University Sundial – GAUDIUM SUB SOLE . SUNDIALS . MEDIEVAL TO MODERN

KING’S COLLEGE . CAMBRIDGE – Vertical Dial

Published on November 29, 2025 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

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’

MUNICH . LAIM DISTRICT – Modern Noon Dial

Published on April 1, 2025 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

NOON DIALS

A noon dial / noon mark serves as a method of pinpointing midday, when the sun is at its highest and due south. The origins are ancient. Here, the relevant area is in the centre, flanked by Roman numerals. My maths / science skills are few and I will spare you a rudimentary explanation. The key words are Equation of Time, Analemma, and (my non-technical choice) figure of eight.

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In the centre of the dial is a narrow figure of eight bounded by the numerals. You can just make out the raised bracket that supports a slender gnomon. You can see a small ring through which, at the perfect moment, the sun’s rays strike the face of the dial:

If you want to know more, there is a concise entry at ANALEMMA (Wiki)

GREEN TEMPLETON COLLEGE OXFORD

A modern (1995) noon-dial commemorating the Bicentenary of the Radcliffe Observatory, designed by the renowned Christopher Daniel, founder of the British Sundial Society. The critical alignment of the sun’s rays are projected onto the surface of the dial at noon (MERIDIES MEDIA), focused by the small ring.

THE COLLEGE’S NOTES

It works by using a spot of light cast by the nodus (the gilded sun with a hole in the middle), falling upon the slate dial-plate and tracking from left to right across it.
It is declining because the wall it is attached to does not face due south but ‘declines’ away from the compass point
Noon-mark means it gives the point at which the sun at its zenith crosses the Greenwich meridian and the Oxford meridian (the vertical white line down the centre of the dial)
Mean-time means you can read clock-time from the dial by following the progress of the year along the figure-of-eight marking, known as an analemma or equation of time correction curve. This makes allowances for the effect of variations in the apparent motion of the sun at different times of year.

GSS Category: Analemma; Equation of Time; Munich Sundial; Nodus; University Sundial

CREDIT: John Renner, for another great find from his travels

CHRIST CHURCH COLLEGE . OXFORD – Vertical Dial c1750

Published on April 26, 2024April 30, 2024 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

CHRIST CHURCH COLLEGE . OXFORD . VERTICAL DIAL

Located on W side of the Peckwater quad. c 1750, recently restored. Its position restricts the marked hour to VII – IV. Described rather harshly as a very plain and severely functional sundial of no great beauty in one source. Its simplicity and clarity in a City with many fine and some most elaborate sundials gives it some distinction.

Several other historic Christ Church dials both in the College and on the Cathedral (including mural dials) are sadly no longer extant. However, John Foad BSS points out that there is an outstanding multiple dial in the Pocock Garden, made by David Brown and installed 1998. There is also a small unobtrusive vertical dial elsewhere. These will have their own post in due course.

Christ Church Cathedral runs on Oxford time, five minutes and two seconds behind GMT. This is presumably a throwback to the late C19 before Standard Time was introduced by Statute, though there may be more arcane collegiate reasons.

To be linked in due course to the 2 modern sundials in the College.

GSS Category: Vertical Dial; Oxford Sundial; University Sundial; Old Sundial (C18)

All photos: Keith Salvesen

TRINITY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE . HORIZONTAL SUNDIAL

Published on January 16, 2024January 24, 2024 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

Trinity College Cambridge . Sundial – view from Master’s Lodge to Great Gate (Keith Salvesen)

TRINITY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE . GREAT COURT

THE TALE OF TWO DIALS

GRADE II ✣ 1704, dial renewed in 1795 by Edward Troughton of London. Simple stone baluster with moulded base and cap, set on 2 steps. RCHM.

The fine C18 horizontal sundial in Great Court has a long history, and an intriguing twist in its story. Over a period of 3 years I must have walked past or near it thousands of times without giving it a glance. The passage of the day was marked by the chimes of the famous clock, a sound that stays with me even today.

Trinity College Cambridge . Sundial – view towards the Master’s Lodge (Keith Salvesen)

BSS notes that the dial is showing its age to some degree. This rather weathered dial is nevertheless pleasing, equipped as it is with a sturdily elegant gnomon and some nice decorative fleurs de lys marking the half hours between its Roman numerals. The central compass has floral infill and there are Equation of Time rings running anti-clockwise which indicate whether a watch would be faster or slower than the dial.

