A Grade II* listed William and Mary manor house dated to 1691, with a fine sundial to grace its symmetrical exterior. It’s hard to tell if the dial is contemporary with the building of the manor, or was added during a later restoration. Given the dial’s very specific location, it is perhaps more likely to be original than a later addition. 6m S of Devizes
The quarter hours are marked inside the narrow frame between the dial face and the numerals
GRADE I ♱ Saxon foundation. C12 (first record 1102) early C14, C15, 1845 restoration. C12 Purbeck marble font bowl. Jacobean box pews. Spiritual home of the Dukes of Somerset, duly commemorated. Original 14th century oak door, fittings. 18th-century metal sundial LINK. 7m SW of Warminster. Longleat, Stourhead nearby. 51.1468 / -2.2821 / ST803386
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The dial is located on a quoin stone on the angled W buttress of the nave, in effect facing SE. There are 8 lines (2 faint RHS), with a hint of a horizontal across the filled gnomon hole. In LLQ the large gap between the first 2 lines appears to have a pock midway between them, spaced accurately enough to be deliberate. If so, it may have been intended as a marker of Terce as the most significant hour of observance.
TWO-FACED DIAL: above the porch is an intriguing metal dial with 2 faces at right angles, facing SE and SW. This will be written up separately.
GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial
All photos Keith Salvesen except header, Retired QA (OS CC)
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 chapelHERE.
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.
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.
GRADE I ♱ C14, C15; C19 restoration. Mainly Perpendicular, with a very impressive 3-stage tower. C14 font. Splendid gargoyles. Very close to MUCHELNEY ABBEY. 9m NW of Yeovil 50.9865 / -2.8042 / ST436210
NOTE This post supplements a previous post written last year HERE. There was poor light with inadequate details of the dial, now remedied in sunlight. The text is much the same.
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The dial is cut on the W buttress, S side of the tower on a large stone that is the width of the buttress. DEH visited in Sept 2012 – this was one of his early churches, perhaps because of its proximity to Downside Abbey. He describes a large, deep style hole. He counted a full complement of 24 lines: a complete wheel of thin lines without a circle. Nearly 100 years later, the design is not as clear-cut.
DEH also noted that the dial stone may have been moved during restoration of the tower, which might account for its height on the buttress (8 ft).
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)
GRADE I ⚘ C17 Attractive small manor house with lovely gardens and a small arboretum. NT. Plenty of information online. Don’t miss St Margaret’s with its remarkable scaphe dial above the porch, and 6+ scratch dials – links below. 4m NW of Yeovil
ARMILLARY SPHERE
A fine armillary sphere surmounted by a charming pairing of an exotic galleon and a delicately stylised sun. The gardens as they are now were designed by Phyllis Reiss after she and her husband bought the house in 1933. She died in 1961, leaving the property to NT. My guess is that the dial dates to mid-1930 as the new gardens took shape.
TINTINHULL GARDENS . DECORATIVE FEATURES ON THE ARMILLARY SPHERE
GRADE I ✠ C7 origins with a long and fascinating history amply covered by many sources. The Wiki entry gives a good brief account. Now only the Abbot’s House and the Lavatorium remain intact. The ruined foundations are all that can be seen of the Abbey buildings and layout.
The Abbot’s House has a number of apotropaic marks including hexfoils and taper burns, noted on the relevant pages here.
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We visited the Abbey knowing approximately what to expect from the Abbot’s House. It is well worth exploring, and there are helpful EH volunteers on hand to give information.
We eventually reached the West Kitchen, which has a door to the S side of the building. It was a great surprise to find a simple and eroded scratch dial between the doorway and the East Kitchen window. It is quite rare to find a scratch dial on a building other than a church. Non-secular dials can occasionally be found on medieval barns. Perhaps the Abbot’s dial was originally part of the original abbey building, and re-sited. I’d prefer to think that a factotum had cut the dial specially for an Abbott so that he could keep track of the important times of the monastic day for which he was responsible.
This is not an easy dial to analyse. Certainly there is a horizontal line ( 6-to-6) that runs through the gnomon hole (very faint RHS). There is a deeper cut noon line that seems to extend above the hole to the mortar line.
As often, a b&w image can assist with finer details. There is a faint 9-line, suggesting that Terce was the primary time for observance. Possibly a further line at 11? No relevant markings LRQ. Possibly there is a line ULQ just above the horizontal.
It is clear that EH and the guides know about the dial, but I have been unable to find a reference to it elsewhere. Probably a local research group will have recorded it, but otherwise it seems that this unusual dial (for location) is very little known
MUCHELNEY ABBEY . SOUTH FRONT
Muchelney Abbey – Abbot’s House S side showing W kitchen door . Photo by DeFacto OS CC
GRADE I ❖ C14, rebuilt from earlier church (BHO); C15 S porch, C17 chancel rebuilt. Wagon-type nave roof. Gargoyles. An attractive and well-kept church. Also recommended: visit the Symondsbury Estate complex. 2m W of Bridport. 50.7396 / -2.7879 / SY445936
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The dial is on E. jamb of the porch entrance. The gnomon hole is in the mortar line, from which 10 lines radiate in a semi-circle. The noon line is terminates in a pock. RHS, is considerably damaged / erosion. Noted by GLP as a very accurate dial.
GRADE I ☩ C14 nave and aisles; C14/15 chancel; C15 west tower. S porch rebuilt in 1848 (see below). A handsome church with pleasing proportions. 6m N of Bridport, 9m S of Crewkerne. 50.7923 / -2.7528 / SY470994
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The dial dates to C15 and is on W jamb of SW window of S aisle. Allowing for damage, it is a (near) semi-circle with 11 lines of varying length. 8 of them have holes, some terminal and some on the longer lines. GLP notes that the dial is extremely accurately drawn. (GLP) The dial is now shaded by the C19 porch that replaced a smaller one.
GRADE II* ☩ C13 Chancel, Nave; other remnants eg blocked C13 doorway. Later additions and restorations. Fine hexagonal pulpit, one panel carved 1630 RW.IM. With its bellcote, a charming small church. On W edge of Weymouth. 50.6248 / -2.5048 / SY643806
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The dial is high up (c 3m) on the chancel quoin stone SE corner. GLP dates to C13. Semi-circular (a hint of a complete circle?), with 13 lines. Some terminal pocks. One line – corresponding with Terce – is deeper incised, with a hole outside the circumference.
GAUDIUM SUB SOLE . SUNDIALS . MEDIEVAL TO MODERN 