News, information and comment about Sundials, Sundial Websites, Sundial Societies,

Astronomy, Physics and other (sort of) related matters  both in Britain and the World

Including an independent web resource that will be of interest and use to everyone interested in the world of sundials. Over 130 documents are now archived or linked Here!
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Click link to go to SunInfo's Historical Document Archive

Want to see the Equation of Time for 2024?
EoT
See all daily corrections HERE together with a link to a PDF of the current year's data all printed on one A4 page per year.

16.02.21 24.09.21, 30.10.2022, 16.01.2023, link corrected 02.12.2023

Know someone who might like SunInfo? Do you know SunInfosomeone who might be interested to read SunInfo?  If so then why not download this card and send it to them?  It includes our URL and also easy access by your contact who just needs to scan the QR code. 
Click HERE or click the thumbnail and then print it off for them.
01.08.2022

Celebration of World Sundial Day
Manuel Pizarro - a Spanish Diallist - has proposed a World Sundial Day.
Sundials have been the most common form used for measuring time by all civilizations until and after the appearance of mechanical clocks. Sundials represent a union of disciplines as disparate as Astronomy, Mathematics, Geography, etc. They have an undoubted didactic value in teaching astronomy to young people and as an object present in public spaces, in places where people can better understand our relationship with the Sun.
It is proposed that the celebration of World Sundial Day should be on the March Equinox, the day of the year on which the shadow in sundials casts a straight line on a plane and the day has a duration approximately equal to the one at night. In astronomy it's the First Point of Aries, the origin of right ascension with the Sun in the plane of the Earth's equator.
23.02.2024

The BCE/CE Scientific 'Nonsense' There are many calendars that are used in the world but the most common and probably the most accurate is the Gregorian Calendar. Surprisingly some people these days try (mistakenly in SunInfo's view) to argue that the notation BC/AD should be changed to remove any religious connotations - some even on the rather specious grounds that others might be offended.  Yet - we submit - no one is offended. Worse, (though in fairness mainly outside the USA) there is an amazing level of  confusion about the letters CE as to whether they refer to Common Era or to Current Era - a difference of about 2000 years!.  There is now a further confusion, namely that CE stands for Christ's Era and BCE for before Christ's Era.

Can anyone
really believe that any scientist in the post 20thC period would ever knowingly conspire to introduce such ridiculous confusion?  As a former referee for the Institute of Physics for 17 years I have seen this more often than one should in scientific papers of my field - that of 'mass spectrometry instrumentation'.

The use of this - or any - confusing notation really has no place in science.  Still unconvinced?  Click
HERE to hear scientist Dr Neil de Grasse Tyson's view. Let us all now support BC/AD and get (or try to get!) those in the USA to do so as well!  Come on USA scientists, stand up and be counted.

How can ANY Scientist EVER feel the need to change their thinking and advice to others partly or solely on the basis of their religious views?  When have any scientists ever denied recognition to those who have devised anything important (let alone the world's best ever calendar) on the basis that the inventors held Christian views? Do we now need to look at re-drafting Newton's Principia because he was a Christian?
05.07.2023, 29.12.2023

Good news for Sundiallists (and BSS Registrars!) At the end of CumberlandMarch 2023 Cumberland and Westmorland - two of England’s historic counties were at last returned to the municipal map after the “travesty” of their abolition half a century ago.

Campaigners hailed the abolition of Cumbria County Council saying it is important to ‘recognise our roots and heritage’ across the UK.  The earlier county council of Cumbria - created as part of Edward Heath’s much-criticised (some say 'lunatic') local government reorganisation of 1974 - was on Friday night abolished, along with its six districts. It had replaced the historic Lakeland counties of Westmorland and Cumberland, which date back to at least the 12th-century, and that part of Lancashire known as Furness.

Cumbria has been replaced by two unitary authorities - Cumberland, and Westmorland and Furness.

The boundaries are not exactly the same (sadly) - around a quarter of historic Cumberland around the town of Penrith is now under the auspices of the new Westmorland and Furness Council.

“Cumbria was a creation of the madness of the 1970s when politicians and bureaucrats decided people live in places other than those that they thought they were in."   Not only are current residents delighted but Diallists (and the Registrars who maintain the UK database of National sundials) are too since many old sundials reflect their older county names. The image here (click for a larger version) shows the old boundaries.
01.04.2023


Oldest Runestone found Archaeologists in Norway say they Rune Findhave found a runestone which they claim is the world’s oldest, saying the inscriptions are up to 2,000 years old and date back to the earliest days of the enigmatic history of runic writing.

The flat, square block of brownish sandstone has carved scribbles, which may be the earliest example of words recorded in writing in Scandinavia, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said. Click on the image or HERE to read more about this.

It said it was “among the oldest runic inscriptions ever found” and “the oldest datable runestone in the world”.

“This find will give us a lot of knowledge about the use of runes in the early Iron Age. This may be one of the first attempts to use runes in Norway and Scandinavia on stone,” Kristel Zilmer, a professor at the University of Oslo, said.


17.01.2023

 A Fascinating Interview with Sir Roger Penrose: Roger Penrose

"Consciousness must be beyond computable physics." 

Sadly only a short interview but this has surely to be unmissable for anyone with an interest in what preceded the Big Bang - and indeed for anyone who always harboured the possibility that Fred Hoyle had a point!

Here Sir Roger Penrose summarises  his views on a variety of topics in Physics and on his work today at the age of 81.
Penrose has contributed greatly to the mathematical physics of general relativity and cosmology. He has received several prizes and awards, including the 1988 Wolf Prize in Physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking for the Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems and one half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity". He is regarded as one of the greatest living physicists, mathematicians and scientists, and is particularly noted for the breadth and depth of his work in both natural and formal sciences. Well worth listening. Click the thumbnail or HERE to listen to this clip.
22.11.2022

   MORE ON PLUTO!!  The plot really thickens.  Earlier readers of this column (see below) will have been following the saga of whether Pluto is really a planet or not.  Back in 2006 everyone's favourite icy world,  was demoted from being a major planet to a dwarf planet. But is this classification correct or should it be something else? After all its so-called large 'moon' Charon, is more like a dwarf planet than a moon! So if it's not a planet and possibly not a dwarf planet either, then what might  Pluto be?

1. It is bigger than they thought;
2. It is rounder than they originally thought;
3. It has an atmosphere.
SO one might think...Pluto and Charon too for that matter, probably should both be real planets.

An earlier suggested criterion for planet staus was that 'it must have cleared its orbit'. Now we know that even the Earth hasn't really cleared its orbit...

On top of this the latest hypothesis (actually a resurgence of an earlier idea) is that Pluto-Charon is in reality the solar system's only double planet system!! Read more here
16.09.2023 16.12.2023
 

 Where Einstein's Theory Fails Einstein's theory of General Relativity tells us that gravity is caused by the curvature of space and time. It is a remarkable theory that has been confirmed by countless observations, such as gravitational lensing, light deflection on the sun, redshift in the gravitational potential, black holes and their shadows, by GPS technology and gravitational waves.

However, we already know that General Relativity cannot be quite right because it does not fit together with another well-confirmed theory that is quantum mechanics. To resolve this tension, physicists think that we need a theory of quantum gravity.  Read Sabine Hossenfelder's excellent summary.

24.11.2022

Sundials in the Isle of Man. Here is an article by Miss AM Crellin from 1889 about the then recent explosion of interest in sundials in the Crown Dependency The Isle of Man.  Click on the link here to read an interesting summary that rather bemoans the imposition of English Time in the Island.  It also tells the well known story of later neglect from the Peel Harbour Noon mark to the Elizabethan clock in the marketplace of Castletown.
24.10.2022

 46,000+ Temperature Readings in the USA since 1893 for EACH of many US cities!  Now in a huge new online database we can see for ourselves just what and when were the highest temperatures in many places in all States around the USA over a period of nearly 130 years. The recent climate reporting by the New York Times is shown to be unrepresentative - they only start their data (oddly at a temperature minimum) in the 60's so that they can mostly claim a recent increase. Is that 'science'? Check this out for yourself any time.
Pt1: HERE and Pt2: HERE.  Judge for yourself.

05.10.2022

 The Art Of Dialling - A podcast from the Royal Collection Royal Collection TrustTrust. Some time ago, Sally Goodsir, Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts, gave a lecture at the Queen’s (Now King's) Gallery, Buckingham Palace on the fascinating history of sundials and dialling, which looked at the development of increasingly complex sundials, using examples from the Royal Collection.  Listen (incl images) or just Read the Transcript (PDF without images).

24.07.2022   Acknowledgements and thanks to  VL Thomson PhD

Really? Extreme Weather Assessment by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC)

This from Chapter 12 of the UN IPCC Sixth Assessment Report finalised
13-19 March 2023, Page 90 of Chapter 12 Climate Change Information for Regional Impact and for Risk Assessment finalised . It essentially charts the UN IPCC’s assessment of the odds that each type of extreme weather is due to climate change.

"As can be seen from the chart, there is no evidence of any increase or decrease, globally or by region, in the frequency, severity or extent of frost, mean precipitation, river floods, heavy precipitation and pluvial floods, landslides, aridity, hydrological drought, agricultural or ecological drought, fire weather or wildfires, mean wind speed, severe wind storms or tornados, tropical cyclones or hurricanes, sand and dust storms, snow glacial or ice sheets, heavy snowfall and ice storms, hail, snow avalanche, relative sea levels, coastal floods, coastal erosion, marine heatwaves, ocean acidity, air pollution weather or radiation at earth’s surface."

So, academics, scientists, the media or politicians who say otherwise are apparently being contradicted by the institution most identified with promoting catastrophic global warming, that is the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC.

Odd that. One wonders why it has taken so long to admit this...

NOW MORE on this from
WattsUpWithThat - HERE

11.12.2033, 17.01.2024

 BSS Accounts for 2021 The accounts submitted by BSS to the BSS Income to end 2021Charity Commission for the financial (and Calendar) year 2021 show yet another developing loss in reserves of over  Ł1,100. 

This year's report HERE once again makes no comment on any steps that are in hand or are proposed, to ensure that the Society moves into profit.  Membership is reported to have stabilised at 271 paying members and  several examples of earlier public benefit restorations by Members in recent years are listed - not all of which necessarily refer to the financial year in question.  It was reported earlier that the Secretary had resigned.


05.07.2022

Estimating Design Declination  A graph makes it very easy to Estimator thumbestimate the design declination of a vertical declinining sundial if the position of the sub-style can be seen or inferred from the displacement in hours of the gnomon from the (local apparent) noon line. The attached PDF summarises the approach.

08.02.2022

 Sundials by the "Davis Dynasty" In this interesting article from September 2016, John Davis reflects on the several instrument makers of the past who had or perhaps adopted, the surname of Davis. Well worth a read and kindly made public by today's Instrument maker 'John Davis of Flowton Sundials'.  Click HERE to access this PDF version.

