Category: Medieval Church Marks

SHERE . SURREY . ST JAMES – Multiple Scratch Dials

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ST JAMES . SHERE . SURREY

GRADE I ❖ C12 Norman tower and north nave wall; C13 south aisle and chapel; C14 enlargement, chancel; restorations 1895 by S. Weatherley. Fine C13 font. Most unusual C14 Anchorite cell, definitely in use. Excellent graffiti, in particular several shields. Approved by PEV. Midway between Guildford and Dorking. 51.2191 /  -0.463 / TQ074477

DIALS

As with many multiple scratch dial churches, there are differing estimates of the number of dials, in this case of between 7 and 11. Sources vary, as do the eras when researches were carried out: Victoria County History Surrey (1911); D Renn 1986 (detailed survey); BSS 2000 (images – Lester); 2008 (drawings – Wood). I have decided to lead with 8 dials that are (I think) indisputably the real thing. Each is headed by the relevant BSS diagram and all are close to the pre-porch doorway. The close-up photos say as much about each dial than I could usefully describe.

DIAL 1

DIAL 2

DIAL 3

DIAL 4

Unusually, this dial has 3 circles, and incorporates decorative compass work to form 2 petals.

DIAL 5

DIAL 6

DIAL 7

DIAL 8

A simple deeply-scored dial that cuts into a quatrefoil ‘4-leaf cover’ compass design, presumably apotropaic. The church has a great many protection marks of all kinds, together with several shields. I may feature a selection in due course.

DIALOGRAM

The 8 blue-ringed designs below are all dials. The arrowed 9th, LHS, is debatable – see below The arrows RHS indicate (1) probably one of many crosses; and (2) a mystery, see below.

DIAL 9?

Renn’s count of 10 dials includes this ‘lamda’ incision. When I photographed dial 7, only the top of the scar was included. I am a confirmed dial optimist, but it didn’t occur to me to photograph it separately / include it as a dial..

DIAL 10?

Perplexing. An afternoon dial. Noted in Renn’s survey, on which BSS record is based. Described as Inside church (inside S porch). E face of W jamb. Behind door frame. Lines 4. I didn’t find it. Unlike the impressive array of forward- facing dials in the porch, this one must be small, cut on an angle as Renn indicates, and of little use for marking the passage of the day.

ANNOTATED DRAWING

The green circles mark the uncertainties. There is also a suggestion that there were once 2 other dials, now extant (S chancel wall, E pilaster buttress).

REFERENCES

Victoria County History, Surrey, 3 (1911), 120

Renn DF: Scratch Dials in Surrey, Surrey Archaeological Collections, vol 77, 1986

The British Sundial Society

TARRANT CRAWFORD . DORSET . ST MARY – Scratch Dial

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ST MARY . TARRANT CRAWFORD . DORSET

LISTING Grade I ✣ C12 origins with abbey links; C12 chancel; C13 nave and refenestration, porch; C15, tower. An astonishing church beyond the scope of this project. Besides the building itself, there are wonderful early C14 wall paintings to admire, also C16 wagon roof & C13 coffin lids. Major restoration in 1911. A very unspoilt church retaining many medieval features PEV. In the care of CCT. 5m SE of Blandford Forum 50.8307 /  -2.1107 / ST922034

DIAL

A number of features make this dial rather special. It is inside an intriguing church; it is cut into the architrave of a (historically) relocated doorway; and the design is endearingly haphazard. There are 5 radials from the gnomon hole, mainly LLQ from (roughly) Terce to just past midday. The lines are uneven in length, depth, spacing and straightness ,not least because of the oddly squarish perimeter. One can’t tell what lies behind the cement repair, but it doesn’t seem that the perimeter continues beyond what one can see.

BSS Diagrams

APOTROPAIC CIRCLES

There are two circles cut into one of the window jamb, the lowest with a dot in the centre. These are a simple form of protection symbol, repelling evil and preventing it from entering the church. Some theorise that these and more complex designs (eg ‘daisy wheels’) trapped evil within the circle – so-called demon traps.

