A second highly successful event was held at Number 11 Downing Street on Tuesday 4 February, attended by almost 100 Guild members.

The first event, which took place on Thursday 28 November was a huge success and heavily oversubscribed. As so many members were left disappointed, we decided to get in touch with the Chancellor’s Office and see if it was possible to run a second event. Thankfully they agreed – but we had to act quickly as the Harrison displays were due to be returned to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, very soon.

A date for the second event was initially set for Monday 3 February and everyone was duly invited. However, this date had to be moved fairly last minute to the next day as the State Room was unexpectedly needed for official business.

The members who had already been invited were very understanding, as were the speakers Jonathan Betts and Andrew King, who had kindly agreed to repeat their talks.

Paul Roberson, the main organiser, said: ‘We felt it was such a shame that half of those who had applied to come originally couldn’t go to the first event because of a restriction on numbers.

‘By holding a second event, almost  all of those who initially applied, are now able to attend.

‘It is a once-in-a-lifetime event and we wanted as many people as possible to be able to experience that.’