TARRANT RUSHTON . DORSET . ST MARY – Scratch Dial – GAUDIUM SUB SOLE . SUNDIALS . MEDIEVAL TO MODERN

ST MARY . TARRANT RUSHTON . DORSET

LISTING II* ✣ Early C12 origin; nave extended late C12; early C14 chancel,
transepts, squat tower; C15 porch; C19 north vestry and restoration. 3 squints (‘hagioscopes’, as I have recently discovered). 4m E of Blandford forum, nestled in a valley with several other Tarrants. 50.854 / -2.0902 / ST937060

DIAL

An attractively simple dial set in flint, perhaps not its original location. There are 6 lines LHS from the horizontal (6) down to to 11. Two are very faint. A morning dial, with 2 slightly deeper cut / longer lines suggesting Nones as the main time for observation. The absence of an obvious gnomon hole – open or filled – is a puzzle. There is a slightly paler area where the radials converge, perhaps marking the site of a gnomon hole filled centuries ago, now worn to a smooth patch