09.07.2022 [Permission EU C-466/12 as retained and amended]

The Best Explanation Yet? Anyone who has ever attempted to Leap secondsunderstand the many explanations of the application of leap seconds today will have been confused by the known fact that atomic clocks show that a modern day is only longer by about 1.7 milliseconds than a century ago, yet no fewer than 27 leap seconds have so far been applied since this protocol came to be in place - all in the same direction too.  You may have written to the BBC who regularly assert that this is simply down to the earth's rotation slowing down and despite the nonsensical nature of  that comment they persist in it.  Want to really see why we are where we are?  This is surely the best concise and believable explanation though every comment here is important, not least the so called backlog.. Click on the image above or HERE to read all about it!.
15.04.2022

Climate Change and Net Zero?? Before making the mistake of thinking we really do have imminent and serious climate change, perhaps we should consider:
1. In the 70s we had a scare thinking that a new Ice Age was upon us. We never got an admission from scientists, let alone an apology for that idiotic mistake - Perhaps we should continue to ask why?
2. There has been no important climate forecast of the past thirty-fifty years that has EVER proved correct.
3. No summary of weather outside the well documented areas like USA/Europe/Australasia reflects on-the-ground measured temperatures - only satellite measures are today being used there. Many extensive and valid  mercury thermometer readings are also being ignored. Why might this be?
4. Almost all announcements of temperature change these days only show rises from the last minima in the 1960's. Yet, the last real highs were in the thirties... Odd that.
5. The world temperature is still well below the last temperature highs of the mid-thirties
6. The calving of glaciers into the sea at both poles show the massive increase of ice in the interior .
7. Emeritus professors of both MIT and Princeton now make it clear that the idea of Net Zero is seriously faulted and that it really should be abandoned. Surely, everybody should read:
https://co2coalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Challenging-Net-Zero-with-Science-digital-CO2-Coalition.pdf
8. An amusing observation. For years quite a few  scientists have asserted that climate change on earth is largely - perhaps mainly -  affected by the sun's 11 year cycle. This, in turn,  has been dismissed by those convinced that humans are causing most observable climate change. YET, now in Aug 2023, we learned that clouds on Neptune, have more or less, diasppeared - apparently (See Link)because we are approaching the next sun's cycle maximum.   Really?
If the sun's 11 year cycle can so affect the climate and clouds of Neptune, how come it cannot (supposedly) also affect the climate of the Earth? Odd that.
9. Now 1n 2024 we have this that suggests just that!  Was this an astonishing lack of real science just to stifle sceptics. https://youtu.be/rJIw7ulYaGk
22.08.2023, 19.02.2024

Thomas Henderson In 2013, retired physicist Bruce Vickery Henderson gravestumbled upon the long lost headstone of Scotland's first Astronomer Royal, Thomas Henderson, in Greyfriars Kirk.
Henderson's discovery of a new way of measuring longitude using lunar occultation brought him into contact with Thomas Young, the producer of the Royal Navy's "Nautical Almanac". With Young's encouragement, Henderson moved away from the law and into astronomy.
When Thomas Young died, he left a letter recommending Henderson as his successor. The Admiralty did not act on the recommendation, but Henderson was instead offered a post at the British observatory which had been established at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Between April 1832 and May 1833 he made many observations, and came to the conclusion that the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus, Alpha Centauri, might be relatively close to Earth (compared to most other stars) because it had a large "proper motion", ie it seemed to move over time relative to the more static stellar background. This led to the thought that it might be possible to measure the distance to Alpha Centauri using parallax, the star's apparent change of location as the Earth moved through its orbit around the sun.

After returning to Scotland through ill-health, Henderson drew on his South African observations to calculate that Alpha Centauri was just slightly less than one parsec away, or a little over 3 light years distant. This was not bad, as modern calculations place it at 1.34 parsecs or 4.37 light years away. Henderson only published his results in 1839, the year after Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel had published a calculated distance to another star using the same method.

In 1834, Henderson was appointed to be the first Astronomer Royal for Scotland, from a base at Edinburgh's City Observatory on Calton Hill. He was also made Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. He continued in both posts until his death in 1844.
04.01.22

BSS President Christopher Daniel's web site had, by the beginning of September 2022, been viewed more than 1032 times since it was set up some time back.  The site contained images of all of Christopher's dials and images of other related matters taken during his long and varied career.  Sadly, after Christopher's death, that website has now had to be disconinued. However all the images on that site may be viewed as a 2.5MB PDF at lower resolution by clicking on the image here. Anyone interested to view any of these images in rather more detail is invited to contact the webmaster for more information.

 

04.07.15, 17.08.16, 21.12.16, 08.03.18, 30.06.22,02.09.2022, 21.12.2022


England's First Copernican Thomas Digges is famous as England’s first adopter of physical Copernicanism and the author Thomas Diggesof an extraordinary heliocentric and infinite cosmology, his Perfit Description of the the Caelestiall Orbes (1576). Until now, his only other known astronomical treatise was the groundbreaking Alae seu scalae mathematicae (1573), which historians have wrongly assumed was occasioned by his observations of the so-called new star (a supernova) of November 1572. This article presents compelling evidence that another publication of 1573, a neglected and anonymous letter sent by a gentleman of England was, in fact, written by Digges. Click on the image or here:  Read this paper by Stephen Pumfrey with David Riley, University of Lancaster.
21.12.21

Using the Method of Aristarchus Here is an interesting trial Aristarchus of Samosof the method of Aristarchus for determining the distance to the Sun and Moon.  Aristarchus of Samos (c. 310 - c. 230 BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician and astronomer from Ionia. Aristarchus’ revolutionary astronomical hypothesis was that the Sun, not the Earth, was the fixed centre of the 'universe' and that all the planets revolved around it. He also said the stars were distant unmoving suns and the universe was much larger than thought. Here his method is used together with some of today's values to establish the distance to the Sun and Moon for ourselves.  Fascinating.  Click the image or HERE to read more.

03.09.21

 A British Dial found in New Zealand? A sundial originally Glamis Coat of Armsdesigned for use in  the grounds of Glamis Castle in Sotland - childhood home of the late Queen Mother - and probably taken to NZ as some sort of  'not now functioning' trophy has thrown up aspects of Scottish dialling in the 17th and 18th centuries. 
Here John Davis tells the fascinating story of its discovery and analysis. Well worth a read.

17.06.21  [EU C-466/12 as retained and amended]

How to estimate the Earth-Sun Distance by means of trigonometry and a model of the Phases of Venus by Lars Petersen, Alan C. Pickwick, Rosa M. Ros, Mogens Winther (EAAE)
Level: Some mathematical ability is required.
Using the transit of Venus to determinate the distance to Venus and to the Sun.
Click
HERE to follow the procedure based on the transit of Venus in 2004!!
03.06.21

The Stanier Family - Railways and Sundials  Dr Margaret Stanier (who sadly died in 2007) was an esteemed member of the British Sundial Society and her appointment as Bulletin Editor after Charles Aked’s resignation, is still remembered for her welcome and logical change to the Bulletins’ numbering scheme and its implementation of a new fair rigour in the standard of articles that were published. However she came from the highly esteemed family of Sir William Stanier - the famous British GWR and LMS steam engine designer.  Her connexions are mentioned in SunInfo's obituary to her and a new Internet link and even a film has emerged that tells the Stanier railway story in reminiscences from the Stanier family members living today. Click on these links to read more about these Reminiscences, This film and Margaret's Obituary Well worth a look - especially for steam railway buffs with a co-interest in dialling!.
31.08.21 19.06.2022

The Mystery of The Dial in Dial Lane Over in Aldeburgh, Dial House AldeburghSuffolk, there is a most interesting dial on the wall of Dial House. It is known to the National Register as SRN 0596. It carries the motto 'Semper Fidelis'under the thriving foliage HERE. It is a painted vertical west declining dial - declining about 10 degrees - but it has an elaborate metal(?) gnomon support in the form of a cast four spiked sun which also appears to show some of the hour lines. However these do not (seen from this angle) appear to align with all of the painted hour lines lower down.  Could this gnomon support have come from another dial or perhaps the painted lines are not accurate? Sadly the sun was not shining in this otherwise very this clear photograph so the dial's accuracy could not be determined.  If any diallist can throw light on this matter do let the webmaster know. Click HERE or on the thumbnail to see a larger version of the image.

Since this article was first posted 'Dial-finder extraordinaire' Ian Butson has submitted his own close up of the gnomon support and kindly given SunInfo permission for us to show it. (HERE). It indicates that it was probably at the head of an original Vertical South dial and from the slight damage at the top left, it may well be hollow rather than solidly cast. Ian also wondered if the material was lead. Given the slight rusting of some screws in the surround, rather than the body,  it might seem that the top scrolling is separate and possibly made from galvanised steel.  How provision of no fewer than 18 mounting holes - just for the gnomon support came to be provided remains a real mystery. The present gnomon is not fitted to align with any of these earlier lines.  It has the appearance of being possibly from a continental dial, perhaps of Austrian, Italian or maybe German origin.  Any reader who can contribute more to this puzzle should contact the webmaster.
25.05.21  Image © VL Thomson 2021 and Ian Butson 01.06.21

 The Hidden Dial of Ham House Ham House is a 17th-century Rear of Ham Househouse set in formal gardens on the bank of the River Thames in Ham, south of Richmond. It was completed by 1610 by Thomas Vavasour, an Elizabethan courtier and Knight Marshal to James I, but came to prominence during the 1670s as the home of Elizabeth (Murray) Maitland, the Duchess of Lauderdale and Countess of Dysart and her second husband John Maitland, the Duke of Lauderdale. Originally the house was constructed in an 'H' shape.

The house retains many original Jacobean features and furnishings and is claimed by the National Trust to be "unique in Europe as the most complete survival of 17th century fashion and power." Today it is a Grade I listed building

In 1671 Lauderdale was granted by Letters Patent full freehold rights to the Manors of Ham and Petersham and the 289 acres of leased land. In 1672 Elizabeth and Lauderdale were married, and, with Lauderdale's part in the CABAL, the family remained close to the heart of court intrigue. The couple made extensive changes to the house from 1673 extending the house into the south part of the "H", making it "double pile", two rooms deep, across its breadth. This filling in of the 'H' shape was what caused the original painted declining sundial to be hidden but not destroyed. An edition of the recent TV programme 'Secrets of the National Trust' allowed a glimpse of the dial showing the 4am mark and part of the scroll of the motto. Click HERE to glimpse two images of part of the painting of the dial.
22.03.21

Fer DeVries Fer DeVries  was surely one of the most eminent diallists of recent years. The first winner of the NASS Sawyer Dialing Prize, he sadly died in 2015, by then well into his seventies. Fortunately his website contents were preserved by De Zonnewijzerkring, the Netherlands Sundial Society, so we still have his legacy today. Fer's Legacy is a treasure trove of 360 articles on every possible topic in gnomonics. From 2003 to 2012 he put three articles together each month, in three series: Sundial of the Month, Article of the Month and Work by Members. They have even been translated into English by member Ruud Hooijenga and SunInfo has received permission from De Zonnewijzerkring to place some of his works here for your interest and enjoyment. We are most grateful to De Zonnewijzerkring for this. All of them are very interesting. Please note that because these articles are not specifically owned by SunInfo we cannot and do not archive them after they are removed from this page.
03.01.21, 24.09.21

BSS Accounts Reporting Performance 2018 & 2019 The Charity BSS Filing Performance to dateCommission reports on its web site that the 2018 results were only filed at nearly the last minute. It took about ten months - virtually the permitted limit - for the 2018 accounts and report to be filed.  The 2019 accounts for the year ending 31st December 2019 were finally filed in August 2020. Click on the image for the reporting performance last year. The Accounts for 2019 can be seen HERE. They show  a fall in assets and apparently a significant conference spend.
18.07.20, 06.09.20

