28 October 2023 , 22:27
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The clocks go back tonight, which is bad news for two brothers with a massive collection of 750 timepieces which all need adjusting by hand.
Roman Piekarski, 71 and Maz Piekarski, 69, have spent five decades sourcing their amazing pendulum-driven machines, on display at their Cuckooland museum. This time of year they are kept busy as it takes the pair more than a day to ensure the clocks are accurately telling the right time when daylight saving regulations kick in twice each year. The unmarried siblings’ remarkable hoard all come from a 25-mile area in the Black Forest, Germany, where the vintage timepieces were first manufactured. Visitors come from across the world to see the museum, in Tabley, near Knutsford, Cheshire, and are often ‘gobsmacked’ by what they find.
The brothers have 750 clocks in their collection (William Lailey SWNS)Roman said: “We love what we do. Cuckoo clocks have been a way of life for us. We work every day – Christmas is just another day. We’ve been to Germany and different countries to buy clocks. We have had to hunt them down and when you find them it’s great. When people leave us, they are absolutely gobsmacked. People just can’t believe what we’ve managed to put together. I have a joke – ‘Never mind the Great Wall of China, we have the Great Wall of cuckoo clocks’. In our 35-year history, we have never had a disappointed visitor.”
Among their revered collection is possibly the world’s most famous cuckoo clock, which was made for Frederick I, the Grand Duke of Barden, in the 1860s. The clocks are set to go back on Sunday, October 29, marking the start of earlier sunsets and days getting shorter and the end of BST and means we get an extra hour in bed on Sunday morning.
The clock change will always happen at 1am on the last Sunday of the month so there is as little disruption as possible.The change came into play in 1916, as it was introduced to give farmers an extra hour of sunlight to work and help boost the agricultural sector during the First World War. However, people have argued it is outdated and that the UK is much less reliant on the farming economy compared to when it was put in place.
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American scientist Benjamin Franklin had first proposed the idea in 1784. He believed that if people got up earlier in the morning, when it was lighter, it would save them having to use so many candles. However, the idea wasn't taken seriously until 1907, when builder William Willett published a pamphlet titled The Waste of Daylight. Willett, who is actually Coldplay Singer Chris Martin's great-great-grandfather, suggested putting the clocks forward in the spring, and back in the autumn.