Category: Wessex Sundials

ST MARY THE VIRGIN . ALDINGBOURNE

GRADE I ❖ A slightly puzzling church. Mainly C13 but with Norman arches, pillars, and one window. BLB notes Chancel, south vestry, nave with south aisle, and porch and tower in the centre of the north side + Medieval church with ‘good interior’ C19 external restoration. 6m E of Chichester (allow for traffic). 50.8415 /  -0.6899 / SU923054

DIALS

There are two similar dials that are adjacent, or in fact slightly overlapping. The upper dial is pleasingly conventional. The lower dial is very rustic, with 5 rather haphazard lines and a somewhat potato-shaped circumference line. There is a faint scratched cross RHS.

DIAL 1 and 2 together

In this case, the dials speak for themselves. The only mystery is whether the 2 dials were cut together, or at least during the same period. My uneducated guess from the appearance of the stone, this looks very possible. So, a competition between 2 idle or bored sacristans (with a clear winner)? A ‘first draft’ that was later improved upon? A young bell ringer killing time perhaps…

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Paired Dials; Dials on single stone;

All photos: Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour

GRADE II* ✣ C13 origins; rebuilding / restoration late C19. Use of local Doulting stone. More to this church than some brief mentions allow – for example the interior layout. See instead the detailed BLB entry HERE Also this, for Brass enthusiasts: two small brasses of 1673 and 1690 to Edward Bennet and his wife Susan, the latter signed in copperplate lettering: Guliet Cockey de Wincanto(n), Reputed to be the only such signed brass found in Somerset. Part of the churchyard is managed as a wildlife site under the Living Churchyard project. 51.1239 / 51°7’25″N;  -2.4019 / 2°24’6″W / ST719361

VERTICAL DIAL

The dial is situated high up on E quoin of S face of the tower. The dial-stone is large and eroded to the extent that there are no visible dial features or markings. Perhaps there never were. The ‘iron rod’ gnomon is pleasingly simple, and from some angles makes a square frame.

SCRATCH DIALS: see https://gaudiumsubsole.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=24465&action=edit

GSS Category: Vertical Dial; Vertical Dial Church; Gnomon details;

All photos: Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour

GRADE II ❖ C13 / E.E. Cruciform; W tower with shingled spire. Roughcast facing. Very attractive small medieval church, little restored (BLB). Approved by Pevsner (unusually harmonious…the showpiece is N doorway in a simple but very sophisticated style). 4 miles E of Chichester. 50.8379  -0.722 / SU900050

DIALS

A ‘matched’ pair of dials on either side of the priest’s entrance, unusually cut at exactly the same level.

DIAL 1

Very much a ‘morning dial’, with a curve of dots LLQ 9 – 12. Damage makes it hard to assess the number, but at least 6 (perhaps a group of 3 marking the noon-line?). The gnomon hole is deep and was probably enlarged / damaged much later – it looks very neatly drilled. Of particular note is the faint circle border that looks, in sunlight, almost complete. An optimist might suggest the hint of an outer circle, esp. LLQ.

DIAL 2

Level with its companion dial, this one is badly eroded / damaged. The gnomon hole is central, and there are visible dial features. Of these, the clearest is the radial at ‘9’, suggesting that mid morning was the main time for observance. I wondered when and why the grey ‘wash’ was applied

❖ ❖ ❖ ❖

WARTIME GRAFFITI: CLOSE BY IS RAF TANGMERE WHICH PLAYED SUCH A VITAL AND DECISIVE ROLE IN THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN, 1940.

GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial; Priest’s Door Dials; Dial Pairs

All photos: Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour

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

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