Do you wish for more hours in the day? Before the arrival of the railways the UK had a rather relaxed approach to timekeeping, subject to all sorts of regional variations. However, to achieve an efficient national rail timetable such lackadaisical habits would never do! And so the passing minutes were standardised and from Lands End to John O’Groats all sensibly wound clocks told the same time. Except, that is, in Norfolk. By order of the Prince of Wales himself.

Queen Victoria’s son, the future King Edward VII, had been given Sandringham as his country estate. Loving nothing better than riding and hunting, he was immensely irritated when his passions were cut short by the early dark of winter evenings. So his Royal Highness devised a cunning plan. All the clocks at Sandringham were set half an hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, thus giving the royal household a whole 30 minutes more daylight. This became known as ‘Sandringham Time’, later observed at Balmoral and Windsor too. Contrary to rumour, this had nothing to do with the habitual lateness of Queen Alexandra, who happily continued being late regardless.

The idiosyncratic custom continued through the reign of George V until it was abolished by King Edward VIII, who wasn’t happy about the confusion over what time his father had died. Neither the Queen nor her father George VI chose to restore it, both finding it perfectly reasonable to accept the same amount daylight as everyone else.