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

TOTNES . DEVON . ST MARY

GRADE 1 ✣ A fine Perpendicular church on the site of Benedictine Priory, standing proudly near the centre of the town and visible from some distance away. Mainly built mid-C15 using much red sandstone. The Grade denotes the importance of the building, and the interior offers much for the visitor. Also, see the splendid Norman motte and bailey castle nearby. 50.4319 / -3.6878 / SX802604

VERTICAL DIAL

On the south wall of the church near the porch is a slate dial set in a stone frame. It declines west and shows the hours VII – VI divided into halves and quarters. Across the top is an inscription which reads In memoriam TWW 1903. Below it are the coordinates Lat 5020 ; Long 0340 W. Across the bottom of the dial is the quite common motto Ut Hora Sic Vita (Life is as an Hour).

The gnomon has a pierced nodus which causes a spot of light to appear on the dial plate. In my amateur experience, this is a relatively uncommon addition to a sundial’s capabilities.

GSS Category: Vertical Dial; Sundial with Nodus; Vertical Sundial Motto; Memorial Vertical Sundial

Photos: header, wigulf . wiki . cc / os; dial location, St Mary’s online; dial close-ups, BSS Bridol

Thanks to Erika Clarkson for giving me the details from a visit to St Mary’s, where she had found a scratch dial. I have written it up separately, being completely different in type and time.

ROSEMOOR GARDENS

Renowned RHS gardens near Torrington, Devon. It’s a wonderful place. You can find out all about it HERE. For present purposes, the focus is on the very fine sundial installed in the gardens in 2004. This is a project of the BRITISH SUNDIAL SOCIETY and the description below is from the BSS record:

This is an unusual dial in the form of a triangular section pillar made of Delabole slate and 1820mm high. It was designed by Sir Mark Lennox-Boyd and made by Ben Jones. It carries a motto on the 610mm diameter slate base ‘But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden be remembered’ (T.S.Eliot, modified from a passage in Burnt Norton, the first of the Four Quartets).

On two of the faces are pairs of declining dials one above the other. The upper ones are drawn for December to June and the lower ones for June to December. The hour lines are corrected for the Equation of Time.There are three declination lines on each dial. Arabic numerals are used and the dials show BST. The easterly dial shows 5:30am to 1:30pm in half and quarter hours while the westerly dial shows 12:30pm to 9:30pm similarly divided. The north dial has dedications to V M Dickinson, M J C Wright, H Addy and R Addy.

DIAL IMAGES 1

DIAL IMAGES 2

Images taken from the designer’s magisterial book Sundials: History, Art, People, Science. The design below seems an excellent example of art meeting science.