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Protection Mark, Apotropaic Symbol

All photos: Keith Salvesen

OKEFORD FITZPAINE . DORSET . ST ANDREW – Scratch Dial (re-sited)

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ST ANDREW . OKEFORD FITZPAINE . DORSET

LISTING: II* ❖ Records from 1302; mainly C15. ‘Extensive restoration’ 1865 (J Hicks). A fine church set in a large, sloping churchyard. 4m S of Sturminster Newton. 50.8965 /  –2.2753 / ST807108

DIAL

No need to pass through the Lych-gate to find it. 20 yards to the left on the outside of the wall, you will find the dial reset ‘with other architectural fragments, probably placed there during restoration of 1865‘ GLP.

The dial is a spidery creation (‘a six-pointed star formed of three intersecting lines’ GLP). It’s hard to imagine how, in its original position, it could have been very useful. Perhaps the rustic work of a sacristan in idle moments? Possibly it is not a dial at all.

UPPER STONE

LOWER STONE

The stone below (a different type?) has a half-circle, and a promising gnomon hole above left. Neither has other dial features.

SHOE OUTLINES

Without being unduly dismissive of the dial, the most interesting features of these stone fragments are the outlines of 2 small shoes – one incomplete, the other cut off by the edge of the stone. The iconography of medieval protection marks is a whole separate subject of study, outside my remit. In brief some recurring features found on or in buildings – both religious and secular – are defined as protection marks. Specific examples include outlines of hands (eg North Cadbury), feet, and shoes. Other counter-witchcraft methods involved items being walled up in dwellings. These include childrens’ shoes and toys; glass phials; bones; animal skulls; and dead cats. To explore further, the excellent book by Brian Hoggard ‘Magical House Protection’ should be your guide.

Of St Andrew’s 6 bells, one has an excellent inscription worth mentioning: I OFTEN HAVE BEEN BEATE AND BANGED MY FRIENDS REJOICE TO SEE ME HANGED AND WHEN MY FRIENDS DO CHANCE TO DIE THEN I FOR THEM WILL LOUDLY CRIE

Another fragment incorporated into the wall

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Re-sited Dial; Shoe protection mark

All photos: Keith Salvesen

CANFORD MAGNA . DORSET . Scratch Dial

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CANFORD MAGNA CHURCH . DORSET

GRADE I ❖ Saxon origins as cruciform chapel. Tower added c1180. Expansion C13, C14; C15 additions; C19 alterations. No dedication. A very fine and interesting church, the late Saxon work being of major importance HE. Without any doubt one of the most interesting churches in Dorset PEV. 50.7889 /  -1.956 / SZ031988

See Canford’s Vertical Dial HERE

DIAL

The dial is within the porch, RHS of the door and partially obscured by a noticeboard. The original BSS record (2006) notes a filled gnomon hole with 8 radials, encircled [see diagram]. Four irregular moss-filled lines are clearly visible; a couple more are just detectable. The noticeboard stymies the sort of hopeful slantwise photo behind an obstruction that can occasionally be revealing.

BSS Diagram

Although this is a Parish Church, it lies within the grounds of Canford School. There are some unsurprising visiting restrictions. If you have an interest in early churches, you will want to spend some time investigating the interior and working out the gradual development. See PEV DORSET p171 and ff.

There is quite a lot of graffiti, much of it old but with later pupil initials etc. As a bonus, there is a good vertical dial on the apex at the E end, which will be written up separately.

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Scratch Dial within porch; Vertical Dial

All photos: Keith Salvesen

BRADFORD-ON-AVON . WILTS . TITHE BARN – Scratch Dial

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TITHE BARN . BRADFORD-ON-AVON . WILTS

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GRADE I ✣ The huge tithe barn is dated to the 1330s, replacing an older barn. Even allowing for restoration and maintenance over the centuries, the barn very much retains the feel of a building unchanged for several hundred years. Its situation right by – and lower than – the K&A canal adds to the pleasure of the general surroundings.

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DIAL

Scratch dials on buildings other than churches are rare. TWC mentions only 4 in his (admittedly dated) list of non-church dials, one of which is a tithe barn. Featured in this project are KENILWORTH ABBEY which has a dial on a barn that is a small part of the whole; and MUCHELNEY ABBEY which has one on the S wall of the Abbot’s Lodging. Neither can be regarded as entirely secular.

