The Recorder - The British Sundial Society

Conference Edition The Recorder
April 2005

An Occasional Newsletter for BSS Recorders —Egham Edition

Changes to the Register and hope for Digital Camera Users!

Topics Although it still looks much the that are in places not served services. Both the Fixed Dial
same to the BSS Member on by the UK’s National Grid. and the up and coming Mass
• Register changes the proverbial ‘Clapham Omni- Dial archives will now be main-
• Flies on horizontal dials—Wow! bus’, the Register and its proc- The dial data entry form has tained in Report order rather
• The 2005 Editions of the Register esses have gone through a few been amended to reflect this than, as before, in County and
• Was Isaac Newton involved? changes in the past year in new requirement for entry. SRN order.
• Serendipity for a Recorder? readiness for the publication
• A Christmas Interlude this year of Register 2005. Since an OS NGR of the form The database will be used to
• The Importance of European SU123456 gives a location to locate dials of interest and a
At the very lowest level for considerably better than the new Quality measure has been
Mass Dials example the abbreviation for old degree and minute Lat/ introduced so that our better
• Wiltshire’s Wonders. the ‘Sun Dial Reference Num- Long, the opportunity is being sightings and records can be
ber (SRNO) has at last been taken to back convert many more easily located when nec-
changed to the more logical existing NGRs to the new deg, essary.
SRN. min, sec format so that the two
formats reflect a similar accu- Finally, the Council has ap-
At a more important level the racy. proved a study to investigate
database has been changed to ways in which dial sightings
allow it to accommodate Lat/ However to indicate that the might be submitted electroni-
Long in degrees, minutes and figures are a conversion (and cally by e-mail, something
seconds. Not only does this are in fact accurate only to a which isn’t possible currently.
better reflect the accuracy few seconds) a tilde (~) symbol
available from GPS equipment is being placed after the con- A new Digital archive will be
but it also improves dial loca- verted readings in the Regis- required for this and a lot of
tion by Lat/Long, something ter. database development
which when only degrees and needed before it can be an-
minutes were stored was not Changes have also been im- nounced. Those of you with
at all easy. This change is also plemented in the way that the computers and digital cameras
of particular importance when Society’s archive is handled —watch this space, there might
recording the location of dials now that we have sadly lost yet be jam tomorrow!
Anne Somerville’s sterling

Flies on Dials? We are used to finding an im- rectly set up with its South
age of a fly on some UK point at 225 degrees instead
SRN 5963 stained glass sundials. It is of 180 and, like many such
thought to be a play on the modern dials that have a
motto ‘Time Flies’. ‘knuckleduster’ style of gno-
mon piercing, its root is also
However, when Ian Butson slightly too far South.
came across SRN 5963 in
Barkingside Gtr London, his
photograph caught the real
thing and on a horizontal dial
too…! Sadly this dial is incor-

Page 2 The Recorder

The BSS Fixed Dial Register 2005

Considerable interest Well, we might be a little later
has been shown by than originally planned but the
new Register is on target to be
Members in all of the published shortly after the
planned editions of the Egham Conference with the CD
2005 Register, with version to follow a little time
after that.
many ordering more
than one version. The The short additional delay has
been caused by a flurry of new
chart opposite shows the dial sightings sent in by record-
current position. ers after it was announced
that new editions were to be
published! However this has
only served to make the Regis-
ter 2005 more comprehensive
and complete.

A double-take on a direct dial...

One of the more recent new the excellent information given grees East.
dial sightings has been that of about the dial, one’s attention Maybe that house owner was
SRN 5967 at Lavendon is drawn to the fact that Issac just as much a stickler for ac-
Grange in Bucks. On the face Newton paid regular visits to curacy as Sir Isaac after all?
of it, it is a conventional Verti- Lavendon Grange. Pity the
cal Direct South dial. It is very poor householder if his dial Lavendon Grange SRN 5967
neatly inserted so as to be had not been correct and Sir
flush with the wall and is not Isaac was visiting… ! But look
canted out. again. The two VI numerals are
not quite in line with the top of
Yet if so then this means that the dial and there is a faint
either the house is built unusu- remnant of an hour line to the
ally precisely to face South or right of the drip stain from the
of course the dial is not accu- gnomon. The dial does decline
rately delineated. Musing on a little, possibly only by 3 de-
this whilst reading the rest of

The Dial Recorder’s serendipity?

