GRADE II ✣ Early CI4 origins. St Peter is a delightful small church a short distance SW of Oxford, close to Boar’s Hill and the unrivalled views over the fields towards the dreaming spires. 51.7092 / -1.3122 / SP476013
DIAL
During a recent visit to Oxford to see some of the College sundials, I found an earlier note of a possible dial at St Peter’s. I eventually found it on the E jamb of a tiny window now overgrown by a substantial laurestinus bush and protected by sharp rose thorns. Blood was drawn but it was worth the sacrifice.
The dial stone is near the centre of the photo above. Apart from the gnomon hole, it is just possible to make out traces of what must have been a full circle. There is a slight hint that it may have been a double circle. The noon line (perhaps with a terminal pock) is faint. A second line (XI) is close beside and slightly shorter.
There is a single pock on or close to what would have been the perimeter of the circle. Its position at approx None might support a theory that it belonged to the dial and indicated mid-afternoon Mass.
The dial’s angle adjusted to a more front-on view
NOTE: St Peter has an interesting concave vertical dial at the apex of the porch, to be written up separately in due course with a LINK
GSS Category: Scratch Dial; Mass Dial
All photos: Keith Salvesen
GAUDIUM SUB SOLE . SUNDIALS . MEDIEVAL TO MODERN 