Month: June 2024

KINSON . DORSET . ST ANDREW – Scratch Dial

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ST ANDREW . KINSON . DORSET

GRADE II* ❖ C13, little altered until rebuilt 1870s (chancel) & 1890s (nave & aisles). A fine, squat Norman tower. A rare interior dial, relocated to the chancel arch. Church now within the outer fringes of N Bournemouth yet happily just off the many beaten tracks that now surround it. 50.7719 / -1.905 / SZ067969

DIAL

The dial, repositioned and inverted, is located on the S chancel arch. There are 6 encircled lines, one going beyond the ring. GLP notes that the circumference line is poorly drawn and does not form a circle; and he suggests that the re-siting within the church would probably have been during the 1875 rebuild. I wondered if URQ also shows damage from fitting the dial in its new position.

The gnomon hole is both large and deep, though almost certainly not so originally.

INTERIOR DIALS

Scratch dials within a church are relatively rare. Included in these pages are Thornford Dorset; Stoke St Gregory Somerset; Firle Sussex; and W Clandon Surrey (3).

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Internal Scratch Dial; Internal Church Sundial

All photos Keith Salvesen; drawing from HE archive

OSLO . FROGNER PARK . ARMILLARY SPHERES by Vigeland (1930); Wegner (1837)

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ARMILLARY SPHERES

GUSTAV VIGELAND

VIGELAND-PARKEN OPEN AIR ART INSTALLATION

Gustav Vigeland (Thorsen) (1869 – 1943) was a Norwegian sculptor much admired for his creative imagination and productivity. His most notable work is the monumental ‘Vigeland Installation’ in the Frogner Park Oslo, compared to which his sundial is a footnote. Although generally acclaimed, Vigeland’s work is viewed by some as having uncomfortable connotations in several respects. The static interaction of the dozens of babies, children, women, and men might – nearly 100 years later – raise eyebrows. Having skimmed the topic I rather agree (despite being of Norwegian descent. Or because of it maybe).

The armillary sphere was installed in 1930, a distinctively Scandinavian variation from designs further south in Europe, in a good way. The heavily sculpted dais is a duodecagon showing the Signs of the Zodiac in bold (lumpen?) relief.

BENJAMIN WEGNER

The armillary sphere is located outside the Frogner manor house (now the City Museum) in the south of the park. Wegner aquired the parkland in 1836, and the sphere was probably installed the following year.

Photographer: Vanasan, Wiki

There is very little information about this dial online, and only one clear photo that I could find. As often, Wiki can help clarify obscurity:

The sundial is constructed as an open globe, where the meridians cast a shadow on sunny days onto the inner part of the globe, hitting the inside of the equator line and thus showing the time, specifically the astronomical solar time. Odd Gunnar Skagestad wrote in 2020 that the nearly 200-year-old sundial is greatly neglected and called for efforts to preserve it

GSS Category: Armillary Sphere; City Sundial; Norway Sundial

All Vigeland photos Camilla Pennant; Wegner Dial, ‘Vanasan’

All photo

WEST OVERTON . WILTS . ST MICHAEL – Vertical Dial

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West Overton, 5m W of Marlborough, lies within the mystical area that includes Avebury, Silbury Hill, long barrows, tumuli, sarsens and so on. St. Michael was built in 1878, replacing an older church on the site. The Tower was completed last. High up on S side is a fine Victorian sundial complete with a motto in period lettering. The time scale shows 5am to 3pm in half and (some) quarter hours. The dial was restored in 2003, as detailed by the excellent SUNDIALS.CO, an eclectic site that no dialist should overlook.

The dial was correctly delineated to face 38° east of south. The cast bronze gnomon fell off but was kept by the church wardens. Its original angle was incorrect, and it was set into a slot in the stone to compensate. Restoration involved re-engineering the gnomon and making new clamps to fix it. The dial itself was renovated [précis]

MOTTO

The motto Watch and Pray / Time steals away is quite frequently found in this or in similar forms. Gatty lists several examples from different parts of England. The source seems to be biblical, from Mark 13.33-37: Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.

GSS Category: Vertical Dial; Victorian Sundial; Sundial Motto

All photos: Keith Salvesen

ART NOUVEAU SUNDIAL by FRANCIS BARKER with LIBERTY PEDESTAL

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FRANCIS BARKER DIAL with LIBERTY ART NOUVEAU PEDESTAL

This is a gnomon-less sundial that I dug out of a pigsty at my home. I was about 10. The sty had layers of compacted earth and garden material that almost reached the top, the legacy of the previous owners. I had always wondered whether there might be hidden treasure, and eventually my curiosity got the better of me.

I gradually dug down until, suddenly, my spade hit something with a loud clonk. It took a while but eventually I was able to prise out… a prize. It has lived on as a garden ornament / flower pedestal for many years, with 4 changes of address. Eventually it has settled in Dorset.

Later – by then a BSS member – I sought advice about my dial. In due course Sue Manston included the dial in an detailed article by Jo Elsworth in the BSS Bulletin 118. Volume 33(ii) – June 2021

The author Jo Elsworth notes that similar dials have been described as ‘Antique’ and Art Deco. For the reasons she gives, the classification as Art Nouveau is the most approriate,

Also in the garden: a modern armillary sphere, watched over by Father Time

GSS Category: Horizontal Dial; Barker Sundial Plate; Liberty Sundial Pedestal; Art Nouveau Sundial.

