Flashback to 1999: Millions marvel at sky above in hope of seeing total eclipse

But their chances of seeing the moon slowly obscure the sun rested with that most unpredictable phenomenon - the great British weather.

The eclipse shadow headed across the Atlantic towards the UK at 1,630mph and plunged the western tip of Cornwall into complete darkness for a total of two minutes and 10 seconds.

Elsewhere in the country the eclipse blotted out 97 per cent of the sun in London and Bristol, 89 per cent in Leeds, 82 per cent in Glasgow and 65 per cent in the far north of Scotland.

A spokesman for the Met Office said a swathe of broken cloud from Cheshire to the West Midlands had given people a better view of the solar spectacle than many other parts of the country.

People spilled on to the street or gathered at office windows as the skies darkened.

Criminal hearings at crown courts were listed to begin at the later-than-usual time of 11.30am to allow judges, jurors and court staff the chance to watch the event.

The starting times of first class cricket matches around the country were postponed to 11.45am to avoid having to stop for bad light. Many firms allowed employees to stop work and go outside for half an hour.

But as ever the British weather threatened to intervene, with the south west - the only part of the country experiencing a total eclipse - suffering a shroud of cloud. The south east Channel coasts had the best chance of seeing something.

More than a million people were in Cornwall to see the event - a figure which included some 250,000 who had travelled specially to see it.

Their numbers were swelled further as the big moment drew nearer with thousands more people taking to the roads in a last minute dash for the dark.

Supermarkets had been stockpiling huge amounts of produce in Devon and Cornwall to ensure stocks didn't run out.

Somerfield sent down extra items including 350,000 tins of baked beans and 320,000 toilet rolls to 53 stores in the two counties. At one store in Wadebridge, which had a camp site for thousands of people on its doorstep, temporary huts were used to store the extra food. A spokeswoman for Safeway said their response to the influx of visitors had been planned with “military precision”.

AA Roadwatch said 1,800 cars passed junction 25 of the M5 at Exeter heading for Cornwall between 11pm and midnight - the figure on an average week night is 300 cars.

“I’ve been waiting more than 20 years to see a total eclipse,” said Mick Thornhill after dragging his wife, Christine and teenage son Matthew 350 miles from Ilkeston, Derbyshire.

“I was fascinated by a partial eclipse I saw at school and have been hooked ever since. I knew I would get down here somehow even if people at home think we’re crackers."

The thrill of seeing a once in a lifetime phenomenon like the solar eclipse was enough to tempt 19-year-old Anna Wachtmeister to travel from Sweden.

“There was a real mix of people with everyone from young backpackers to entire families,” she added.

Wildlife experts said confusion would reign in the animal kingdom, with birds roosting during the "mini night" six hours after dawn, and flowers closing their petals.

Scientists in Cornwall even used the brief period of darkness to study the eating habits of cows.

Britain's biggest ever maritime gathering, up to 400,000 people in tens of thousands of boats, took to the waters from Cornwall to Hampshire for maritime views of the event.

Pagans celebrated an event as important to many of them as the millennium is to Christians.

People taking part in authorised shamanic rituals all over Cornwall wore robes and masks of the sun and moon, chanting and hitting gongs and drums.

In Sussex, teacher Niall Fox, 29, and partner Sandie Wardley, 25, from Hastings, were married in a 1,000-year-old pagan ceremony.

The wedding ritual, known as a Handfast, was being performed by husband and wife Kevin and Sandie Carlyon, the High Priest and Priestess of British White Witches.

Britain's estimated three million Muslims took part in special prayers to mark the eclipse, with many mosques packed.

And 200 eclipse chasers gathered for the trip of a lifetime, taking part in two history-making Concorde flights from Heathrow to chase the moon at supersonic speeds.