Trinity College Cambridge . Sundial – view from above (Keith Salvesen)

The description ends with an intriguing footnote:The baluster pedestal on which the dial stands may be the same one which supported an earlier dial by John England (see BSS Register, SRN 5295). Which leads to the story of the original dial that was in place until Troughton’s renewal in 1795.

The image above shows a gnomon-less dial plate made by John England in 1704. Like the pedestal, the plate is octagonal. It was rediscovered in a cupboard in the College in 2002. BSS recorded the find as follows:

Perhaps because of its period of safe keeping, this horizontal brass dial by John England is in excellent condition, though the gnomon is missing. The engraved numerals are clear and the grooves still retain their wax infill. Small screws at the root of the style are conjectured to be pivots for an associated swinging telescope. Shows 4am to 8pm in intervals down to 1 min. Uses XII and IIII. Numerals read from outside the dial. Fleurs de lys half hour markers. Hours written in Arabic too (16-24 and 1-8) with 24 at Noon. Inscription mentions Trinity College. It is now stored in the Wren Library.

Trinity College Cambridge . Sundial – view S towards the Fountain (Keith Salvesen)

GSS Category: Horizontal Dial; Pedestal Dial

All photos: Keith Salvesen (Matric. 1970)

OXFORD . ST GILES . ARMILLARY SPHERE

Published on November 29, 2023January 26, 2024 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

ST GILES . ARMILLARY SPHERE

The armillary sphere is on the grassy area close to St Giles churchyard, where the road north forks towards Blenheim NW, and to Banbury NE. It was evening and rain had been pelting down. The way to a pub led me past the dial, and I was tempted to see what an iPhone camera would make of it.

The dial was given to The City of Oxford in 1986 by its twin city Bonn, and made by a local blacksmith (to Bonn, that is.)

BSS RECORD: Modern equatorial memorial dial in an armillary sphere in the churchyard. The dial is the equatorial ring of an armillary sphere. It shows 6am to 6pm with raised cast Roman hour numerals and half hour dots. The other two rings are vertical – a north-south meridian ring open on the south side and an east-west ring. The axial arrow forms the gnomon. There is no nodus. It is not adjustable for latitude. The dial is mounted on a small stone slab. There is a small plaque on the slab.

Margaret Stanier in her book on Oxford dials, calls it a fine bit of ironwork, with bold numerals, easy to read. She notes that the rings are positioned so that their shadows cannot obliterate that of the gnomon.

The experiment with a phone worked quite well, I think. The details are legible, possibly more so than photos taken in sunlight. And it makes a change.

GSS Category: Armillary Sphere; Modern Dial; Oxford Sundials

All photos: Keith Salvesen

NEW COLLEGE OXFORD . Vertical Millennium Dial

Published on November 13, 2023November 13, 2023 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

NEW COLLEGE . OXFORD

Dusk on a rainy November evening is not an ideal time to photograph high-up sundials, especially ones with intricate but delicate gnomons. Entering the Great Quadrangle, the sundial is visible on the Muniment Tower, beyond which is the Garden Quad. The position of the dial somewhat limits the photographer. A certain amount of refining has been needed in presentation, which I hope will be excused. The dial face is pale blue (white in some photos I have come across). The light conditions resulted in a rather startling blue that I have attempted not very successfully to tone down.

The New College Millennium dial is on the S facing wall of the Muniment Tower. Quite apart from photographic considerations, the high position means that it is not possible to see the whole dial from ground level. One cannot, for example, see that the M M at the top is matched by W W at the bottom, standing for William of Wykeham who founded New College in 1379; nor that noon is marked by a golden cross.

The dial marks quarter hours, as indicated by the chequered perimeter. Margaret Stanier mentions a wall-mounted plate showing the EQUATION OF TIME ; and she notes that there was a vertical dial in the same position from 1696 until c1850, then being obliterated by restoration and refacing.

BRITISH SUNDIAL SOCIETY ARTICLE – HARRIET JAMES

This excellent article from the BSS Bulletin Vol 12 .1 of Feb 2000 was published very shortly after the installation of the dial. It has all the material you need regarding the dial, and there are some very clear images that give a view of the whole dial. It also covers the original C17 dial in the gardens.

Download

GSS Category: Vertical Dial; Millennium Dial; University Dial

All photos: Keith Salvesen. Source material: Margaret Stanier ‘Oxford Sundials’ 2003. College diagram: BLB; tip of the hat to Michael Lalos, a fellow dial enthusiast, who also used the BSS Bulletin