Marian Marks – GAUDIUM SUB SOLE . SUNDIALS . MEDIEVAL TO MODERN

OXFORD . HISTORY of SCIENCE MUSEUM – GRAFFITI, SYMBOLS, & SCRATCHINGS

The History of Science Museum in Broad Street, Oxford, has a wonderful collection of scientific instruments dating from the Middle Ages to C19. There is a rich hoard to be investigated. As you enter, you will see an outstanding display of the many instruments that over the ages have been used to measure the passage of time. A superb pair of armillary spheres is / are featured HERE. Only the Museo Galileo in Florence has given me such pleasure.

GRAFFITI, SYMBOLS, & SCRATCHINGS

On each side jamb of the entrance to the Museum, there is a fine collection of graffiti of several kinds. Below is a selection of the marks from either side, left first. These include names and dates, with a Bull (1753) on one side, and a later Bull (1891) on the other; and a couple of probable mason’s marks, together with random scratchings accumulated over time.

MARIAN MARKS and PROTECTION (APOTROPAIC) SYMBOLS

By C17 the concept of thwarting evil by means of incised marks on churches and other buildings (eg the TITHE BARN Bradford-on-Avon) was weakening, yet superstition and the fear of evil lingered on. This building – the original Ashmolean – dates to the late C17. By this time, many medieval incised devices – eg scratch dials – had become things of the past. However, to some extent the comfort of cutting marks to ward off evil persisted. This would explain the various Marian marks VV (Virgo Virginum) on the jambs.

There is also a good collection of compass-drawn circles of varying completeness, accuracy, and depth. In medieval times these were the simplest form of demon trap, luring evil inside a circle from which it could not escape. The principle continued in later centuries.

LEFT SIDE

RIGHT SIDE

GSS Category: Apotropaic marks; Marian marks; Protection marks; Demon Traps; Compass-drawn circles; Graffiti on public buildings;

Reference: History of Science Museum – Oxford; Matthew Champion – Medieval Graffiti

All photos: Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour

LYDLINCH . DORSET . ST THOMAS À BECKET

GRADE II* † Mainly C15 / C16, much reworking and restoration. Located down a longish lane S of the village. 10 miles E of Sherborne. BLB record HERE. Featured: the 3 sundials; church marks; the 3 seats inside the porch. 50.9192 / -2.3678 / ST742133

SUNDIALS

DIAL 1

The most obvious sundial is at the apex of the porch gable, a simple square stone containing a square dial with a narrow 3/4 frame, and an iron gnomon. Above it some form of stone finial, much eroded, a cross? The dial has graduated hour radials, with shorter lines for half-hours, and the quarter hours marked within the frame. Quite sophisticated, some damage upper R. BHO dates it C18.

Below this dial is an inscribed C18 plaque dedicated, it seems, to two [C]hurch [W]ardens 1753. It is interesting to compare the erosion of this soft stone with the dial stone.

Lydlinch . Dorset . St Thomas à Becket – Vertical sundial over the porch

Lydlinch . Dorset . St Thomas à Becket – plaque dated 17[5]3

DIALS 2 & 3

These dials are a near-matched pair on the C15 tower. Both are high up on the second stage, one on the SW buttress, the other on the SE buttress. BHO describes the former as a stone plate with Roman numerals, much worn; and the latter as traces of similar sundial. I think both dials must have had considerable attention since those words were written.

DIAL 2

This dial looks like a comparatively new replacement; BSS suggests C20. The modern design replicates Dial 3 mutatis mutandis. The radials are carefully graduated for its SW facing angle; very little of the afternoon can be indicated.

Lydlinch . Dorset . St Thomas à Becket – replaced vertical sundial on SW buttress of tower

DIAL 3

This dial is almost an exact converse of its pair, the radials being graduated in the opposite direction. C18. Note that the gnomons of both dials are the same design, copper I think, and presumably installed at the same time.