Forecasting Weather and Climate in 2021 The science behind An odd warm Februaryforecasting of both weather - and separately of climate - is increasingly being shown to be faulted. Richard Feynman said that if an hypothesis cannot be demonstrated by experiment or in reality by observation then it is wrong.  Not nearly wrong or nearly right, but wrong. Then we have suggestions that we should stop eating meat because the animals being raised for meat emit too much methane.  This simple analysis of the science behind these things gives food for thought.  Do read to the end too.  It's only 13 mins.  Click HERE or on the thumbnail to find this interesting article.
14.04.21

Manipulation of Satellite Data? Now it seems that even the published satellite data regarding climate change is being manipulated. Just see this latest discovery.  Then see more proof here about the same with temperature data.  Can you ever imagine Richard Feynman or Albert Einstein agreeing to do this?
07.10.19, 13.10.19

BSS 2018 Accounts show a correction of an Accounting Error. The 2018 Accounts for The British Sundial Society disclose an error in the statement of Gift Aid for the previous year which was not spotted either by the Trustees or by the Examiners employed to check the Accounts each year. The Accounts for 2018 may be seen and downloaded here.
28.02.19, 02.05.19

Is Pluto really a planet after all? Scientists are now coming to argue that the official definition of a planet is ‘sloppy’ and that Pluto should never have been downgraded in the 2006 review by the IAU (International Astronomical Union). The 2006 definition was devised (it seems) more to stop too many planets being declared than ever it was to provide a sensible definition. The discovery in 2005 of Eris, a body more massive than the smallest then-accepted planet (Pluto) forced the issue and the new definition thereafter has required a 'true' planet to be roughly spherical, orbit the sun and to clear its orbit. Pluto and Eris fail, not surprisingly, to clear their part of the Kuiper belt and in any case University of Central Florida’s planetary scientist Philip Metzger points out that strictly speaking no planet clears its orbit not least because of the newly discovered dust rings in the orbits of Mercury and Venus. Maybe the definition of a planet should be set by diameter and whether or not a sundial can be constructed for it anywhere on its surface?
24.03.19

Later knowledge from 2021..

Just why do today's planetary researchers ignore the IAU’s definition of a planet in favour of a geophysical definition that’s completely agnostic to the total number of planets in the Solar System?

Simple, Dr Alan Stern (the planetary scientist who lead NASA’s New Horizons mission that explored the Pluto system in 2015) suggests that just two tests apply to establish if a celestial body is a planet:

** It has enough mass (and therefore gravity) to be round.
** It has insufficient mass to undergo nuclear fusion in its interior.


Read more here

Later knowledge from 2023..

Now in Septmber 2023 the debate has changed AGAIN.  Not only is the debate back on about Pluto's planetary status  but it is now thought that together with its moon - Charon - it might in reality be a unique double planet system in our very own solar system.

Read more of this here


Come back Planet Pluto - all is forgiven?
24.03.19, 13.03.2022, 16.09.2023

Time Lapse Videos of sundials and shadows? YouTube is an excellent source of interest where sundials are concerned.

If you have ever wanted to see a time lapse video of shadows moving with time and/or with the seasons and related aspects do take a look here.

15.02.19


A Form of Violence? Some climate scientists still struggle to cope with people who disagree. So some time back, Cliff Mass – a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington as well as a radio weatherman – decided to write something about the wildfires in California, and in particular, the question of whether climate change had played a role. At the end of a long analysis of climatological trends in the area, he drew his conclusions:

Was Global Warming A Significant Factor in California's Camp Fire? "The Answer is Clearly No". [See full article here]

Now take a look at some of the replies! And you thought scientists were logical?
02.12.18


Reality finally dawns about urban warming! Now actually verified by NOAA (the  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the USA).  Poor weather station siting leads to artificial long term warming.  How long has it taken to get to this point?  But here we really are - let all real scientists rejoice. All the links are here.
See "Impacts of Small-Scale Urban Encroachment on Air Temperature Observations", Ronald D. Leeper, John Kochendorfer, Timothy Henderson, and Michael A. Palecki HERE

06.05.19

Does the NY Times really hide the truth about warming? Is this interesting analysis of how the New York Times reports temperature changes since the 1960s really as fraudulent as this article suggests? Then see this about other possible frauds.
[More too at this link about climate warming].
17.11.18

Mike Shaw's Web Site has sadly been discontinued but some of Mike's excellent contributions to dialling can still be found elsewhere on the Internet.  One such is his 'Really Useful Device', a slide presentation showing ways in which you may construct a Diallist's Companion for your own location.  The presentation is clear and well worth looking at. It may still be found for download as a PDF (12.5MB) at https://nanopdf.com/download/udc_pdf
Then click on the Orange button in the upper left of the screen marked "DOWNLOAD PDF (12.3MB)". The file will then be downloaded to your PC. Get it whilst you can!!

19.08.18

 Jim Tallman's Artisan Sundials page is well worth a look.

Artisan sundials are specially designed and constructed to provide accuracy as well as a genuine sense of presence in time and space. They are authentic scientific instruments that are carefully constructed and capable of telling very accurate time.
There's more here


14.07.18

Jay Campbell's New Dial Have a look at Jay Campbell's new sundial in New Mexico USA. It (like his accompanying website) is just nearing completion but there will be an article about it in the December issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, available in late October.

See more about this venture
01.10.18


 Have you ever purchased a delightful sun dial for your garden, but found it does not work? No problem". That is the encouraging beginning of an excellent article in PDF format  that discusses how to take a store bought dial and then adjust it so it will work for you. Entitled "REVERSE ENGINEERING STORE-BOUGHT GENERIC DIALS" It is just one extract from the fascinating book "ILLUSTRATING TIME'S SHADOW" by Simon Wheaton-Smith whose website (already mentioned elsewhere on this page) is an incredible resource for all diallists.
20.07.18

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration of America (NOAA) is well known for its research into greenhouse gas and carbon cycle feedbacks, changes in clouds, aerosols, surface radiation, and recovery of stratospheric ozone. In Sept 2018 it released a report claiming that the summer of 2018 was the fourth hottest on record in the US, and it went on to claim that this summer was just as hot as 1934. Yet, when this claim is examined it turns out that it may not be correct. Listen to a US scientist's analysis of this and read about some of Heller's other concerns about climate science misinformation today. Form your own opinion.
15.09.18

Things to See and Do!


Kevin Karney's website  As well as Kevin's earlier site here which provides a wide variety of data for those interested in sundials and solar parameters, a 2018 site  here  is now up and includes three sections:
- The Equation of Time - 8 pages.
- Sundials that are (or can be) Equation corrected - 8 pages
- Mechanical Means to Simulate the EoT - 6 pages. 
Well worth a look!
9.9.18, 22.04.20

An On-line Sundial Register. There's an interesting browse to be had of  the Sundial Website that is operated by Dennis Cowan of Fife.  As well as giving an excellent introduction to the sundials of Scotland, the site includes a 92 page Sundial Register of dials known to him, (not just those in Scotland), five sundial trails, several safaris and seven articles about dials and dialling. A really excellent site.




Image used with permission

Have a look at Karen's Page!  Want to make a sundial and compass from your own fingers, a sundial and compass from an embroidery hoop. an origami sundial wristwatch. a horizontal sundial using only compass, straight edge and protractor or use your hand as a nocturnal or even make a Universal Capuchin sundial? This is the place to come!
29.08.18

SunInfo's Archive Pages. This, our main page, gets larger and larger as time goes by and of course the page would get slower to load. However, many of the stories, comments and information in it are still of interest even though they may not be recent.  Accordingly we archive most of the older entries so that little or nothing is permanently lost.  Our Archive Page 1 and, from 2018, our Archive Page 2 are available!!  Have a browse of them for yourself.
04.05.15, 15.07.17, 06.05.18,23.09.18

Interesting News, Articles & Links


A visit to Windsor.. In 1998 Jane Walker and her husband Peter found an interesting booklet that led them to a viewing of the late Queen's Dial in Windsor Castle.  The dial stands on the North Terrace with the Monarch's private garden to one side and a splendid view over the town of Windsor to the playing fields of Eton on the other. The gnomon is beautifully engraved and carries the King's monogram of the time "CR" intertwined so that the initials can be read from either side.  Read all about Jane's experience
25.06.18

Peter Daykin's Derbyshire Sundials Page is well worth a visit - not least because it includes such examples as a cross dial and of course the famous Eyam Dial.  The website includes details of many Derbyshire dials and even includes three sundial calculators. On almost every page there is a description of the location as well as of the dial. A delight to peruse.

You can get to this excellent page Here
16.05.18


Interested in browsing our library or our archives? Our extensive library of Dialling Documents and related material is HERE. It is regularly extended. 

ALSO our earlier stories and News Items up to 2017 are Archived HERE   and, from 2018 onwards HERE. In both archives entries are stored 'earliest-deleted' at the top, 'most-recently' deleted at the bottom. We hope you enjoy them.
06.08.15, 13.10.17, 06.03.18, 06.06.18


Some Complications of Dial Refurbishment as considered prior to the restoration of the Queens' College dial in 2006/7. This is an interesting document which is well worth a read by those facing similar problems! Includes the oldest known photograph of the dial and consideration of the several issues that remained after the previous repainting in 1971.

To read more click the image or here: The Queens' Dial or to read Charles Aked's 1994 article on the dial go HERE.

09.06.18, 08.04.2023

Andrew Somerville's Interesting Letter of 1986 concerning the Queens' College Sundial in Cambridge was published in the BSS Bulletin in 1997 and those with an interest in dialling might like to read it again. One matter concerned the marking of the dial with the word Longitudo and whether or not there was an error in the dial's markings. Andrew was of course the first Chairman of the Society and this correspondence was dated 1986 only a few years after the Society's formation. Read the correspondence here
05.08.17

The John Churchill Collection! SunInfo is delighted to be able to present a collection of just some of the photographs of dials that former BSS Trustee John Churchill and his wife took during his lifetime.  They represent an eclectic selection of his interests and as well of course, a valuable and lasting record of the condition of the dials up to the time of the millennium. 

 

Click to be taken to the John Churchill page.
 

**More images by John C hurchill now added**

14.08.15, 14.03.17, 02.04.17


The Dial of William Hughes of Bryngola. In what can only be described as a tour de force of investigation, John Davis recently studied a dial dated 1775 which was made for William Hughes of Bryngola in Llangwyllog, a small village and ancient parish in the centre of Anglesey, Wales. The church of St Cwyllog (illustrated) still bears memorials to the family to this day. John deduces that the elaborately engraved dial may have been made for Hughes by one of the Owen dynasty of clockmakers perhaps using components from the clockmaking area around Prescot in Lancashire.  A fascinating BSS article which may be read at John's website at this link Dial of William Hughes.
1.11.17

A lovely selection of Italian sundials Here is a link to a whole load of images of Italian sundials that have been taken by photographer Darek Oczki in the areas of Umbria, South Tuscany and Rome between August 2010 and September 2018.  Some (under the Activity sidebar) are earlier.

Well worth a look! "Zegary słoneczne Italii"
 Check these out here.