Just occasionally a Dial It’s hard to believe that in House in London Road, he
Recorder can make an 2004 a recorder in the UK ventured into the Oxford Cre-
amazing find. Read could still stumble on quite so matorium and Garden of Re-
about Ian Butson’s many unrecorded dials in one membrance there. No dials
experience in Oxfordshire place as did Ian Butson in July had ever been recorded from
last year! 2004. this place yet Ian found no less
than twelve! Not only does
On one of his many dial hunt- this appear to be a record in One of the better dials in the
ing expeditions last summer its own right, but the last entry gardens
he happened to be in Heading- coincidentally gave him a local
ton near Oxford. number equal to his Member-
ship Number: 717/717
After recording the well known
dial SRN 4015 on the Dial

Conference Edition Page 3

A Christmas Interlude and a Recorder’s Luck

It is perhaps a social error to and what did Tony think? SRN 6014, the Society archive
send the same Christmas card now contains a Christmas
two years running – which The artist was Dr Jeremy Paul robin as the only picture of this
happened this year with Tony so Tony asked his local mu- interesting dial.
Wood’s card to Edward Martin, seum, which specializes in
the previous Mass Dial Regis- such things as bird art and lo! Tony’s luck was not yet ex-
trar. – ‘Yes’ they said, ‘We sell his hausted however; on filing
pictures, here’s his address’. under ‘Isle of Man’ (you
Now familiar with the robin guessed!) he found a long
perched on a snow covered The dial is famous, being forgotten catalogue of Manx
sundial and being an artist ‘Bishop Wilson’s Sundial’ yet it dials with makers’ names in-
himself Edward suggested that was still unrecorded in spite of cluded. Our Biographies author
the dial was painted from life its fame. Safely registered as was delighted!

The increasing importance of European Mass Dials

The growing interest in mass Bremore Dial may well pre-date 1066. Here Tony Wood agues that
dials in continental Europe is the interpretation of the UK’s
evidenced by a flow of reports Ulster Museum Dial The other feature of interest is wealth of Mass Dials might
and photographs. The Society that the systematic recording be significantly assisted by an
of course has quite enough to chronology and raise the ques- of mass dials started very understanding of dials of a
do without compiling registers tion of distinction between pre- early in England with Dom similar type to be found in
of overseas dials but the re- and post-Conquest dials. In Ethelbert Horne around 1910 Europe.
ports are filed and available England the division is clear as in Somerset.
for comparison with dial types Saxon dials (pre-Conquest) Comments and ideas from
and locations recorded in form a small specific corpus of In contrast, Maria Koubenec Readers are always welcomed
Europe. around thirty examples, well in Germany recorded the first on this puzzling subject.
scattered from Co. Durham to there in 1965 and only re-
Herbert Rau in Berlin has com- Gloucestershire. cently have the numbers
piled a summary of dials so far Other countries, however, have listed in France and Spain
discovered on mainland not had the benefit of a clear been found.
Europe. France (400), Ger- French invasion marker point
many (360) and Spain (300) and so classification is not so What do Continental mass
are the largest contributions easy. It is possible indeed that
with Italy at 100. some continental mass dials Acknowledgements to: Finola
O’Carroll, Dublin, The Ulster
All much smaller than Eng- Museum, Belfast and Herbert
land’s current 3000. There are Rau, Berlin
also one or two question
marks hidden in the figures. dials look like? Just like ours
Horizontal forms are distin- on the whole, the difference
guished from vertical and here on occasion being as illus-
Norway leads the way with trated.
between 5 and 10, the uncer-
tainty arising from the pres- Sometimes the wall appears
ence of ‘compass rose’ mark- to be of brickwork – but may
ings as explored by Johan Wi- not be. The dial has been
kander in Trondheim. adapted here but may be
spread over several ‘bricks’.
The two Scottish and two Irish Perhaps there is a dating clue
horizontals are not listed; not here?
surprising as they have not
really been publicized, indeed Was England a backwater
the Irish ones appear here for when the rest of Europe was
the first time. converting to clocks and sci-
entific dials? Or was the rela-
Whilst we are in Ireland the tive stability of our society
figure of 19 quoted by Rau responsible for the preserva-
consists entirely of dials which tion of so many mass dials?
come under ‘Saxon’ in English

