Author: Rolling Harbour

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SELWYN COLLEGE . CAMBRIDGE – Vertical Dial

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Diliff 

SELWYN COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE – VERTICAL DIAL

DIAL

BRITISH SUNDIAL SOCIETY RECORD

The dial is mounted on the north range of Old Court just above ground floor window level, to the right of staircase D, and declines about 4° west of south. It was designed by Frank King and made by the Cardozo Kindersley workshops in Cambridge. It has Babylonian and Italian hour-lines (showing hours since sunrise and since the previous sunset). The hours are read from the shadow of the brass nodus ball (this type of dial does not require a polar-directed gnomon). Across the top section of the dial, above the winter solstice curve, is a rising sun with the inscription ’ΚΑΙΡΟΝ ΓΝΩΘΙ’ (Know the time). Across the lower part, below the summer solstice, is inscribed ’Collegio suo / lactarius Eboracensis / me dono dedit’ (To his college the Yorkshire dairyman gave me as a gift). Around the rim of the dial are inscribed ’Babylonian hours since sunrise’ and ’Italian hours since sunset’. Ref: BSS Bulletin 22(iii), Sept 2010, pp 2-8, and 22(iv), Dec 2010, pp 9-11.

The use of the Greek motto reflects strong historical links between the College and Ely Cathedral, where the motto is also used. My recent piece on the Cathedral can be seen HERE.

For further details about the Selwyn Dial, see THE SELWYN DIAL – article by the maker Frank King BSS (7pp, detailed analysis) 2010, rich with knowledge.

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Re-sited Dial; Dial facing W

Photos and text, BSS; header image Diliff 

ELY CATHEDRAL . CAMBRIDGESHIRE

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Keith Salvesen

The Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Ely

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This project does not generally cover in detail the actual buildings on or near which dials are to be found. My header photo of the ethereal Octagon of the Cathedral will have to stand for the wonder of it all. The focus here is on the excellent vertical dial, high up and very legible, on the south-facing wall of the South Transept.

The earliest reference suggests that the original dial dates from 1690 when a Mr Rider was paid £10 for making it. The fine dial we see today was installed in 1963, replacing an old dial (not necessarily the original).

The new dial is worthy of the magnificent cathedral that it adorns. The radials are interspersed with half-hour marker crosses (possibly fleurs de lys). The roman numerals are arranged from 7 to 9 LHS; 10 to 2 along the base; 3 angled at the corner RHQ; and 4 (IIII) to 6 RHS. The signs of the Zodiac are painted on both sides of the dial, in a configuration that I don’t quite understand. The gnomon is a long slim metal rod emerging from a sun-blaze of 16 flames, supported by 2 similar rods.

MOTTO

ΚΑΙΡΟΝ ΓΝΩΘΙ

The meaning is variously given as Know the Season; Know the Time; Choose a Timely Moment; or a similar exhortation. The motto seems to be rare: found on a dial at Selwyn College Cambridge and at a University Library in Pennsylvania but I can’t find other locations.

Keith Salvesen / RH

Cultivate truth, good faith, experience, cleverness, sociability, and industry

The rather imprecise motto meanings can be traced to the era of Delphic aphorisms c500 BC. Some adorned Temples, and familiar to us are Know thyself, Nothing in excess and Give a pledge and trouble is at hand. My favourite (which I already observe) is Whatever you rebuke your neighbour for, do not do it yourself.

MILTON CLEVEDEN . SOMERSET – St James

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ST JAMES . MILTON CLEVEDON . SOMERSET

THE CHURCH IN THE FARMYARD


GRADE II* ❖ Original church built C12; rebuilt 1790; restorations 1860s. 5 bells, of which one cast in Bristol c1380 (PEV). Delightfully situated beyond a large farmyard (in adverse weather a visitor might wish they had brought wellies). 6m SE of Shepton Mallet. 51.1383 /  -2.4807 / ST664377

DIAL

One of DEH’s early finds, in June 1912, as his researches spread out from Downside Abbey. He describes the dial as easily found, and ‘curious’. And so it is. I’d welcome any wise views on this unusual configuration.

‘There appears to be little doubt but that this arrangement of five holes is really a dial. While no other has been found exactly like it, it shows a family likeness to those on the churches of Seavington St Mary and Whitelackington’.

But each of these just has a single large style-hole, as opposed to the array at Milton.

Seavington St Mary
Whitelackington

ROTATION

Occasionally it helps to rotate a dial image to check correct orientation. Not here though.

