call them in to Curfew.
--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

Ian Jelf wrote to uk.transport.london on Tue, 24 Aug 2004:

The clock concerned is the one in "Tom Tower" at Christ Church
(College). They refused to adopt GMT with the coming of the railways, so
to the present day, the bell (Great Tom" rings 101 times at 9.05pm,
which is (roughly!) 9.00pm Oxford time. (Oxford is 51° 44' 60" North
and 1° 15' 24" West (of Greenwich). So Oxford Time is 5 minutes and 2
seconds behind Greenwich Time. There are those who maintain that
Oxford in, in fact, 500 years, 5 minutes and 2 seconds behind GMT but I
digress....)

Obviously they use "God's time", rather than "railway time" -
interesting that the major side-effect of the coming of the railways was
to convert the whole country to London time - and, I believe, in places
like the USA the railways also highlighted the need for standard time.
--
Annabel - "Mrs Redboots"
(trying out a new .sig to reflect the personality I use in online forums)