Wessex Sundials – GAUDIUM SUB SOLE: Scratch Dials & Sundials Medieval to Modern

KINGSDON . SOMERSET – All Saints

Published on April 13, 2026April 14, 2026 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

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.

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Scratch Dial within Porch; Somerset Scratch Dials; Vertical Dial

All photos: Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour

KEINTON MANDEVILLE . SOMERSET – St Mary Magdelene

Published on April 9, 2026April 13, 2026 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

ST MARY MAGDALENE . KEINTON MANDEVILLE . SOMERSET

GRADE II ✢ C13 chancel; remainder C19. C12 font. Local lias stone prettily incised PEV. Tower so simple it could be early C20 BHO. Midway between Somerton and Castle Cary. 51.068 / -2.647 / ST547300

DIALS

DEH visited on May 26th 1914. He recorded two dials close together on the quoins on SE corner, one above the other. These differ quite markedly. Dial 1, the lower, is simple though not rustic. A few inches above, Dial 2 is more sophisticated, presumably cut to improve on the earlier dial.

DIAL 1

The lower of the 2 dials is straightforward. 3 radials descend for from a large (now) gnomon hole. The noon line is flanked by a line either side. The spacing is more or less accurate. The line of dots on the radial RLQ, if deliberate, may have been Mass-markers for the main time of observance – after noon.

DIAL 2

This dial has 5 radials (perhaps 6) and a large quite deep gnomon hole. Two almost vertical lines are deeper cut and end in small holes. This arrangement suggests noon may have been the Mass-time, marked from mid morning. The most interesting feature is the faint arc of a circle RHS. In places, there is the hint of a secondary circle. One must presume that at one time the rings were complete but are long-since worn away.

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Time-marking; Somerset Scratch Dials

All photos: Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour

BARTON ST DAVID . SOMERSET – St David

Published on March 19, 2026March 19, 2026 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

ST DAVID . BARTON ST DAVID . SOMERSET

GRADE II* ❖ C12 to C15, with major C19 restoration. Local lias stone. Cruciform plan. Tower octagonal, in three stages, probably C15. In an area with several octagonal tower churches, this is the only one with 3 stages. Earliest recorded rector 1309. Close to Keinton Mandeville (2 dials). 3m NE of Somerton. 51.0828 / -2.6585 / ST539317

DIAL

DEH visited on 26 May 1914. On W side of the blocked doorway on S side of the church, he found a dial low down. He noted a 5 inch noon line and a blocked style-hole in the mortar joint.

Eventually I found the dial, LHS amidst ivy both alive and dead. Its position close to ground level renders it useless for its purpose, yet it doesn’t seem to have been relocated. The ‘design’ consists of 4, perhaps 5, spidery radials descending untidily from the mortar line. It is 100+ years and a lot of ivy since DEH recorded the dial, and we can predict that it will soon be concealed by ivy, or eroded away.

B & W COMPARISON

A fine Squint and a handsome Norman doorway

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Church erosion; Squint; Norman Doorway

All photos: Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour except excellent main photo, Geoff Pick / Wiki

BABCARY . SOMERSET – Holy Cross

Published on March 11, 2026March 13, 2026 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS . BABCARY . SOMERSET

GRADE II* ❖ Early origins; mainly C14 / C15; additions C19 (inc. Ferrey). PEV gives this small church quite a detailed entry. This is lias stone country. The building, the churchyard, and the setting make this a fine country church. There are 2 scratch dials. Visited by DEH on 10 Sept 1912. 12m N of Yeovil. 51.0566 / -2.6271 / ST561287

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DIAL 1

On a quoin stone W side of S porch, the gnomon hole easily seen. DEH calls it a faint scratchy dial, and thought that the hole may still contain the style. He seems not to have checked; later in his dialing project, he would have. There’s no trace now.

DIAL 2

A few inches above Dial 1 is an indistinct dial, noted by DEH. But for his careful records, no one would notice it now, a century later. 4 faint and somewhat wonky radials can just be made out LLQ, descending from a shallow hole now covered by lichen. This has a slight bluish tinge suggestive of a copper rod being used as a gnomon, a speculation too far.

GGS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Somerset Scratch Dial

All photos: Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour

SOUTH BREWHAM . SOMERSET – St John the Baptist

Published on February 13, 2026 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

ST JOHN THE BAPTIST . SOUTH BREWHAM . SOMERSET

GRADE II* ❖ C13 origins; subsequent interventions; much rebuilt late C19 with local stone cut and squared. 2-stage tower. 2 scratch dials and a vertical dial. Interesting and varied graffiti. A rewarding church to visit. 3m NE of Bruton. 51.1239 / 51°7’25″N / ST719361

DIALS

DEH visited St John on April 17th 1914, on his motorbike and with his camera. He recorded two scratch dials. Dial 1 is on E side of S porch. It has changed significantly since DEH recorded it in 1914. Dial 2 is on E side of the inner door of S porch, unchanged. The vertical dial at the top of the E buttress of the tower will be dealt with separately.

DIAL 1

DIAL 1, with its large and damaged gnomon hole, is clearly visible as one approaches the church. The DEH photo above shows that in 1914, it had quite accurately cut even-spaced ‘6 – 6’ radials within a semicircle. A century later, erosion has reduced definable radials to 9, with overall decay of the lines. However, in the intervening years the noon-line has been cut deeper, and now extends onto the stone below.

