Ten to two

Have you ever noticed how many watch and clock adverts set the time to ten to two? Look, this is really a joke to me. Why? I once covered the anniversary of England’s last rural riots in a village called Roydon in 1893 (even wrote it up for History Today magazine, so there). And the story goes that the nickname given to the villagers sired by the lord of the manor were called ‘ten to twoers’ as their feet (as per their lordly father’s) stuck out on the position ten to two.