26.09.18


Great Circle was thought to be back!! Those diallists who liked to rely on Great Circle Studio's solar data calculator to obtain or print off a table of solar parameters at any time interval have recently been troubled by its apparent absence. Then it was thought to be found at Great Circle Studio Solar Data . However, it does not 'work', the server side links are not established.  But, after contact, the website owner claimed to be 'on the case'. In the meantime you could try MIDC SPA  Calculator (max intervals of one hour) or Sun Ephemeris,
13.10.17, 15.10.17, 18.10.17

The Sundials at New College Oxford. In an interesting article Harriet James describes the dials that have existed at New College Oxford - the college that was 'new' in 1379 - and gives an interesting insight to her replacement of one that was on the Muniment Tower in 1696. 

Read the text of Harriet James' BSS Article in 2000 to know more about the Sundials of New College past and present.
20.10.16


 BSS Member Ian Maddocks really started something by finding a whole load more dials that were apparently then unknown to BSS!  In two messages to the International Sundial Mail List he announced his discovery that Twitter® and Instagram® contain many mentions of UK dials that are not recorded in the most recently published BSS Register of Dials - though of course some may be held on file by the Society's Registrar ready to be published next time.  Whatever, this is excellent news for all those interested in dialling. Not only that but Ian has combined a list of these on his Google drive.  They may be viewed here.  There is also a 'map' of their locations here.
Now with Graham Stapleton's help he has added even to this amazing number and with pics too
here.

12.09.16, 22.11.16


Newton's Sundial Courtesy of Ian Maddocks and the Objectivity YouTube channel we are able to see a short video clip which, after half way, shows one of the stone dials scratched by Isaac Newton into the walls of his home.  Click on the image for a larger picture,  Here to see the video and Here to see the record document of items like this from Newton's home.
27.04.16

The Mass Dials of Gloucestershire. Tony Wood, in a reprint from Gloucestershire History No. 21 (2007) pages 16-22, describes the many mass dials of Gloucestershire. Mass dials, or scratch dials, are mediaeval sundials found on churches. Chronologically they appear after Saxon dials (c650 — c1050) and before the present day's ‘scientific’ dials,
which have  a sloping gnomon, which appeared in the 16th century but which only came to some rural areas in the mid 17th century.
Read Tony's article here

01.05.17

The increasing importance of European Mass Dials

The growing interest in mass dials in continental Europe is evidenced by a flow of reports and photographs. BSS of course has quite enough to do without compiling registers of overseas dials but the reports are filed and available for comparison with dial types and locations recorded in Europe.

Here Tony Wood reflects on the similarities and origins of mass dials in the British Isles and Europe.


 Astrolabes, Cross Staffs and Dials. Way back in 1992, Peter Ransom, later to be elected President of the Mathematical Association, published a fascinating article  extolling the use of old scientific instruments when teaching geometry in schools. His article makes wonderful reading and gives the background to (and the use of) the Cross Staff, a Horizontal Sundial and even a quadrant.  Click here for a link to this article.  NB Free  registration to MyJStor allows free on line reading of this article.  A small charge is required to download and keep the whole article.

18.11.15


Mystery of a Missing Dial. Way back in September 1992 super-sleuth John Ingram spotted this unusual and it is believed, unique, dial where steps on a triangular block were used to tell the time.  When he returned in 2004 to York Rd on the South Bank in London to record it for the BSS Register, it was missing! Enquiries of the Council were all to no avail.  Was it stolen or was it lost in the then recent Jubilee Line Tube works? Click on the image for a wider view. The telegraph pole in the middle right of the larger image is said to mark the place where the Festival of Britain Skylon stood in 1951.  Anybody able to tell us more about it, its designer and who made it?  Replies to the Webmaster please. Photo courtesy of J Ingram.
01.12.15

SunInfo opens a New Page! - listing the HUGE bibliography of BSS President Christopher St JH Daniel MBE.  Listed here are his published articles, the full list of his many contributions to Clocks Magazine and even a summary of the sales of his extraordinarily popular Shire Publications book 'Sundials'.  We are delighted to be able to provide as an academic resource the incredible output of the UK's foremost Diallist.

Have a look at Illustrating Shadows.  The website of Simon Wheaton-Smith is an excellent dialling resource with lots of downloads, presentations, dial designs etc. Most free and all well worth a look.  You can access it here.

The Sundial Removed?  Here Harriet James tells the story of the 'Simmons Bequest' that threw up the idea that the huge dial in All Souls College Oxford might be returned to its earlier place in the College. The early history of the dial is here, Christopher Wren and William Oughtred both make an appearance and all is followed by the final decision by the College. Read the BSS Bulletin article dated 2006 for yourself here [C-466/12].
14.07.16

 Sundials to see. A new venture for SunInfoHere is a changing section of dials that are worth visiting. 

This time it is the Millennium Dial in Greenwich Park in London.  It was designed by BSS President Chris Daniel.

Click on the picture for a larger image


BSS 2016 Accounts finally available. Owing to what is presumed to have been an administrative problem at the Charity Commission, anyone wishing to see the 2016 accounts for the British Sundial Society had not been able to view them on the Commission's website - only the Trustees' Report was initially available. Both may be now viewed at the link above (courtesy of the CC) or at the Commission's website. The latest accounts show a welcome profit after the earlier years of worrying losses.
11.07.17

Want a little card to carry with you to help you check a sundial's displayed time against your watch at ANY Longitude or Latitude in the British Isles?  Hurry if you want one of the few remaining printed versions...

 

Click the picture for more details!

Click to download the Estimator


Why not get The Recorder's Reference? It provides anyone interested in dialling with a way to estimate by how much a non-direct-south vertical dial declines and also finds the design latitude for any horizontal dial. 

Click the picture for more details!


Hans Holbein the Younger's 1533 painting of The Ambassadors is available to view at the National Gallery in London. However it is also available on Google's Art Project and at astonishing resolution too - probably better than even if you were looking at the original!  It shows all sorts of early dialling instruments as well as the famous anamorphosis.  Can you identify the instruments?  Check it out here. Papers discussing the instruments can be read for free on line here (1962) or here (1999)

04.05.13


Check out Three New Additions made to SunInfo's Historical Document Archive.  They are the complete Bibliography of BSS President Christopher Daniel's written works, including sales figures for his Shire Publications Book 'Sundials', details of all seventeen of his Restoration Projects undertaken up to 2010 and a list of all his Dialling Commissions
11.11.14

Yvon Massé's program Calcad has been updated. Calcad is an easy way to draw sundials without knowing declination, inclination or even the geographical coordinates!...  The Freeware program runs on Windows, GNU/Linux and Mac OS X.  Download it  here.  The instruction manual can be perused here
Image used with permission. 07.10.14

Lost Dials of the UK. A new feature has been instituted here on SunInfo to present some examples of interesting but now lost UK sundials, starting with the one at the Mansion at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. Check them out here.


Design of a TRIPLE Horizontal dial for California by John Davis, more information and details of how it was etched  Here


 Smiling Sundials. Pareidolia or what?  Here are two dials that seem to be smiling! They are both in Germany.  The first  is in Dörnthal, Sachsen and pareidoliathe second in Nuremberg.

How many more do you know?


A NEW Sundial Data Resource has been developed by Kevin Karney. Available here the page provides a wide variety of data for those interested in sundials and solar parameters.  The latest addition is to provide a high precision calculator for the Equation of Time and the sun's position.  However the page also contains links to dial designs of his own and to animations of dial shadows.  Well worth a look!
13.06.14

 Did you know? An astonishing number of pictures of sundials and their pedestals can be found by searching Google®.  Try looking here for one amazing collection. Here you can see both sides of a rare Melvin dial, a few other very old dials, some heliochronometers, modern dials and of course some non-working 'garden centre' dials as well. Well worth a look.
09.10.13

Want to know something about Sundials in the Southern hemisphere? Then there's no better introduction than the web site of the company Sundials Australia, owned and run by  physicists and BSS Members, Margaret Folkard and John Ward.
19.12.13

Sundials of New Zealand. Rosaleen Robertson runs the Sundial Association of New Zealand and also operates a Sundials Blog, (sundials-rosaleen.blogspot.com) which shows some of the sundials and sundial Trails in New Zealand.  Worth a look. A list of web addresses relating to the NZ Sundial Association is Here

04.02.14


Want to know more about sundials? Then there is no better place to learn about all aspects of the topic than from Wikipedia!  Click here to see this important article.

Then and Now... A NEW page has been started here on SunInfo to show some of our sundials as they were long ago and as they are now.  The first entry is the unusual dial at Warwick Castle - a dial which on the face of it looks unfinished to our eyes because it has no numerals.  Yet a 1912 drawing of it shows that it possibly never had!  The second in this series concerns the famous Countess's Pillar, the  third concerns a moved dial in Rye and the fourth the Pilkington & Gibbs dial at Thornton Manor.  Have a look here to see for yourself and keep coming back to see what other dials have been added as we explore more of these interesting sundials of the UK.  Then and Now

07.11.13, 13.11.13, 24.12.13


Interested in Sundials?  Then make sure you join BSS.  Why should you join the British Sundial Society when there is so much information available for free on the Internet these days?
Look here for
seventeen reasons why you should join BSS

The James River Studio website includes a section on sundials and more particularly includes some excellent sundial design software which is easy to use and understand.
It can be downloaded to your computer or run from the website, it covers the usual horizontal/vertical options but also includes analemmatic, bifilar and cylindrical all with easy to understand notes and even (if you want them) the formulae too.  Have a look
here

The Sundials of Norway. There are not very many known sundials in Norway but those that do exist are well worth looking at.  Click here:  ►Norway's Dials

Sun Spot Pointers.  Sun Spot Pointers is a  sundial related Blog operated by Perry Millward.  Glance through this for interesting new information about Sundials of the World. 24.02.14

The Sundials of Country Life Magazine. Why not take a tour from your armchair of all six pages (well, five and a bit!) of the sundial photographs that are in the Picture Library of Country Life? Some may not even be in the BSS Register! The Elihu Yale dial of Glemham Hall is there in 1910 though!  Have a look here.

Sundial Societies, Groups and Websites of the World. Click here for a list of many Sundial related sites, their web addresses, when they were founded and their popularity.
24.02.14

Make your own paper sundial. Fabio Savian's collection of 13 amazing designs for paper sundials is now available to all. He has designed several but others like Valentin Hristove and the North American Sundial Society have also contributed designs to this excellent Sundial Atlas project. Just have a look here ! There's even a design for a solar compass.

Or you can go back to this 2004 BBC page for Norfolk Children.  It too tells how to make a paper sundial. It will work for most of England though you will need to correct the reading a little if you want to measure clock time.


Francis Barker's Instructions for Setting a Dial. Francis Barker of Clerkenwell was an important dial maker at the start of the 20th Century.  In 1914 he contributed a chapter about setting up a dial to Geoffrey Henslow's Book:  'Ye Sundial Booke', 1914.  This chapter makes interesting reading. 
See it
here

Edward R Martin's Mass Dial Database was compiled by him over many years using an early computer and specialist software written by his son.  In fact all the data was at one time thought to be lost following a computer failure not long before Edward died. In 2002 the factual detail of the database - though sadly not his novel customised dial diagrams - were eventually recovered for him in 2002 by Patrick Powers but, after his death, amazingly were again mislaid until now. This database of some 1000 mass dials includes some details that are not now recorded even in the BSS Mass Dial Register.  A guide to Edward's novel codes for the locations of the dials on the church is included.
The recovered file (in PDF format) may be viewed
here
NB An Excel version (3.3MB) may be obtained upon application to the webmaster.