GNOMON

DEH describes ‘part of the iron style… (is) level with the face of the stone, but rusted away at the sides’. It’s pleasing to find that it is still there. It’s not especially rare to find the remains of a metal rod gnomon, however most if not all those extant will have been put in place very much later than the date that the dial was cut.

DIAL 2

Stepping into the porch, Dial 2 is immediately visible. There are 5 radials descending from the mortar line. Pleasingly simple, and it is interesting to note that the photographs of this dial, almost a century apart, are much the same.

DOM ETHELBERT HORNE’S PHOTOS (April 17th 1914)

GRAFFITI

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Iron Gnomon; Church Graffiti

Photos: Keith Salvesen; Dom Ethelbert Horne

CROSCOMBE . SOMERSET – St Mary the Virgin

Published on February 3, 2026 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

ST MARY THE VIRGIN . CROSCOMBE

GRADE 1 ❖ Mainly C15, C16; C19 restoration. Plenty of interest for the visitor / church crawler, including C15 wagon roof; particularly well furnished interior BLB; box pews; fine Jacobean woodwork. Peal of 6 bells (earliest 1613). Inc. by Simon Jenkins in ‘England’s Thousand Best Churches’, with photo. 51.1975 / -2.5873 / ST590444

DIAL

The existence of a scratch dial is debatable. The church was one of the earliest visited by DEH, on October 8th 1911. His record is one of the shortest of his entire project: On the buttress to the W of the priest’s door into the chancel is a stylehole at a height of 5′ 10″ from the ground. There are no remains of either a circle or lines, but from the soft nature of the stone they may have been weathered away.

Points in favour of dial status include its central position on the stone and the height. Against is the peculiarity of the hole itself; and the fact that the stone shows no sign of weathering, even 100+ years later,

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Doubtful Dail eg

Photos: Keith Salvesen

DINDER . SOMERSET – St Michael

Published on January 21, 2026January 22, 2026 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

ST MICHAEL . DINDER . SOMERSET

GRADE II* ❖ Norman origins, C14 work, rebuilt C15, restored 1872. An attractive church both outside and in. Visited by DEH on 6 Oct 1911 on one of his early dial expeditions from Downside Abbey. Roughly halfway between Wells and Shepton Mallet. 51.199 / -2.6094 / ST575446

DIAL

DEH recorded a single dial on W corner of S aisle. He noted a 2.5 inch deep gnomon hole, and commented ‘…this dial is cut on soft red sandstone and has all 12 hour lines… many of them probably added to the original design’. More than 100 years later, only 9 are legible.

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Dial erosion

All photos: Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour

LAMYATT . SOMERSET – St Mary and St John

Published on January 10, 2026January 11, 2026 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

GRADE II* ❖ C13 – C15; C19 restoration (some by T H Wyatt). Quite large, with nave, chancel, north and south porches, south vestry, west tower. Predominantly Perp. Busy history and plenty to look at, approval by PEV. 10m N of Castle Cary; 16m S of Shepton Mallet 51.124 / -2.4854 / ST661361

DIALS

There are 3 dials (one unrecorded?). W of the porch, low down on a relocated quoin stone, there are 2 interesting near-overlapping dials cut on W face. This is a good example of ‘dials ancient and modern’: a small early dial – simple and rustic – superseded by a later dial cut with attention to detail. The 3rd dial is on the buttress E of the porch.

DEH visited the church on 16 October 1913 . By now he was using a camera to photograph selected dials, including Lamyatt. The quality of his images is surprisingly good. He also used a motorcycle to extend the scope of his researches from Downside Abbey. More about this extraordinary monk in due course.

Note: single ‘t’ Lamyatt; plugged gnomon hole, now invisible

DIALS 1 and 2

DEH visited the church on 16 October 1913 and recorded dials 1 & 2.

DIAL 1. This small dial has 3 radials emerging from a now undetectable gnomon hole in the corner of the mortar line ULQ. The deeper cut and crudely bent line RHS suggests that the main canonical hour for observance was Nones. In due course a replacement dial was called for.

DIAL 2

DIAL 2. On the same quoin stone, also W-facing, a later and far more practical dial was cut. 4 radials the same length fan out from a gnomon hole in the mortar line (the original plug?). These are arranged within a minor arc, and scale up both in width and depth LHS to RHS. The overall effect indicates competence and care by the maker.

The radials each end in a dot (one is barely detectable). The line spacing of the dial in its original position arrangement is a puzzle. In a literal way, noon would be exactly between lines 2 and 3, as sometimes found on other churches.

DIAL 3

On the buttress E of porch, at head height, a dial with 2 long lines descending from a mortar line that has a hint of a gnomon hole. It seems to be in its original position. Presumably the vertical mortar line – now a crack – acted as the noon line dividing the 2 radials from the smaller quoin stone.

OTHER MARKS OF INTEREST

GSS Category: Displaced dial; Dial facing W; Dial pairs; Dom Ethelbert Horne photographs; Scratch Dials Somerset

All photos: Keith Salvesen except the one taken by DEH in 1913

MILTON CLEVEDEN . SOMERSET – St James

Published on December 13, 2025 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

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.

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

Published on December 4, 2025 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

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 .