GSS Category: Scratch dial; Mass Dial; Repositioned dial; Dial interpretation; DEH – early research

All photos: Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour

HAUXTON . CAMBS . – St Edmund’s

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ST EDMUND’S . HAUXTON

GRADE 1 ❖ Early C12, nave & chancel arch c1120; font late C12; C15 tower and alterations. Overall of considerable interest. Clear evidence of the church’s early state. Fine scratch dials either side of the doorway. Good for graffiti hunters (check the timbers in the bell tower). 5m S of central Cambridge. 52.1492 / 0.0973 /  TL435521

DIALS

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DIAL 1

An ‘unusually large’ Canonical or Anglo-Saxon dial (Brooks / Stanier). A semi-circle with 6 radials descending from the horizontal line. The ‘last’ radial is endearingly wonky compared with the rest, as if a casual afterthought. The gnomon hole is quite large and deep, but that could have happened at any stage in the dial’s history. Repair / restoration work doesn’t impinge on the dial, though the dial stone has been reshaped at some time.

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DIAL 2

This companion dial is very similar, though with less detail visible. One distinction is that there are 2 adjacent radials LLQ that are deeply cut by comparison with the rest. This is a ‘morning’ dial – the canonical ‘terce’ / 9am – indicating the main time for observance for the community.

The puzzle here is that there are 2 near-identical dials in close proximity, for the same purpose. Plenty of ‘dial churches’ have more than one. A primitive early dial might later be replaced by a more sophisticated one, but it is rare to find an almost-matching pair. A C13 sexton might cut a dial on the same wall or buttress as a C12 dial, but he’d make his own mark for posterity.

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BSS RECORDS

There’s a more modern mystery involving the records of the British Sundial Society. 20-30 years ago, small-res photos were taken of both dials. This was for the general record rather than for detailed analysis. Even allowing for small cameras of the era, the comparison with the photos above is startling .

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Medieval Church; Medieval Graffiti

All photos Keith Salvesen except the final 2, BSS

ST BOTOLPH’S CHURCH . CAMBRIDGE – Vertical Dial

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St Botolph’s Church, Trumpington St, Cambridge

ST BOTOLPH’S CHURCH . CAMBRIDGE

A large double-faceted dial high up on the SW buttress of the Church, above Trumpington Street. The faces are angled due S; and SW. They are easy to read despite the height, and appear to be in excellent condition. Comparing my recent photos with one from 2000, it looked as though the dial must have been repaired / repainted / refreshed since then. BSS confirms that the dial was recently re-gilded at August 2014.

Brooks and Stanier note that the present dial replaces a much earlier dial (date and position unknown) that was ‘designed by a Mr Butterfield and repainted in 1614 at a cost of 18 pence’.

South Face showing gnomon stay (B&W for clarity)

GSS Category: Cambridge Sundial; University Sundial; Double facet dial;

All photos: © Keith Salvesen

KING’S COLLEGE . CAMBRIDGE – Vertical Dial

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CHAPEL DIAL

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King’s College is one of the best-known Cambridge colleges, not least because of its pre-eminent choral music tradition. This fine dial is on the right side of the Chapel porch. The hour lines and numerals are painted in black directly onto the stone. The gnomon emerges through a golden sunburst, matched by two gold heraldic lions in the lower corners. The dial itself dates to 1733 (BSS) and the inscription J.C. 1578 on the face is a mystery: no specific association has been matched to it.

RESTORATION

As I researched this dial it soon became clear that it had undergone considerable recent restoration. The Brookes / Stanier booklet (L) was published c2000, with this illustration. The BSS entry (R) was made in 2007, and the dial’s condition seems to have worsened. At some stage I hope to find out more.

UT HORA SIC FUGIT VITA

The black-letter motto translates as ‘Life flies away like an hour‘ or an equivalent sentiment. There are a number of Latin variations of this rather gloomy prognostication.

King’s has a second short dial – the SORELY dial – close to the Chapel. I will add a link once I have written it up.

GSS Category: Vertical Dial; University Dial; Sundial Motto

All photos: Keith Salvesen; BSS; Brooks / Stanier ‘Cambridge Sundials’

EVERCREECH . SOMERSET – St Peter

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Evercreech – St Peter

ST PETER . EVERCREECH

GRADE 1 ❖ C14, C15, restored 1825 by Jesse Gane of Evercreech; further in 1843; late C19 work. Very tall 3-stage ‘Mendip-type’ tower, visible from some distance. Worthwhile interior. Town prosperity partly from silk and enhanced by railway in 1862 – axed by Beeching in 1966 despite intervention by John Betjeman. 51.1463 / -2.5026 / ST649386

UPDATE: Yesterday I wrote dismissively of the St Peter’s dial, based on camera photos. Now that I have seen my iPhone photos (almost always the best option for close-up shots but I had nearly run out of battery) I have changed my tune a bit…

DIAL

Emphatically not vaux le voyage, and included here mainly because in 1913 DEH counted it as a dial [85] when compiling his exhaustive record of Somerset scratch dials. On SE buttress of the tower he found a ‘quite clear’ circle with a shallow style hole, but without any lines. He put the design in his Doubtful category.

