c18 Sundial Oxfordshire – GAUDIUM SUB SOLE . SUNDIALS . MEDIEVAL TO MODERN

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

ROUSHAM HOUSE . OXFORDSHIRE – Dollond Horizontal Sundial

Published on February 9, 2024February 9, 2024 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

Rousham is a fine country house less than 20m N of Oxford, built for the Dormer family in 1635 and still in their possession. Its landscape gardens were designed by William Kent, the inspired founder of the great tradition of such gardens in England. Little has changed at Rousham since C18. The RH site notes: In ‘Around the World in Eighty gardens’ Monty Don says (William) Kent is the great genius of eighteenth-century garden design and Rousham is his masterpiece, one of the greatest gardens in the world”

DOLLAND SUNDIAL AT ROUSHAM HOUSE OXON

BSS RECORD

By the pigeon house in the rose garden east of the house is a bronze horizontal dial 314mm in diameter made by Dollond of London.. It shows the customary hours IV – VIII divided into halves and quarters.The hours are also displayed in Arabic numerals and divided into periods of 10 And 2 minutes. There is an Equation of Time scale and round the centre of the dial a 16-point compass rose. There is a noon gap to compensate for the 7/16″ thick gnomon. The dial is mounted on a tapering stone column with a circular capital.

DOLLAND

Dolland workshops were active from approx 1750 to 1850. The business was founded by John Dolland who was joined by his son Peter, and later other members of the family. The name became synonymous with the crafting of intricate and precise scientific instruments. Sundial plates were a (rare, I think) sideline. Dolland collections can be found in many museums and individual pieces in auction rooms. All items have the Dolland mark, but some cannot be attributed with certainty to a particular member of the family.

George Dollond was elected to a fellowship into the Royal Society in 1819 and was an active participant in founding the Astronomical Society in 1820 (Confusingly, his son was also called George)

LINK TO THE ROUSHAM SITE

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GSS Category: Horizontal Sundial; Country House Sundial; Dolland Sundial

All photos: Keith Salvesen

BROUGHTON GRANGE GARDENS . OXON – Pedestal Dial

Published on November 25, 2022 by Rolling HarbourLeave a comment

Broughton Grange dates from early C17. Gradual development resulted in a fine house with an extensive estate owned by the Morrell family and associated with the Bloomsbury Group via Lady Ottoline. The whole estate was bought in the 1990s. New gardens have been beautifully landscaped and an arboretum created. The property is renowned as one of the finest contemporary private gardens, to which there is public access. You can find out more here: BROUGHTON GRANGE 3m SW of Banbury 52.0415 / 1.3776 / SP4338

The dial stands at the centre of the Parterre and Rose Garden, overlooking the smart box hedges. It is dated MDCCLI (1751). I’ve spent some time trying to figure out the inscription, some of which cannot be read even with a magnifying glass. I have settled (provisionally) on Tempora Servio, ‘I Serve the Times’ or a similar conjunction of tempus and servere. This formulation does not specifically appear in eg the expanded edition of Gatty; however tempora is in common usage, often with its companion, mores. Any other suggestions welcome, a definitive ruling would be ideal.