The British Sundial Society The Registers of the British Sundial Society are formed from
archived written records each certified by the individual dial
An Occasional Newsletter for BSS recorder and accompanied by photographic prints or transpar-
Recorders —Egham Edition encies.

The British Sundial Society was formed in The main data on the forms and (since 1998) a scan of one
1989 and is a thriving and friendly Society of or more of the photographs of the dial and a scan of the form
several hundred members. Its objects are to itself are recorded on a relational database for subsequent
advance the education of the public in the art search , identification and retrieval.
and science of gnomonics and the knowledge
of all types of sundial; to catalogue and advise The database content forms the basis of the Register which is
on the restoration of sundials that still exist in published at intervals and which is made available to Mem-
the British Isles, and to research their history. bers at a competitive price.
In addition to publishing the Bulletin and
other books, it organises meetings and a Searches of the databases can be made for research purposes
major conference every year. upon application to the Registrar for Fixed Dials, Patrick

Secretary: Douglas Bateman, We’re on the Web!
The British Sundial Society,
4 New Wokingham Road, Crowthorne, Berks Poweexrasmorplteo.mthicerMosoafsts.cDomial Group Coordinator, Tony
RG45 7NR. Phone: +44 (0)1344 772303 Wood at the addresses to be found in any Bulletin
BSS Web Site: http://www.sundialsoc.org.uk
Reg Charity 1032530

And finally, Wiltshire’s Wonderful Sundials—by John Ingram

Following publication of the last edition John’s Choices for Wiltshire...
of The Recorder in which mention was
made again of the idea of noting the 1. Inglesham—The 11thC Mass Dial on St John the Baptist
top ten dials in each County, John In-
gram came forward with his ideas for Church
Wiltshire.
2. Inglesham—The 13th/14thC Mass dial on the statue of
He writes: “I suggest the following Top
Ten for Wiltshire. I am unable to in- the Virgin Mary also at St John the Baptist’s Church
clude those that I haven’t yet seen,
particularly the notable horizontal dials 3. Salisbury—the Vertical (S) dial with declination lines in
at Ramsbury (SRNs 3802, 3803 and
3804). Quite shamelessly I have in- the Cathedral Close SRN 2028
cluded two Mass Dials, one because it
is 11th C and could be said to be 4. Salisbury—The Cross Dial at Leaden Hall School SRN
Saxon and the second because it is so
well known. 3941

Perhaps I should have included either 5. Steeple Ashton—The Vertical (D) dial at St James’
of the window dials at Lacock Abbey
(SRN 0395) or Marlborough (SRN Church SRN 2513
2308) at the expense of the Sutton
Mandeville Pillar dial, but I have a par- 6. Steeple Ashton—The Multiple Pillar Dial on the Village
ticular fondness for the latter and,
after all, it is mentioned in Pevsner”. Green SRN 0926

7. Stourhead House [NT]-The Horizontal dial there SRN

2516

8. Sutton Mandeville– The Multiple Pillar Dial in All Saints’

Churchyard. SRN 2403 SRN 2403

9. Sutton Veny– The Multiple Pillar Dial in the Churchyard

of St John the Evangelist. SRN 2285

10. Upavon—The Horizontal Dial at the Trenchard Lines Officers’ Mess. SRN

0025