Corn Exchange Clock, Corn Street, Bristol 21 December 2014
The clock over the Corn Exchange with its two minute hands. Bristol being 2 degrees, 36 minutes west of Greenwich, the sun is at its noon peak nearly eleven minutes later than at Greenwich. Prior to the railways, this time difference scarcely mattered, most towns keeping their own time. 1841 saw the first train pull in to Temple Meads station, heralding the dawn of the rail era in Bristol. Since the railways ran on Greenwich Mean Time, this meant Bristolians had to compensate for the eleven minutes difference. Thus the noon train would leave at 1149 hrs local time; to assist travellers, clocks were given two minute hands, Bristol Time and GMT. Bristol adopted GMT in 1852, ending this discrepancy.
Corn Exchange Clock, Corn Street, Bristol 21 December 2014
The clock over the Corn Exchange with its two minute hands. Bristol being 2 degrees, 36 minutes west of Greenwich, the sun is at its noon peak nearly eleven minutes later than at Greenwich. Prior to the railways, this time difference scarcely mattered, most towns keeping their own time. 1841 saw the first train pull in to Temple Meads station, heralding the dawn of the rail era in Bristol. Since the railways ran on Greenwich Mean Time, this meant Bristolians had to compensate for the eleven minutes difference. Thus the noon train would leave at 1149 hrs local time; to assist travellers, clocks were given two minute hands, Bristol Time and GMT. Bristol adopted GMT in 1852, ending this discrepancy.