Time Poems For Kids: Miss & The Timeball - Royal Observatory Greenwich
- Mark Bird
- Nov 1, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 25
I was incredibly proud to get two of my space and time poems for kids into Space – Royal Observatory Greenwich Poetry Book; it is a beautiful poetry anthology celebrating the 350th anniversary of Royal Observatory Greenwich. The anthology is inspired by the history and work of the Observatory.
One of my space and time poems included is called, 'Miss & The Timeball' It's inspired by the timeball that rises and falls on top of Flamsteed House. The bright red Time Ball on top of Flamsteed House is one of the world's earliest public time signals, distributing time to ships on the Thames and many Londoners.
The Time Ball was first used in 1833 and still operates today. Normally each day, at 12.55pm, the time ball rises half way up its mast. At 12.58pm it rises all the way to the top. At 1pm exactly, the ball falls, and so provides a signal to anyone who happens to be looking.
'Miss & The Timeball' was recently featured on the wonderful new podcast by Rebecca Leek called The Ditty Bag. She reads several poems each episode. I loved her reading so much, I made a little video.
Please share your own favourite space and time poems for kids in the Comments below.
Enjoyed this poem? Discover more poems for children about space, science, history, curiosity, imagination and the thrill of learning something new.
Miss and The Time Ball
There’s a bright red sphere called a time ball that rises and falls at the Royal Observatory on top of Flamsteed House that just last week we went on a school trip to see
I wandered around, just me When I heard Miss say excitedly, ‘It was first used in 1833 Fifty years before GMT’ I calculated quickly “Back then Miss I would have been about minus … 180.”
And as the rest of the class moaned about being bored and hungry sneaking each other sweets saying they would starve if they didn’t eat Miss sidled next to me “Watch!” she smiled
At 12.55 as the time ball rose halfway up the mast we froze we gasped we laughed Just Miss and I “Imagine,” she sighed “the ghosts of London sailors who had long since sailed by along the River Thames using this miracle ball to gauge and frame the course of their days.”
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Then at 12.58 as this sphere of time climbed to the top its mast we craned our necks, “The sailors back then would only know their location by celestial navigation using old marine clocks and every day at one when the time ball dropped they would look up at this site from their ships sailing by to make sure their chronometers were absolutely right.”
The passion she had for stars and time sparked a part of my brain that before I met Miss had not been alive
And then, bang on one the time ball fell and Miss sighed, “Oh Well It’s been lovely talking to you You better get back to your own class.” She shook my hand disappeared into the throng and with that, Miss was gone
But what she’ll never know though I dream of telling her so that from a minute after one seconds after she had disappeared into that throng I had decided Thanks to Miss & The Time Ball As the clouds above Greenwich made way for the sun What, in the future I would become Mark Bird
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