When British Summer Time began at 1am on Sunday 30 March, news stories mentioned not only that evenings would be longer but that the time of daybreak would vary across the United Kingdom. It is some twenty-five minutes earlier in London to the east than Londonderry in the west. The Bideford dawn occurs eight minutes earlier than Londonderry.  

The railways brought about standardisation to national time. Great Western Railway was the first company to apply standardised ‘Railway Time’ in November 1840, bringing about a synchronisation of different local times. This avoided the timetabling confusion caused by different local town times along the line and to also helped reduce accidents and near misses, which were becoming more frequent as the number of train journeys increased. Over the next seven years, all railway companies took to using ‘Railway Time’, standardised to local London time as set by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). 

Railway companies sometimes faced resistance and it was not unusual for station clocks, and the times published in train timetables, to differ by several minutes from that on other town public clocks that still showed local time. However, Railway Time was rapidly adopted across the country, although the government did not legislate a single standard countrywide time until 1880.

In Bideford, another time measurement impacts the town’s activity – the tides. Controlled by the lunar cycle, these don’t follow either Local or Railway Time. Simplistically, tides are a giant wave pulled around the earth by the gravity of the moon. In the Bristol Channel there are two tides per day and the tidal range (difference between high and low tide) is very large because the wave is ‘squeezed’ by the surrounding coasts. About twice monthly, around the new and full moon, the sun, moon and earth form a line. At these times the gravitational pull of the sun reinforces that of the moon, maximising the tidal range and causing Spring Tides, named not after the season but from the meaning – to jump or rise. 

The full moon was 29 March and, with the added benefit of glorious blue skies, Bideford saw the highest tides so far this year. Taking advantage of the extra draught of water during these Spring Tides, two cargo ships delivered their freight on to Navantia’s New Quay dock on successive tides. So far eight cargo ships have used the Appledore dock since September 2024, with more expected.