All photos: Keith Salvesen; BSS article – Sue Manston, with thanks

LYDEARD ST LAWRENCE . SOMERSET – Scratch Dial; Vertical Dial 1653

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ST LAWRENCE . LYDEARD ST LAWRENCE . SOMERSET

GRADE 1 ❖ Saxon / Norman origins. Chancel and nave c1350, rest C15, restorations 1869 and late C20. A fine example of a Somerset church, most rewarding to visit. Early C16 screen, bench ends of note. Jacobean inverted font. Splendid doors that look entirely original. A bier and an interesting clock (not openly accessible). 10m NW of Taunton. 51.0819 / -3.2461 / ST128321

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SCRATCH DIAL

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The dial is easily seen on W side of the priest’s door. It is a pleasingly straightforward quarter dial marking 6 to noon. The line spacing is somewhat random, and there is some confusion around noon, with faint lines detectable.

DEH visited St Lawrence on Sep 27th 1913, one of his early expeditions. He noted: The stylehole is large and oval, and may have been made so in efforts to extract the style. It is hard to see why this should be done with no new style added; but it does show that the removal of the gnomon was more than a century ago, and not a recent act of vandalism.

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VERTICAL DIAL 1653

BSS Record: The hours use XII for noon and IIII for four pm, and VI, VII and VIII am are written backwards (round the clock’), as is not uncommon. Around the gnomon are carved I HT S / WARDNES / 1653, the W of WARDNES being superimposed Vs, and the letters NE being conjoined, both presumably to save space.

The gnomon is an iron bar with a hooked tip, and the straight support has a curled spur on the upper side and its own hook at the top.

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Vertical Dial; Dated Dial

All photos: Keith Salvesen

STOCKTON . WILTS . ST JOHN THE BAPTIST – Multiple Scratch Dials

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ST JOHN THE BAPTIST . STOCKTON . WILTS

GRADE I ✣  Late C12, C13, early C14, C15 and C17; restoration 1879. Interior has much of interest, described in detail by PEV. Two squints. One of several fine churches in the Wylye Valley, ranging from ruined Sutton Veny via tiny Tytherington small, medium to large. Most have at least one dial, all are worth a visit. 8m SE of Warminster 51.1433 / 2.0272 / ST981382

DIALS

St John is the supreme multi-dial church in the Wylye valley. BSS lists 17 in its records (some with circumspection). Although locations are noted, there are no drawings / images. It isn’t possible / practical to try to match my photos to the given locations in a helpful way. I have tried to sort indisputable dials from the probable, possible, and ‘not really’. My search started at the E end and mostly went W along the S side. I found 17 dials, from indisputable to some that I think meet the broad criteria.

There are 2 clusters on the ‘red’ buttresses: dials 6 – 9; and dials 11 -13

There are too many dials for detailed comment, with a variety of mostly conventional designs. A few may be rotated / re-sited. I have tried to display photos of the dials informatively and in approximate sequence E to W. A separate section deals with other candidates.

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DIAL 1

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DIAL 2

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DIAL 3

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DIAL 4

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DIAL 5

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DIAL 6

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DIAL 7

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DIAL 8

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DIAL 9

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DIAL 10

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DIAL 11

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DIAL 12

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DIAL 13

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DIAL 14

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DIAL 15

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DIAL 16

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DIAL 17

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DEBATABLE DIALS

PLAUSIBLE IN SOME WAY?

UNLIKELY / NOT AT ALL

GSS Category: Scratch Dials; Mass Dials; Multiple Dials; Medieval Church Sundials

All photos: Keith Salvesen

DURLSTON CASTLE . SWANAGE . DORSET – Vertical Dial (1887)

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DURLSTON CASTLE . SWANAGE . DORSET

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Durlston Country Park is close to Swanage and has much to offer. The ‘modern’ Castle was completed in 1891. There are extensive grounds, 5 walking / nature trails, sculptures, epochal details chiseled into stone tablets, Art Gallery, tea room, views across to IoW, a huge C19 stone globe, significant jurassic finds.

More germane here, high on S face is a fine vertical sundial (1887). Below it are two stone tablets inscribed with times and tides worldwide.

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DIAL

The dial is inset in the South wall about 5 m above the ground. It shows 6am to 6pm in half and quarter hours. Uses XII & IIII. White lines and chapter ring on a beige rectangular dial-plate all within a four piece chamfered stone frame. The Roman numerals arranged vertically. BSS

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An angled view reveals that the gnomon incorporates the initial B, standing for (George) Burt, the Victorian entrepreneur owner who conceived the idea of what we can still see today. It was (oddly?) described at the time as the most magnificently conceived restaurant.

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Two large incised tablets: essentially they deal with Time & Tides respectively

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GREAT GLOBE

    Great Globe (1887), a vast perfectly formed stone ball inscribed with an eclectic selection of places. Many will be little known or unknown to random visitors such as me. The Society Isles (Pacific) sound pleasant.

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    COMPASS POINTS

    Stone Benches Surrounding the globe, at various heights and angles on a steep stope, are stone benches, each clearly marked with a compass point. In an ideal world there would be an equally fine analemmatic sundial.

    GSS Category:

    All photos by Keith Salvesen except header image Huligano0 OS CC