About Time: The History of Timekeeping

This British history podcast tells the story of timekeeping. From Stonehenge to Greenwich, Celtic seasons to Roman calendars, candle clocks to knocker-uppers, and lives saved by John Harrison’s sea-clock, we explore how language, industry, and technology shaped the way we measure every moment.

Discover how Stonehenge catches the midsummer sun, turning ancient stones into a cosmic clock. Learn why the Celts split the year into light and dark, marking turning points with fire, harvest, and ritual. Meet the Romans who gave us months, leap years, and names that still rule our calendars — but whose hours stretched and shrank with the seasons.

Oldest Working Clock

Hear how a famous English king invented the candle clock. How monks gave us “midday.” How the world’s oldest working mechanical clock still ticks away in an English cathedral. Imagine the first great tower bells ringing across towns, binding whole communities to the same powerful rhythm.

Sail with John Harrison, a Yorkshire carpenter turned clockmaker, who solved the “longitude problem” with his chronometer — an invention that saved lives, opened oceans, and helped build an empire.

Knocker Upper

Step into 1752, when Britain simply cut eleven days out of September, sparking fury and riots in the streets. Then into the industrial age, when railways demanded national time, Bristol and Oxford clung to their own minutes, and bleary-eyed workers were woken by “knocker-uppers” tapping windows with sticks or firing peas at the glass.

Listen to this British History Podcast here: