Rtn David Axon: The Year of 270 Days

Our Programme Officer, David Axon, was today’s speaker.

The year of 270 days was 1752, when the United Kingdom switched from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar.

The Julian Calendar was introduced into these islands after the Roman conquest of 55 AD. The concept of seven-day weeks was not introduced until the time of the Emperor Constantine in 325 AD. After the Romans left the Anglo-Saxons who succeeded them continued to use the Julian Calendar with the weekday names we continue to use today.

The Catholic countries on mainland Europe adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1582. By that time England had split from the Roman Catholic church and continued to use to old Julian Calendar. This caused problems over dates when trading with the rest of Europe. They had to be specified as either OS or NS (Old System or New System). Attempts were made to bring the English calendar into line with the continental one but these were defeated in Parliament twice, in 1649 by the Puritans and in 1699 by the Church of England. The reform was finally agreed in 1751, to come into effect the following year. In 1752 the country went straight from Wednesday, 2 September, to Thursday, 14 September, losing eleven days from the year. The legislation also moved the start of the year from 25 March to 1 January. (Apparently this change can be traced back to ancient Rome, where the Senate elections took place in January.)

This meant that nearly three months was lost from 1752, giving the figure of 270 days. However,the legislation also redesignated what had been the end of 1751, 1 January to 25 March 1751, as 1 January to 25 March 1752, so perhaps 1751 should technically be regarded as the short year.

The legislation was very detailed providing, for example, directions on the treatment of annual contracts (which had 11 days added to them).

Nevertheless the reform was very unpopular. One of the objections was that it was a surrender to Popery. There were widespread riots, with people being killed in Bristol.

The City of London bankers refused to pay their tax on 25 March 1753 because of the short year. The payment date was therefore changed to 5 April, which still marks the end of the tax year today.