A Day out with Edward Martin and Mass Dials. A rare record of a day which CLIVE FEWINS of the Independent spent  with the late Edward Martin. It was on Saturday 20 July 1996, when they looked at the marvellous mass dials on St Peter's Church in Hanwell near Banbury.  Click HERE to read it.
14.08.15

Spot dials from your Armchair! Courtesy of Google Street View® have a look at some dials that can be seen on it.  Keep coming to look at what's new!  Just click on this link. Over twenty now recorded. One of the dials to be added is BSS Trustee David Brown's Olympic sundial.  St Botolph's Church double dial in Cambridge is another.

When next in Northern Ireland why not visit the sundials of Carnfunnock Country Park's Time Garden on the coast road near Larne, Co Antrim, NI.  See what's there here. (New replacement link)

10 Reasons to revisit a Registered Dial. Many BSS Members send in reports of dials to the Registrar for inclusion in the National Register. Although at first glance it might not seem to be necessary to revisit an already recorded dial, this is not the case since repeated visits over time provide a record of a dial's changing condition and also can provide more information about the dial than might have been noticed earlier.  In October 2007, BSS Member John Ingram sent in his amusing and rather 'tongue in cheek' list of ten reasons for revisiting a dial.  Read them here.

The Official Opening of the Brighton Emmaus Community analemmatic sundial was conducted by Dr. Robert Smith (University of Sussex) on Saturday, June 29th 2013  at the Emmaus Open Day by uncovering the midday-stone at 1 p.m. Sir Patrick Moore recorded the following instruction last September to be played at the opening ceremony. “Congratulations, Here we go! Uncover the Midday Stone.”
09.05.14

Might you be able to help BSS?
Click to see

Contact the Secretary if so


The Sundial at All Saints' Church in Isleworth has now been restored.  Installation took place during Saturday 25th May 2013 and the sun actually shone for the occasion! A picture* of it complete, but just before installation is here.  As well as the ordinary problems associated with any dial restoration this one had a few more!  Some initial information can be seen here.  and for BSS Members an article about the restoration is in the June 2014 edition of the BSS Bulletin.  Alternatively, a copy of the same article may be read by everyone here.

*Perspective slightly adjusted in view of the difficulty of photographing such a large object indoors!

10.01.13, 06.02.13, 09.05.13, 29.05.13, 17.06.14


Want to learn a bit about sundials? Here are a few slides that have been taken from a presentation given recently to a UK Probus Group.  (2MB PDF download)

Click on the title: "But it's Wrong!"


Key facts about BSS.  Here are details of the Society, the members of its Council and its erratic management, its appointed and excellent Specialists, how to access its website and its Facebook page, how (and why!) to join the Society, how to send payments to BSS via credit card or PayPal and many recent annual accounts.  In fact more or less everything you need to know about BSS is here - sometimes even warts and all! There's even help for BSS Members who may like to understand the background to some of the worrying oddities in today's management of the Society. [ A Disquieting Anniversary] [A Disquieting Delay] [Now the Disquieting Book Dispute!]
 
Interested to have access to more information about the operation of BSS?  Then why not go to our private BSS  Members page. [Password access available upon prior registration with the webmaster].

The National Trust and the 'Housewife's Trick'?

The garden at the wonderful Wisbech property, 'Peckover House' is especially lovely at this time of year. Not only that but there is a sundial just outside the greenhouse which greatly enhances that part of the garden.  Odd therefore that when these images were taken - it was at 09:21 GMT in March - the dial was showing just over 10:30!

Surely the NT has not succumbed to AP Herbert's rather unfairly named 'Housewifes' Trick' whereby a sundial is turned so as to indicate summer time? Given its age and the extent of corrosion present it's hard to read this dial exactly and thereby to work out just how much the dial has been turned but, despite every diallist's 'horror' at such a practice, it has to be said that in summer, in the middle part of the day and at the latitude of the UK it is not quite so inaccurate as one might think. At least it might help to prevent the frequent comment made by members of the public when checking a sundial with a watch, of 'It's wrong'. So maybe the misjudged housewife has done us a service after all?
02.04.17


A Courtesy for Meridian Line users provided free by Spot On Sundials! The original brass Spot-On Sundial was designed by Piers Nicholson and introduced to the market in 2001. Since then, more than 900 customers all over the world have bought them as presents for big occasions or simply for their own pleasure. To help enable the set up of any dial Piers also produced a very handy web based Time of Noon calculator Here.  It's also useful as a free resource when predicting when the image of the sun will pass any meridian line in the world!   The table produced Here shows the local clock times (CET) for solar Noon every day of the year for the meridian line in the Basilica S. Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome which is at 41.9031N, 12.4969E. Just add one hour when your sighting is during summer when CEST applies.  Neat.
11.10.17 [Published with permission P Nicholson]

 A chance to read about Seasonal Markers for Analemmatic Sundials. In 2006 Roger Bailey published his article on Seasonal Markers for Analemmatic Sundials. Written to answer questions such as “Can a sundial be used to follow the sun through the seasons?” or
"Is there a point in an analemmatic sundial that can be used with the Zodiac date line to show where the sun rises?”.  The answer is of course Yes! 
Read Roger's account in this link to his own website

24.07.18 [EU C-466/12]

A Tale of Two Dials Our picture here shows the very famous dial at Queens' College Qheens' College DialCambridge, but there was once a very similar look-alike in Copenhagen; so similar that a natural question arises as to whether one influenced the other, or whether they are both descended from some common ancestor.
It is not known who designed the look-alike dial design but it is currently attributed to Christen Sřrensen Longomontanus (1562–1647), a pupil of Tycho Brahe, who became professor of mathematics in the University of Copenhagen in 1607.
Click the image here to read more about the Old Court Dial in Cambridge and then turn to read about the Copenhagen look-alike!

To read Charles Aked's 1994 BSS article about this dial click HERE.

30.10.20, 08.04.2023


Sundial New


The Moat Garden Dial of Windsor Castle The Moat Garden is found in what Windsor moatremains of the ditch that encircled the Round Tower, created when the Normans built the steep motte with its keep on top. The keep was rebuilt in stone in 1180 by Henry II and was known as the ‘Great Tower’. The moat was dry and wild plants took hold of it. In 1319 it is recorded that five women were paid a penny a day to cut the nettles. By the end of the seventeenth century there is evidence the mound was being cultivated, and by the eighteenth century part of the ditch was in use as a pleasure garden. The Moat Garden as we know it today is largely the creation of General Sir Dighton Probyn, who lived in Norman Tower from 1901 to 1922. Sir Dighton was Keeper of the Privy Purse to King Edward VII and he introduced terraces to the top part of the steep slopes, the lower slopes laid to grass. The problem of planting on the steep site was overcome with a network of paths and steps. The garden continues to evolve under each occupant, and there have been new additions, such as the pond that occupies the south western part of the ditch, created in 1993 to cover over the base of a crane used during the structural works on the Round Tower. Click the thumbnail to see the garden or HERE for a close up of the armillary sphere itself.
.16.03.2024   Images © VL Thomson

The Dial on St George's Chapel Windsor St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in Windsor  ChapelEngland is a castle chapel built in the late-medićval Perpendicular Gothic style. The Chapel is a Royal Peculiar, and is the Chapel of the Order of the Garter. St George's Chapel was founded in the 14th century by King Edward III and extensively enlarged in the late 15th century. It is located in the Lower Ward of the castle and has belonged to the Monarchy for almost 1,000 years.

The sundial on the lady chapel is a classic vertical declining sundial carved into the South face and declining about 14° from South. It is a morning dial, showing more morning hours than afternoon ones. The dial shows 6am to 5pm divided into half and quarter hours. Hour lines, numerals etc are painted black. The bronze gnomon with its S-shaped supporter has the date 1723 below and to the left of its root while on its right is a way of completing the words  Anno Domini.. It is recorded in the National Register as SRN7423. Click on the thumbnail for a larger image of this lovely dial.
09.03.2024   Image VL Thomson

St Cybi's Church Dial, Anglesey. St Cybi's Church is a medićval church near the Roman Caer Gybi in Holyhead, Anglesey, in N. Wales. It is Grade I listed. The original Angleseychurch was constructed at Holyhead around 540 AD by St Cybi, a cousin of St David. The church was sacked by Viking invaders in the 10th century and damaged again in 1405 by Henry IV's invading forces. The present church was built in the 13th century and stands near the Roman fort in Holyhead.
On the south face of the south transept is a sundial dated to 1813 on which is the inscription “Yr hoedl ar hyd ei haros a dderfydd yn nydd ac yn nos” which translates as “Life though (however) long it stay(s) will end in night and day”.  Click on the thumbnail here (or HERE) to see a larger image.
04.03.2024

The Dial at Bedford School There is an unusual fabricated sundial of what might be called an 'Open Construction' which is sited over a circular window at Bedford SchoolBedford School, in  Bedford. Some 6ft in diameter it is a great decliner dial that declines substantially West but manages to mark the solar hours and half hours from 1 to 9 pm with the 1pm line being pleasingly outside the circular dial arrangement and, as with most great decliners, with the gnomon root being off scale.. Sadly the 8pm line has been damaged at some time. Other solar system decoration is then arranged around the periphery. It is recorded in the National Register as SRN2268. Click the thumbnail or HERE to see an excellent internet image.
22.02.2024

The Dial At St Mary's Church, Norton, in County Durham.  St Mary's is an ancient Norton on Teesparish church founded way back in 1020 and located on the village green of Norton on Tees. It is the only cruciform Anglo-Saxon church in Northern England and it is a Grade I listed building. It is known for its grave of John Walker, the inventor of friction matches, who is buried in the churchyard. There is a Vertical East Declining Sundial at this church above the South door which is not mentioned at all in the Historic England listing though its location is identified by an arrow on their diagrammatic map.

The dial is however mentioned in the National Register of extant UK sundials but this wrongly states that the dial's date is written vertically down the RHS when it is not. The numerals at the right hand side are in reality the dial's afternoon hour numerals. There is a name at the top of the dial - perhaps of the maker - but oddly for a UK Grade I Listed Builing no attempt has been made to identify this.

The National Record of dials has a photo of this rather dirty and neglected dial  The dial is not of course of the age of the church and, whilst well cared isn't of real note. Click on the thumbnail or HERE to see more.
16.02.2024

The Odd 'Mausoleum Dial' of Rome There is an odd relatively recent scratched Dial in Romedial, high on a parapet of the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome. Currently a museum, it is a towering rotunda in the Parco Adriano there.. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family and the structure was once the tallest building in Rome.

The tomb was erected on the right bank of the Tiber, between AD 134 and 139. Originally it was a decorated cylinder, with a garden top and golden quadriga. Hadrian's ashes were placed here a year after his death in Baiae in 138, together with those of his wife Sabina, and his first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, who died in 138.