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The Bradford dial is located on the S wall on a buttress quoin stone near the entrance of the large E doorway. It is considerably eroded and damaged. I can’t see any trace of a dial above the horizontal and I take it to be a semicircle. There are ± 8 visible lines – impossible to be sure. The noon line is deeper cut and 9 (terce) seems more sharply incised, suggesting the main hour of observance. I am almost certain there there are terminal pocks on several lines, an impression taken more from the photos than from direct observation.

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PROTECTION MARKS AND GRAFFITI

Unsurprisingly for such a magnificent medieval structure, there is a vast omnium-gatherum of graffiti and protection marks, mainly at or close to the great entrances as one might expect. Anyone remotely interested in such marks will have a field day. Here is a small gallery.

ENGLISH HERITAGE

BRADFORD-ON-AVON MUSEUM

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Scratch Dial on Barn; Secular Mass Dials; Protection Marks; Medieval Graffiti

All photos: Keith Salvesen. Please ask for specific use permission to use any of these. Normally I am relaxed, but these images relate to parallel research.

 

POTTERNE . WILTS . ST MARY – Scratch Dial

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St Mary . Potterne . Wilts (Benefice drawing)

ST MARY . POTTERNE . WILTS

GRADE I ❖ Saxon origins; built C13; C15 work to tower; restorations 1870s. A remarkably uniform E.E. design HE; An E.E. church of exceptional purity and classicity PEV. Features of interest include an Anglo-Saxon tub font with rim inscribed in Latin; a C14 font; fine woodwork; C17(?) Royal Arms of puzzling design. Good graffiti on pillars. Outside, there is an unusual Dole Stone; and the scratch dial featured here. 2m S of Devizes. 51.326 / -2.0079 /  ST995585

DIAL

The dial is located on a quoin stone of the buttress at W end of S side. The gnomon hole is centred quite accurately, and surrounded by a ring of small pocks of roughly equal size. The spacing is uneven. 12 of them are drilled in the lower half, in a semicircle that includes the horizontal ‘6-to-6’ line. The other 7 are above the horizontal in the night zone. The pock at notional midnight has 3 on either side, forming an almost symmetrical design. These can only be for decorative purposes, being of no use in marking the passage of the day / night.

As for radial lines, despite erosion 5 lines are visible – 3 LLQ, a faint noon line, the horizontal line RHS. Each terminates with a pock. There remain hints of 2 or 3 others.

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GRAFFITI . FONT WITH LATIN INSCRIPTION . COMPASS-DRAWN PROTECTION MARKS

The VV in the first image, assuming it is an initial, is in the distinctive form of a Marian mark, a commonly found protection symbol standing for the ‘Virgin of Virgins’.

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial

All photos Keith Salvesen; header drawing from the Benefice site

WORTH MATRAVERS . DORSET . ST ALDHELM’S CHAPEL – Protection Marks & Graffiti

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ST ALDHELM’S CHAPEL

GRADE I ♱ St Aldhelm’s is an isolated Norman chapel high on the Dorset cliffs with only a coastguard station and a couple of cottages for company. Its quite a walk from the car park. There are various theories about the chapel and its purpose. Was it a chapel originally? There’s no evidence of an altar or piscina. Might it have been built as a watchtower before taking on a religious purpose, evidenced by payments made in C13 to a chaplain? There is a thorough Wiki entry for the chapel HERE.

Besides sundials from Saxon times to the present day, other medieval features merit inclusion here. The relevant pages can be found in the main menu. A broad category of ‘Church Marks’ includes protection marks such as the Marian VV, daisy wheels and other circular / interlocking circles dates and initials, taper marks, masons’ marks.

PROTECTION MARKS & GRAFFITI

HIGHLIGHTS FROM ST ALDHELM’S CHAPEL

PURBECK RADAR MEMORIAL

Commemorating the pioneering radar work carried out in WW2, with an inspired design that harks back to the fire beacons that warned of the Spanish Armada.

All photos: Keith Salvesen