President Anne Dalziel welcomed speaker Kenneth Homfray to the February meeting to give a fascinating talk on the origins and evolution of measuring time.

He began by reminding us how we take time for granted nowadays, being surrounded by a variety of clocks and watches. In the beginning, there was no time as we know it, but then came man, who noticed the changes in the sun and moon, and began to mark the length of shadows on tally sticks during the day. From their varying lengths, he was eventually able to measure the time of day.

Kenneth’s excellent PowerPoint presentation of historic timepieces, and monuments defining time, from around the world was most interesting. For example, Stonehenge at the summer solstice, obelisks built mainly for cultural reasons, vertical thermometer-design timepieces faced with a figure eight, clocks where dials moved before hands and a minute illustration of the world’s smallest clock, the size of a grain of rice, a candle clock, a water clock and a sand clock (egg timer), were all described and illustrated, plus many more unique examples.

He concluded with a fine selection of photographs of clocks from around the world, including many from Pembrokeshire, in the form of a quiz. We learnt a lot about our local area from this clever finale!

The ‘time’ then came to thank Kenneth for his ‘time.’ This was ably done by Hilary Alexander.

Next meeting will be on Friday, March 2, when David Dando will give an illustrated talk entitled ‘Match Strikes, Jack Strikes, Dock Strikes.’ New members are always welcome at Plas Hyfred Hotel, Narberth, at 11 am for coffee for 11.30 start.