However in the topmost room of this manificent tower there is a three-window parapet on which lies a rather more modern scratched sundial - sadly without its gnomon - but which is far more modern and advanced than any scratch dials to be seen in the UK or in Brittany which of course are mostly medićval. It even shows solstice and other date lines. Whoever constructed this and when and, since it is so hard to reach, why? Perhaps it was needed for clock/bell ringing timing?  Click on the thumbnail or HERE to see a larger version.
11.02.2024   © VL Thomson

The Tyntesfield House Dial This dial is approximately 15 ins in diameter. Currently Tyntesfield dialsuspected to have been made by Walter F Cave, he who designed Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee garden and orangery. The dial clearly replaces a much larger sized dial-now thought lost. However this replacement is certainly impressive and well engraved. Its motto is an Edwardian favourite: "Let others tell of storms and showers, I'll only count your sunny hours".
Numerals are read from the inside of the dialplate and are lined up with the hour lines with noon marked as XII and 4pm as IIII. However and oddly, there is no noon gap. Some of the spacing of the 5 minute marks also appear rather random and therefore were possibly manually engraved but the compass points are shown carefully engraved.

The dial is mounted on an octagonal stone plinth. Its 'difficult' inscription reads: I AM A SHADE A SHADOW TOO ART THOU I MARK THE TIME SAY GOSSIP DOST THOU SO? [This believed to be from a verse by Henry Austin Dobson]. It is suspected that the carved lettering uses the same character set as found on architectural drawings by W F Cave - the suspected designer.
Click on the thumbnail image here or HERE to see a larger view.
27.01.2024   © VL Thomson

The Church of St Anne, Over Haddon A 1980 slate sundial by David Kindersley is located at the far end of the church on the South wall of the chancel and is Over Haddonapproximately 2ft wide x 2ft 6ins high. The inscription by - George Herbert reads:

“Teach me Thy love to know: That this new light, which now I see.
May both the work and workman show: Then by a sunne-beam I will climbe to Thee.”

The dial takes the form of a shaped dialplate of the breakarch style with an inset circular dial scale. Dial furniture is gilded with a sunburst at the origin. The dial shows 7am to 6pm in both half and quarter hours. The dial's dedcation is to ‘Janet’ (Wadsworth) 1931-74 a local parish councillor. A very pleasing Derbyshire sundial.  Click on the thumbnail or HERE to see a larger image.
20.01.2024

The King's House Sundial The King's House at Thetford was constructed sometime between 1756 and 1782. Mid 18th century descriptions of the house King's Houseindicate that it incorporates part of a hunting lodge that had been acquired by James I in 1609. The house was once a Royal Mint, and was afterwards occupied by Queen Elizabeth I and James I successively. In 1950, the building was converted to municipal offices.

This pleasing dial is approximately 5 ft off/square, it declines over 60 degrees to the East and is positioned on the East face of a chimney which itself is at the East end of the house. The Motto reads ‘Festina Nox Mox’ which roughly translates as Hasten, the Night (cometh) soon.  Click on the thumbnail image or HERE to see a larger version.
13.01.2024

The Saskatchewan Observatory Dial  For five decades, a large vertical Ssakatchewan Dialsundial, unusually mounted at roughly head-height outside the University of Saskatchewan's Observatory displayed this motto: “I am a Shadow, So art thou, I mark Time, Dost thou?”
Over time it became weathered and despite an attempted restoration in 1984 it was finally removed altogether in the early 1990s.
A long time after - in August 2019 - a new 10-foot-tall sundial was installed in the same place at the observatory. The replacement is a replica of the old one and features the original gnomon. Astronomy lecturer Dr. Daryl Janzen led the project to replace the dial. He had said he wanted to see the instrument return since first hearing about it as a student in the early 2000s, rightly saying that a sundial is a feature that draws people’s attention to the movement of the Earth.

The original custom-made sundial had been designed and paid for by Professor William H. White around 1945. White came to Saskatoon in 1942 to be near an observatory where he could pursue his hobby of astronomy. A classical scholar as well as a physicist, White was known for leaving students detailed comments — often written in Latin. The new sundial differs from the previous versions in one key way. Instead of wood, it is made from powder-coated aluminum.  Click the thumbnail or HERE to see another view.
06.01.2024

The 'Hard-to-Find' Dial at Campden Farmhouse! Campden Farmhouse Campdenis  a Grade II Listed Building in Barton-on-the-Heath in Warwickshire.  The dial is virtually invisible to passers-by since it is mounted on the gable end of an outbuilding and faces away from any road. It is mounted high on this end-gable  wall, and it declines East showing hour lines from 7am to 4pm in Roman numerals.  It has been dated to around the mid 18thC though Inigo Jones is thought to have been involved with the nearby manor in the mid 1600s. Well worth a look - if you can ever get to see it!  Click on the thumbnail on this page or HERE for a closer view.

29.12.20123

UK Garden Heritage's latest Blog Post is now published, appropriately at the time of the Winter Solstice.  It covers the subject of Sundials for those many Our Heritagepeople who are interested in all aspects of Garden Heritage and also for those Diallists interested in a bit of history!   There's even a link to the discovery of a tree -shaded dial in Buckingham Palace Gardens. Now of course corrected (by BSS). Well worth a look.
Click the thumbnail image or here to go to the Blog and do consider following Garden Heritage for yourself from now on.

22.12.2023 Courtesy Garden Heritage 2023.

The Dial of Styal On a private house in Styal, Cheshire there is an interesting Vertcal Declining Dial.  Measuring approximately 13 x 18 inches , it declines considerably to the West Styaland has some really quite fascinating 'furniture'.  Notably there is an unusual motto and alongside this a shield comprising a coat of arms, a crown, a tree, a sword and even 3 stylised tridents!

The motto, in a mixture of German and English reads "Ein Doe and Spare Not". This is a modified version of the original arms of McGregor. A George III oak shield with the Arms of McGregor and  a version of the original ‘Ein Doe And Spair Not’.

The Arms of McGregor may be described thus:  The oak tree represents the 12th century legend of Sir Malcolm Macgregor of Glenorchy and how he saved the King’s life. Sir Malcolm was an attendant during the King’s hunting party. During the hunt, the King was attacked by a wild boar. Sir Malcolm recognised the danger and asked if he could assist. The King replied ‘E’en do bait spair nocht’ ‘In what you do, spare nothing’. Sir Malcolm came to his aid and uprooted an oak sapling which he used to repel the boar. The King gave Sir Malcolm permission to use the oak tree in his crest in place of the fir or pine tree formerly used, and the King’s words were adopted thereafter as a clan motto. The sword is a symbol of the clan’s valour in battle, and the crown represents the clan’s royal origins.  Click on the thumbnail or HERE for a larger image.
17.12.2023

The Dial at Westmill Westmill is a village and civil parish in East Hertfordshire, Westmillhaving an area of some 2500 acres. A population of 264 was recorded in the 2001 National Census. The village is just to the south of Buntingford, beside the River Rib. There on a private house is a lovely dial which is mounted in the gable end of the house above a first floor window overlooking the village green. It is canted out at the right hand side on a moulded shelf, and protected by a small gable roof. The rectangular dial plate has an upper pediment enclosing a winged hourglass.

The dial itself is oval in shape with winged cherub heads in the four spandrels. Above the gnomon is the motto ‘DVM SPECTAS FVGIO’, (As you watch, I flee) and the date is given as MDCCXCIII. Click the thumbnails to see larger images.

Westmill DesignSadly it can be seen that the dial is not quite numbered properly - the marked 6am 6pm line is not horizontal as it should be. The National Register however still indicates it is as a Vertical (S) dial. A line calculation of the correct dial layout for this latitude is given HERE. The horizontal is the correct 6am/6pm line.

08.12.2023

The Dial at All Saints Church, Llangorwen. Here the sundial is near the porch, on Llangorwenthe south east buttress. It is a Direct South dial by John Morgan dated 1858 with an iron gnomon.  The church was built in sandstone to the Early English style of nave and chancel with careful buttressing and string coursing all beneath steeply pitched slate roofs. It is an early example of the close collaboration between Gothic architecture and the revival of Anglican worship. the stone altar was the first one in Wales since the Reformation. Members of the Oxford Movement took a close interest in the church.  Click the thumbnail or HERE for a larger version.
03.12.2023

The Dial on the Church of King Charles The Martyr In the 1670s, Tunbridge TunbridgeWells had few permanent structures when it started to receive visits from members of the English Royal Family. The church was built on land belonging to Viscountess Purbeck as a 'Chapel of Ease' for those visiting The Pantiles and was opened in 1676 after being constructed by Thomas Neale. It was dedicated to King Charles the Martyr - the cult of Charles I, who was executed in 1649 and whose son Charles II had been restored as the monarch in 1660. While it was a Chapel of Ease, it served the parishes of Frant, Speldhurst and Tonbridge.  A well known dial, declining about 30 deg west, and kept in good condition. It was purchased by the church in 1771 in order to regulate the clock. The motto reads ‘Ye may waste but cannot stop me’. There is an unusual stirrup support to the gnomon. Click the thumbnail or HERE to see a larger image
27.11.2023

French artist and designer Pierre Brault's designs Another - often Franglais Brault Dialbased - of these POP SUNDIAL art displays that are taking over some buildings in Parisian city streets, Pierre recreates remarkable variations of sundials to mark the natural rhythm and time of day at every hour. As the sun progresses in its position in the sky, the installations begin projecting changing, multicoloured dials, intended as ‘an invitation to appreciate the present moment.’

Not only that but, the artist reinterprets latin mottos as the names for his projects, assigning them titles for each sundial variation: SOL REGIT OMNIA (the sun rules over everything), DO SI SOL (I give if the sun gives), and SINE MOTU CURRO (Immobile, however I run). Surely a novel approach to street scene art?  Click on the image for a clip of the changing views (turn off sound if necessary!!)
17.11.2023

The Dial at the Parish Church of St James the Greater, Abson.
Abson ChurchAbson village church is South of the M4 and roughly ENE of Bristol. Set over the South porch of the Church (which is of 12thC origin) and excellently restored c2003 by Harriet James and with a new brass gnomon. The dial is mounted on a central corbel and canted out some ten degrees West to face due South. It is of a breakarch design, 25 x 26 ins approx in size and dated 1787. It displays 6am to 6pm in half and quarter Roman numbered hours. The National Record still oddly suggests that the dial is in poor condition when clearly it is not.  Click on the thumbnail or HERE to see a larger image
13.11.2023

One of the Brodie Castle Sundials Brodie Castle is one of Moray's most famous Brodiecastles, painted a rose pink and situated within stunning gardens.  Architecturally, the castle has a very well-preserved 16th-century central keep with two 5-storey towers on opposing corners. Badly damaged by fire in 1645, it was later rebuilt.
The interior of the castle on the other hand is well preserved, containing fine antique furniture, oriental artefacts and painted ceilings, largely dating from the 17th–19th centuries. Outside a few interesting sundials can be found. One, a 16thC horizontal dial, is worthy of mention.  Click on the image or HERE for a closer look.
09.11.2023
 
The Dial at Stirling's Highland Hotel There is an impressive and frankly, an usual, dial at the Highland Hotel in Stirling HotelStirling. It was designed by Sir William Peck - the then Stirling City Asronomer in 1891 and was a gift from one Lawrence Pullar of the Bridge of Allan (Bofa).  The brass dial which is roughly three feet square, declines substantially East. Its furniture includes seven declination lines including the usual three usual lines for mid summer, mid winter and the equinoxes and it displays using Arabic numerals. It is delineated in 1, 5, 15 and 30 minute marks. There is a two day interval EoT scale courtesy of the Rev Vuille presented across the bottom of the dial. The dial's motto is the-then popular: "I only count the Sunny Hours". A larger image of this elaborate dial (courtesy of BSS) may be seen by clicking either on the thumbnail or HERE.
04.11.2023 Permission EU C-466/12 retained and as amended

St Senara's Church Dial, Zennor.  Here is an interesting and well delineated East-Declining slate sundial Zennor Dialsurmounted by an unusual winged head emblem below which is a motto that uses the spelling of the mid 1600's , “The Glory of the World Paseth”.  Excellently engraved in 1737 by one Paul Quick - presumably a local since no other dial by him is sadly known today.  History of the dial suggests it might have fallen (and of course broken) in the late 1950s or early 1960s and been replaced, possibly with a more modern gnomon and a much more sturdy wall mounting.  The church is dedicated to the legendary Cornish Lady-saint with links to the village of Zennor on the north coast of Cornwall. Click the image or HERE for a closer look.
29.10.2023


A Dial at the Minack!! In an imaginative move a sundial has recently been installed at the Minack cliff-top theatre in Cornwall to mark 30 years of Minackperformances there by the London based BROS Theatre Company. The company has now been performing at the Minack Theatre near Porthcurno for three decades. Perhaps fittingly a local group production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest was the first play staged on what was a cliffside slope near Porthcurno. - in 1932.

