Before the railways, Bristol kept its own time, ten minutes behind London.

1840

Train timetables changed that: the Great Western Railway adopted London time in 1840, and the Bristol Exchange clock still has two minute hands.

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The event

• First public steam railway1825 · Darlington. On 27 September 1825 the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in England, the first public railway to use steam locomotives. The train was hauled by George Stephenson's Locomotion No. 1. The railway age that transformed industry and trade had begun.

19th century

More amazing facts

• 1839 · 1842 The word 'dinosaur' is younger than photography: the daguerreotype was unveiled in 1839, while Richard Owen coined the 'terrible lizard' only in 1842.
• 1839 · 1860 Tyre rubber was invented by dropping some on a stove.
• 1840 Britain is the only country whose stamps carry no country name.
• 1840 Before stamps, the recipient paid for a letter, so people cheated.
• 1840 A bell in Oxford has been ringing since 1840, and nobody dares find out what powers it. Its dry piles have driven some 10 billion rings, and opening them would end one of the longest-running experiments ever.
• 1841 · 1848 Russia's fort in California was bought by John Sutter — the man whose sawmill started the Gold Rush.

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