Time stands still for clocks at Belmont House

  • Watch the video report by ITV Meridian's Tony Green

Belmont House, in Faversham has a collection of antique clocks, among the finest in the country.

The clocks here however, won't have to be sprung forward an hour, unlike all the others in the country tomorrow.

This is because Belmont House only opens to visitors each year after the clocks change, so they aren't changed during the winter.

The fifth Lord Harris collected all the clocks at Belmont House Credit: Harris (Belmont) charity

The 5th Lord Harris began collecting clocks when Queen Victoria was on the throne and stopped when Mrs Thatcher was in power.

It was the personal passion of the 5th Lord Harris, who lived at the house in Kent for 95 years. 

Lord Harris' 340 clocks are the reason why people visit Belmont House.

Jonathan Betts, who looks after them all, says: "Lord Harris' interests were very wide, they weren't just the poshest clocks. He had a hugely eclectic interest in Horology."

There are 340 clocks in the collection at Belmont House Credit: ITV Meridian

Jonathan Betts says the collection is very important because the clocks are among some of the first to have pendulums as time keepers.

He said: "This was a monumental invention in the whole history of Horology".

  • Jonathan Betts, Horological adviser:

As with with every last Sunday in March for more than a century, British Summer Time begins this weekend.

The concept of changing the time each summer began in Kent.

William Willett led the campaign to put the clocks forward, but he died a year before daylight saving time was introduced in 1916.