The dial - constructed of brass - is mounted somewhat close to a drop and so its design has been arranged to make viewing the dial from a safer viewpoint! The time scales mark periods of five minutes and indicate both solar time and summertime. Click the image or
HERE to see a larger image and do try to get to see it when you might next be visiting Porthcurno.
22.10.2023

The Non-Dial 'Armillary' at New Place 'New Place' was William Shakespeare's final place of residence in Stratford-upon-Avon. He died there in Stratford New Place1616. The whole building was sold and later demolished by Francis Gastrell, vicar of Frodsham, Cheshire, in 1759. It was never rebuilt and only the foundations remain. A strange armillary sphere (that does NOT tell solar time) sits there on a very high post. It supposedly represents a model of the world according to Ptolomy even though Copernicus had placed the sun at the centre of the solar system over 50 years before Shakespeare bought New Place.  The Armillary sphere at Shakespeare’s New Place today was made by Simon Kenny of Souvenir Studios. The line on the ground shows the boundary of the original house. Click on the image or HERE to see it in context.
15.10.2023 VL Thomson

The Piquet House Dial, Jersey, CI  In the Royal Square of St Helier, Jersey, CI can be Piquet Houseseen a rare survival of a Georgian military picket house with an unusual sundial.
The 1803 military picket house is a two-storey, three-bay structure with a hipped roof behind a parapet.  The sundial is positioned on the left outside wall on the first floor - An inscription reads 'Regulate your clocks by the Sun Dial; correction must be made; for the equation of time; which is given in all the Almanacks'. Above are four letters interpreted by Levitt as 'NOTE'. Levitt records the sundial's installation as 1820-30 and its various restorations in 1888, circa 1984 and later in 2004. It was designed by Elias Le Gros (creator of the well known 1834 Le Gros map) and it marks time using Roman and Arabic hours. It is of painted and gilded limestone with a painted metal gnomon.  Click the image or HERE for a larger image.
09.10.2023

A Perpetual Roman Calendar! Excavating in 2008 at the Roman fort settlement of Vindolanda along Hadrian's Wall in Northern England, Calendararchaeologists discovered a fragment of an ancient perpetual calendar, an annual type not tied to any particular year. It's one of only three ancient portable calendars ever found. The calendar was the first object of its type to come from Roman Britain and the only one from a scientific excavation.

If complete, the calendar would have been a circular disk about 12 inches in diameter. Every two days a peg (not found) would have been moved into the next hole, indicating the correct date.

Vindolanda has yielded more evidence about daily life on the Roman frontier than almost any other site. Soldiers, slaves, merchants, women, and children are all represented in more than 1,400 writing tablets that have been recovered there. These documents include the earliest examples of female handwriting from western Europe, demands for beer, requests for leave, and (possibly quite reasonably from the British point of view!) references to the "nasty little Brits" in the region surrounding the Roman fort.  Click on the thumbnail or HERE for a larger image.  More descriptive details HERE.
30.09.2023 Notified by VL Thomson

The Intihuatana Stone in Machu Picchu The Intihuatana stone in Machu Machu PicchuPicchu is a unique and iconic feature of the ancient Inca city. Located in the Temple of the Sun, this stone is believed to have been used by the Incas for astronomical observations, and to mark the winter and summer solstices. Its four sides are oriented N,S,E and W and the pillar is slightly tilted. The idea that it was a sundial comes from the fact that the sun 'sits' directly above the stone on the two equinoxes (March 21st and September 21st) and it creates no shadow at all. This happens because the point on the Intihuatana has a slight inclination of 13 degrees.  Being so high up in the mountain also meant that sowing seeds at the right times of year would make crops flourish rather than die. For this reason, the speculations surrounding Intihuatana are very likely true.  Click on the thumbnail or HERE for a closer look.
25.09.2023  © VL Thomson

The Sundial at Heligan There is a lovely bronze sundial to be seen in Mrs Tremayne's Garden at Helligan, Pentewan, St.Austell, Cornwall. The Garden was Heliganonly discovered in the 1990's and arguably is the largest recent Victorian garden resoration in Europe. It is an horizontal dial from the 18th century made by T Watkins. It correctly has a noon-gap to permit time to be read from either side of the sturdy gnomon, is graduated down to two minute intervals, is 15 inches in diameter with an engraved compass in good condition and is designated SRN 4031 in the National Register. Click on the thumbnail image or HERE to see more of this lovely dial.
17.09.2023 Photos © P Strudwick

The 'Angel of Corbridge' Dial Corbridge is a town in Northumberland which is Angel Innideally placed to explore the County, Hadrian's wall, Roman forts, castles and beaches. In 'Main Street' is the Angel pub and hotel. The Angel dates back to 1569 and could possibly be the oldest ‘inn’ in Northumberland.  The names of every owner, landlord, innkeeper, and tenant from 1569 until today are displayed inside but outside above and to the left of the entrance is a sundial mounted in a recess which is canted East to face due South.  It is marked with the initials of its maker and its date: E.W.A 1726.

Click on the thumbnail or HERE to see a closer image of this simple but pleasing Direct South Dial.
25.08.2023

St Aidan's Church Sundial Bamburgh Located over the door at the West end Bamburghof the South aisle of the Church and coming up for 200 years old. The motto at the base reads: “Pereunt et Imputantur” in a gothic style. It translates roughly as The hours pass away and are accounted for.

In the scrolled top edge lie the date ‘1828’ and the latitude 55d 38m 44s. The outer scale, has 5min divisions and two dots mark the hours, one dot marks the half and quarter hours. It shows half, quarter and eighth hour divisions in all and has an ornate scrolled bronze gnomon. Recorded in the National Register as SRN 0775 it is dated 1828 and is a well designed and detailed dial albeit with some spalling.  Click on the thumbnail for a larger image or click HERE.
21.08.2023 Image courtesy and copyright: M.D. Powers, 2023

Sundial Bridge will soon celebrate 20 years! The Sundial Pedestrian Bridge at Redding in California will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2024.  The Sundial Bridge is a cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge for bicycles and pedestrians that spans the Sacramento River in Redding, California, United States and forms a large sundial. It attracts visitors from all over the world.  Located in the Turtle Bay Exploration Park at the point of the crossing of the Sacramento River, the main support of the suspension bridge is aligned true North and serves as a huge gnomon for an equally huge horizontal dial. Sadly (for the diallist!) the gnomon angle is some 8.4 degrees steeper than it should be so the dial does not quite show correct solar time.   The Bridge  has been named on USA Today's list of the most beautiful places in California.!!
19.11.2014
14.08.2023

 More on the Antikythera Mechanism Suninfo has covered this amazing Antikythera Mechanismmechanism more than once in the past six or so years, and links to such references can be found in our archives. Here though, is a link to a talk about the Mechanism by Dr Tony Freeth, covering its discovery, the attempts to decipher it through astonishing corrosion and where we are today.  The mechanism has been the subject of a plenary lecture at an earlier BSS Annual Meeting and this talk covers much of that lecture but of course with an update on where we currently are.  Click the above thumbnail image  or HERE to be linked with a fascinating hour's talk.
02.08.2023

 A 'Secure' Sundial? Still on Holy Island, otherwise known as Lindisfarne, there is Lindisfarnewhat might be called a 'Secure' sundial!  It is located inside the railings that protect the ancient Celtic cross that sits outside the Manor House Hotel which, in turn, is located at the heart of the island, adjacent to the Priory and with magnificent views of the castle and harbour.  It is a well designed horizontal dial with several engraved scales - maker unknown - and set on its own pedestal but inside the protective railings.  It does not yet appear to be recorded - at least in the Internet-based register of UK sundials.  Take a look next time you are nearby - but remember that the tide only permits access to the Island at certain times. Click on the thumbnail image here - or HERE - for more details.
29.07.2023  © VL Thomson

 A Recorded Dial is Missing !! Here we take a visit to Holy Island, off Lindisfane lossthe coast of Northumberland.  The dial that is recorded in the National Register (SRN 3364) as a memorial to Gertrude Jekyll 1843 – 1932 is no longer in its place in the Jekyll garden.
 
When asked, even the locals did not know of its removal - or of any resiting or  theft.  SunInfo is pleased to be able to report this.  Anyone able to cast light on the loss should contact the webmaster.

Click on the double image  here or HERE for a larger version.



24.07.2023  © VL Thomson and Robin Jones1 on Flckr

Did an English diallist 'save' a French Cathedral from the mobs of the French Revolution?
SulpiceIn 1727, the then priest of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, requested the construction of a gnomon in the church to help him determine the time of the equinoxes and hence of Easter. A meridian line of brass was inlaid across the floor and then ascending a white marble obelisk, nearly eleven metres high, at the top of which is a sphere surmounted by a cross. The obelisk is dated 1743.

In the south transept window a small opening with a lens was set up, so that a ray of sunlight shines onto the brass line. At noon on the winter solstice (21 December), the ray of light touches the brass line on the obelisk. At noon on the equinoxes (approx 21 March and 21 September), the ray touches an oval plate of copper in the floor near the altar.

Constructed by the English clock-maker and astronomer Henry Sully, the gnomon was also used for various scientific measurements. It is considered by some that this non religous use may have protected Saint-Sulpice from being destroyed during the French Revolution.

The first meridian line was completed in 1727. But the watchmaker Henry de Sully died one year after he started to prepare it and the meridian stayed unfinished until 1743 when the astronomer Charles Le Monnier finished the project.

In later years a second aperture was installed, more can be read of this HERE
16.07.2023

A New Kirkaldy Dial Sir Sandford Fleming was a Scottish civil engineer and scientist who was the foremost railway engineer of Canada in the 19th century. KirkaldyHe also created worldwide standard time zones, as well as making his mark in Canada where he designed the country’s first postage stamp and engineered its major rail link. A few years later he proposed the system using standardised time zones around the globe.  Now his remarkable achievements are celebrated by a new analemmatic sun dial by Macmillanhunter Dials installed on the water front of Port Brae in Kirkaldy.

