KINGSDON . SOMERSET – All Saints – GAUDIUM SUB SOLE . SUNDIALS . MEDIEVAL TO MODERN

ALL SAINTS . KINGSDON . SOMERSET

GRADE II* ❖ Dates from C13th; Original N tower replaced C15 with W tower; revisions and renovation until full restoration 1869, with further work 1906. Local lias. Halfway between Ilchester / Somerton. 51.0331 / -2.692 / ST515262

DIALS

DEH visited on Oct 1st 2014. He found 3 dials and gave a longer account than usual. Dial 1 is on E buttress of the Tower, at head height. Dial 2 is on W side of S porch. The 3rd dial is low down within the porch, on E side.

There is also a rather splendid though much worn vertical dial high up on the same buttress as Dial 1. DEH either missed it (because he was examining the south side at usual dial level); or perhaps he saw it and decided it was outside the scope of his scrutiny (see below).

DIAL 1

There are 8 radials. The configuration suggests a noon arrangement of 5 lines with quite accurate spacing and line length. The other 3 radials seem to have been added rather rustically RHS at a later date. The plugged gnomon hole is still discernible in the mortar line.

DIAL 2

I either forgot to photograph this dial, or my camera and I had a misunderstanding. The dial is on W side of S porch. DEH noted: It is 5 feet 5 inches above the ground, the noonline is about 5 inches in length, and the style hole is open and badly shaped.

DIAL 3

The dial is within the present porch, RHS of the the original church door. Before the outer porch was added, the dial may have served well as a time-of-day checker for passers-by, or perhaps for an Acolyte to keep an eye on before ringing the bell for a service. Later, it becomes decoration.

VERTICAL DIAL

The dial is unusually high up for a country church, and the finer details must have been rather lost on viewers. It is now badly damaged and in need of some TLC before it flakes away. I will probably write it up for my Vertical Dial page, however of interest include: the simple horizontal iron gnomon; the carefully graduated lines; the numbers being within a frame; and the use of IIII for IV.