Why do the clocks get put forward and back in March and October, not March and September, or April and October?
Why not a neat 6 months apart? Why?

I've googled this and asked loads of people and nobody seems to know.
(IHateSprouts is baking a huge pie shaped like an enormous pie, Wed 19 Oct 2011, 11:23, 8 replies)

Probably to do with the start and end of summer
www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_185398
( Undulating Tentacles of Love getting fun down to acceptable levels, Wed 19 Oct 2011, 11:59, closed)

summer starts in June and ends in September
It's nothing to do with start and end of summer, just start and end of BST as currently defined by the Summer Time Order (2002).

Why BST is like this I have no idea.
( finnbar has officially retired, Wed 19 Oct 2011, 13:30, closed)

Sowing and harvest times?
I gather farming is the flimsy justification for mucking about with time.
( CQ Knows the truth, all of it., Wed 19 Oct 2011, 12:30, closed)

It's got nothing to do with farming.
Cows and sheep don't know what time it is. They know it's dark or it's light, or they're hungry or not hungry. They can't read clocks. It's actually more of a pain in the arse for farmers than *not* changing the clocks.

The reason that we keep changing between GMT and BST is because people who can't be arsed getting up in the morning want to have more daylight in the evening.
(gordonjcp, Wed 19 Oct 2011, 13:28, closed)

its schools
And Scotland.
(lordy lordy, Wed 19 Oct 2011, 13:37, closed)

But putting the clocks back in Winter
Actually gives us less light in the evening.

If I had my way I would put the clocks forward in Autumn to give us more light in the evenings (when I can use it on the allotment after a day in the office) rather than less.

But then it would mean that Greenwich - home of GMT - never actually observing GMT itself and that wouldn't be right.

Oh! and Scotch land can have their own time zone.
(karnuvap, Wed 19 Oct 2011, 14:31, closed)

I seem to recall...
That if you plot a chart of the day/night length over the year, say every week, it is not completely symmetrical, and so the dates chosen for the changeover are not where you might guess them to be.

For example, the change in sunrise is not mirrored exactly by the change in sunset; I can't remember which way around it is, but it might be that the mornings get light later more quickly than the evenings get dark sooner.

On top of this there's history, tradition and random bloody-mindedness.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Wed 19 Oct 2011, 13:36, closed)

Thanks for your answers, especially Moon Monkey. Very interesting.

(IHateSprouts is baking a huge pie shaped like an enormous pie, Thu 20 Oct 2011, 10:12, closed)