Keith Salvesen

100 + years since the record was made, the circle has eroded away and the hole is not shallow. I had decided to demote this to the not-a-dial category. However, looked at closely and at an angle, it appears that what was once DEH’s ‘shallow hole’ has more recently been neatly drilled deeper into the stone (in fact, a dial would now be workable using a rod or stick). So I conclude that there is evidence of dialishness, though doubtful.

Keith Salvesen

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Somerset Scratch Dial; Dom Ethelbert Horne

Credits: photos and research – Keith Salvesen (Nov 2025)

VAL-d’ILLIEZ . DENTS DU MIDI . SWITZERLAND – St Maurice

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ST MAURICE . VAL-d’ILLIEZ

We passed this small church on the Swiss / French border several times, noting the dial and the commonplace Motto. The final time we passed through the village I took a photo from the car (I wasn’t the driver). There’s always some joy in collecting an unpretentious dial in congenial place. This is a rather blurry example.

Screenshot
Screenshot

GSS Category: Vertical Dial; Church Dial; Sundial Motto; Carpe Diem

All photos: Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour

MAX GATE . DORCHESTER – Thomas Hardy’s Vertical Dial

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MAX GATE

Max Gate is a fine house on the eastern edge of Dorchester, designed and built by Thomas Hardy (with his father and brother) in 1885. He lived there until his death in 1928. He had two wives, Emma and then Florence, and during the ‘Max Gate years’ there were complicated relationships, sadly beyond the scope of this article.

In 1940 the house was bequeathed to the National Trust by Hardy’s sister. It was listed Grade I in 1970 with the stipulation that it should be lived in. The NT gives generous access to the interior, and there are conducted tours of the house and grounds. It is not exactly ‘lived in’, but it does feel homely rather than museum-like. To see Hardy’s desk and other writerly items feels a privilege. ‘Tess’ was written there, also ‘Jude’, the ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’, and much of his poetry.

MAX GATE – VERTICAL SUNDIAL

High up on the east tower, the dial is a good example of a sundial that (besides its primary use) acts as a memorial, and tastefully reflects the significance of the dedicatee. It is also very visible and easy to read at a distance. The lightly ornamental gnomon is moored at the bottom right corner as you face the dial. The style is simple, with 12 hours marked from 7.00am to 6.00pm and 24 radials to record half hours. The dial plate is white-painted wood. Overall the dial is in poor condition, but I gather that there are plans to carry out complete restoration during 2026.

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MOTTO

QUID DE NOCTE?

Literally, ‘WHAT OF THE NIGHT ?’ Interrogative sundials are relatively unusual, and I am unsure when the inclusion of question-marks began. The simplest reply might be ‘NIHIL’ – the sun is asleep.

.The marriage certificate (1839) of Thomas Hardy’s parents at Melbury Osmond church, Dorset

GSS Category: Vertical Dial; Memorial Dial; Dial Mottoes

Credits: Keith Salvesen (all photos); National Trust; Melbury Osmond church

THORNCOMBE . DORSET – St Mary

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Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour

ST MARY . THORNCOMBE . DORSET

GRADE II ✣ Original dedication 1239; rebuilt 1867 perp. Dial re-sited. ‘The best brasses in Dorset’ (Pev.): full length, of Sir Thomas and Dame Joan Brook. A large church for a small village. Interesting (and at times somewhat lurid) history (see BLB). 6 miles SE of Chard. 50.8263 / 50°49’34″N .  -2.8873 / 2°53’14″W . ST375033

LOCATION

During the rebuild it looks as if care was taken to re-site the dial more or less intact. However, an obscure place was chosen, low down on N wall of the aisle, semi-hidden by a buttress. The dial is weathered and faint – even with the field notes of GLP, it took me a while to find it.

DIAL

The dial has a near-complete circumference line (damaged at the top) and 4 radials, of which only one is readily visible. Its 90° reorientation and its secluded position renders it useless for its purpose.

Rotating a B&W image of the dial-stone 90° clockwise gives a sense of how – in its original position – it would have acted as a marker for the progress of the day, observance times etc. In its current location it serves merely as a curiosity for the completest dial-chaser.

Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour

GSS Category: Relocated dial; Rotated dial 90°; North-facing dial

Credits: Gordon Le Pard (GLP) for his exhaustive research of the scratch dials of Dorset