On such dials a person stands on the dial to act as the vertical gnomon. The hours are laid out in an ellipse, and the person’s shadow points to the time. In summer the sun is high in the sky so the person who is acting as the gnomon stands further forward, while in winter the sun is low and they move further back. The proper place to stand on this dial is marked by the initial letter of each of the twelve months of the year.  Click the thumbnail for a larger view or HERE.
08.07.2023

The Holyrood Dial One of the most enduring items found in the gardens at the Holyrood DialPalace of Holyroodhouse is the polyhedral sandstone sundial. Carved in 1633 and presented by Charles I to his queen Henrietta Maria, it was placed in the centre of the King’s Garden at Holyrood. This gift coincided with Charles I’s Scottish Coronation at the Abbey of Holyrood.

Its head contains twenty dials with metal gnomons, carved as spheres, semi-circles, or onto the surface, set on a lead fixing above a stone pillar and stepped pedestal. The mason, John Mylne, commissioned specialists to undertake ‘the working and hewing the dyell in the northe yard with the pillar stapis degris [steps] and fundatioun thairof’. The total cost to the Crown, which included the masonry, metalwork, gilding and painting of the dial, was Ł408 15s 6d. Although not the first sundial to be installed in Edinburgh, it is an early and survivor of a pioneering and particularly Scottish polyhedral type, which would be installed in the new gardens of Scottish castles and country houses for the next few decades.

The making, engraving and gilding of the dial was undertaken by John Barton. Click on the thumbnail image or HERE to see the dial in more detail.
02.07.2023

Kelmscott Church Dials Kelmscott is best known for its association with KelmscottWilliam Morris who bought Kelmscott Manor and lived there with his wife. Kelmscott is a Cotswold village hidden in country lanes on the upper reaches of the River Thames. Indeed William Morris used to row from his home in London, Kelmscott House to his country retreat Kelmscott Manor.

The church is a wonderful survival, unchanged since the 16th century and was a 'chapel of ease' until 1430 with the dead having to be carried to Broadwell for burial. The vertical direct South sundial is now rather worn but the Roman numerals can still be discerned and the dial used. The church still contains several 13th century wall paintings.

Below the dial there is a wonderful collection of mass dials. All well worth viewing. Click on the thumbnail image or HERE to see a little more.
25.06.2023  Image Dr VLThomson

The Dial at Dorney Court Dorney Court has always been the village manor house although it has changed dramatically since first Dorney Courtmentioned in the Domesday Book (1086) when the property was owned by Miles Crispin, a wealthy landowner.

In the millennium between the first record of the house when William the Conqueror was King of England, ownership of Dorney Court and the estate passed through the hands of six families before it was sold to Sir William Garrard, Lord Mayor of London, in 1537.  The dial in the gardens is more modern (!), simple but elegant. Click on the image or HERE to see some images.
17.06.2023  Image Dr VLThomson,

The Rivington Dial This wonderful home-made polyhedral dial - by diallist Peter Scott - is located at Rivington, Lancs but was based on the remarkable dial that Rivingtonstands in the grounds of Walton Hall near Wakefield at the former home of Charles Waterton, the Victorian conservationist. It takes the form of a twenty face icosahedron. Upon each face of which is mounted a triangular dial plate and a brass gnomon.

All dial faces are delineated to show local time corrected for the longitude difference from the Greenwich Meridian. The design and construction is described in the author's 2005 BSS Bulletin article which makes really interesting reading. Click on the thumbnail image or HERE to read the article courtesy of the BSS archive.
07.06.2023 EU C-466/12 retained and as amended.

The Dial at Hanbury Hall The original garden at Hanbury Hall was designed in 1705 by George London, a predecessor of other renowned designers Hanbury HallKent, Brown and Nash.
He was the most celebrated garden designer of his time, creating gardens for royalty and nobility at Chatsworth, Hampton Court and Kensington Palace.
In the early 1990s work began to recreate London’s garden at Hanbury Hall. Not a trace of the original garden remained but using London’s original 1705 plans along with other historic plans and drawings, a team of experts determined the layout of the topiary and hedge framework that made up the structure of the Great Garden. The Dial is situated outside the Orangery some distance from the house. Click on the image or HERE to see more of this unusual dial with the equally unusual motto Nox Venit (Night comes).


03.06.2023

The Arley Arboretum Dial One of the oldest and most spectacular Arboreta in Britain, Arley was originally planned by Earl Mountnorris Arleyaround 1800. Although Arley had become highly renowned for its exotic and rare tropical plants by the 1840’s, it is the specimen trees that are now the main interest, now being considered to be one of the country’s finest tree collections.

In 1852 the Estate was purchased by Robert Woodward and in 1959 by the Industrialist Roger Turner by when the arboretum was in a state of neglect and many of the village properties required substantial renovation.

Turner died in 1999 and left the entire Estate, in all 1600 acres, to his Charitable Trust which he had founded some 30 years earlier. The Trustees decided that the arboretum was of particular importance for it to be extended and opened to the public.

It is now home to over 300 species of trees and features a beautiful Laburnum arch, measuring 65 metres. It also sports a sundial (and an uncalibrated armillary shaped ornament). The dial is clearly delineated but sadly has no maker's name and has no noon gap. Click on the image or HERE to see more of this interesting dial and its pedestal.

21.05.2023

The Mirehouse Dial at Crosthwaite Mirehouse is a 17th-century house MirehouseNorth of Keswick in Westmorland, near Bassenthwaite Lake. It remains a family home but it and its grounds are open to the public. Mirehouse was built in 1666 by Charles Stanley, 8th Earl of Derby, who sold it in 1688 to his agent, Roger Greg. The Greg family and then their descendants, the Storys, owned the estate until 1802 when Thomas Story left it in his will to John Spedding.
The Spedding family, who still own the house, have enlarged the house several times In 1999 it won the award for 'Best Heritage Property for Families in the UK'. There can be seen the dialplate of a 1980s Brookbrae sundial. Sadly the gnomon is missing. The dial was first recorded by Robert Sylvester. Click on the image or HERE to see a close up of this lovely dial.
26.04.2023 Image R Sylvester Courtesy BSS, Permission: text and images from Internet EU C-466/12 retained and as amended.

The Dial at West Dean College West Dean College was set up in 1971 as a part of the Edward James Foundation which had been formed in 1964 in response to West DeanJames' vision of establishing "An educational foundation where creative talents can be discovered and developed, and where one can spread culture through the teaching of crafts and the preservation of knowledge that might otherwise be destroyed or forgotten".

The dial was delineated by Sally Hersh and erected in 1990 to mark the establishment of the Foundation (hence the 'EJF') in 1964. It is listed as SRN 2302 in the National Register and it shows hours only. It is signed along its bottom edge.

The dial is an excellent example of the need to monitor sundials as they age. An earlier image of the dial can be seen HERE courtesy of BSS. It shows in greater clarity how the declination lines are marked on the hour lines by blue porcelain diamonds for the winter solstice and by light red porcelain hemispheres for the summer.  Today's appearance is rather less impressive.

Click on the thumbnail image or HERE to see the dial as it is today.
21.04.2023 Image Dr VLThomson, Courtesy BSS, Permission: text and images from Internet EU C-466/12 retained and as amended.

The Housewives' Trick does work - in the UK! It was A.P. Herbert who first suggested that housewives probably just turned their garden sundials a bit to Housewives trickagree with their watches. He called this “The Housewife’s Trick” and claimed that experiments showed it to work quite well.

Analysis by subsequent authors rightly rejected the trick as being theoretically unsound, which it is, and sometimes even wildly inaccurate. However Chris Lusby Taylor subsequently and excellently showed that the 'trick' was more accurate at higher latitudes and (at least for the UK) the trick can indeed be remarkably accurate. His paper in a BSS Bulletin showed a method of implementing it which makes a dial in the UK tell mean time accurate to within a minute except for a few days in July, when it may be up to 90 seconds adrift. Look at Chris's excellent analysis HERE or by clicking on the thumbnail image. NB: It may be slightly slow to download.
17.04.2023  Courtesy BSS, Permission: text and images from Internet EU C-466/12 retained and as amended.

 Another Dial-Longitude Oddity! Over the entrance to the Grammar School in Hawkshead, Westmorland, is a dial recorded as SRN 1134 in the National Register. HawkesheadThe building, now a museum, is famous as the school attended by the young William Wordsworth. The dial though is dated 1845 and it bears the inscriptions:

Lat 54ş 22' 40" Decl. 30ş 20'.
Pl. Long. 35ş 43' 40"

So we have another strange longitude on a dial. Readers can see a different (Scottish) longitude problem below. Read this article from a BSS Bulletin to see how Frank Evans finally sorted out this further curious Longitude notation of the day.  Click on the image here or click HERE to read his quite fascinating article.

14.04.2023 Permission: text and images from Internet EU C-466/12 retained and as amended.

An O'Connell Sundial with a mistake! Way back in 2007 Michael Harley O'Connell Dialpublished a remarkable article in the British Sundial Society's Bulletin about a rare slate dial delineated by one Daniel O'Connell who described his dial with the surely irresistible title of “A Horizontal Dial, Geographical Clock, Perpetual Almanack, Quadrant of Altitude And Circumferentor. Calculated for the latitude of Dublin”. Michael's article is available to read on line today courtesy of BSS. Additional to the above dial furniture are the Days of the Week, the Moon's age, no fewer than 56 place names and the Equation of Time. O’Connell certainly was a master engraver who used a variety of lettering styles, number systems and embellishments to produce this exceptional dial. It is thought it was designed more as a teaching aid and is complete with a marked error in the Equation of Time.  Click on the image or HERE to read the article for yourself.
06.04.2023 
Permission: text and images from Internet EU C-466/12 retained and as amended.

 The Middleham Vertical Declining Dial is thought to have been designed by MiddlehamJohn Briggs of Gargrave and it is installed upon Sundial House, a Grade II Listed Building in Middleham, North Yorkshire.
The dial is dated 1778 and is a well maintained vertical East declining dial mounted above the door. It is inscribed 'J B Sic labitur Aetas GARGRAVE FECIT 1778'. The dial appears to show a noon gap between the hours of 11 and 12 with evidence of some 'repainting drift' after the provision of five marks in that same time interval and with an odd misalignment between the gap and the gnomon too. The motto reads Sic Labitur Aetas. (Thus the age slips by.)

It is registered as SRN 266 in the UK National Register. Click on the image to see a larger version.
27.03.2023

 The Saughton Park Sundial The sundial in Saughton Gardens in Edinburgh dates from the 17th century, and was restored in 1899. A classic tall Scottish-style Saughtonsundial with a square base and set on 2 stacked octagonal plinths. Four circular vertical dials are set to face each of the cardinal compass points. The dials and finial have been reported to be 17thC and the rest is 19thC, possibly as a part of its restoration in 1899. Gnomons on all four faces are now sadly broken. Viz:  West, East, North. Click on the image or HERE for an overall view. A remarkable number of mottoes exist around the second step and the base.  Viz:

Around the second step from the ground:
Bless Ye The Lord Praise Him and Magnify Him for ever O Ye Light and Darkness.

On the four sides of the base the inscriptions read:
While thou lookest I fly; Go about your business. 1899
Mark but the hours of sunshine. God is light.
How quickly the pleasant days have passed away. To die is to live.
As a shadow so doth life pass. Tak tent o' time ere time be tint.


Sited now in the walled rose garden the dial is all that is left of the original Saughton House which burned down in 1918.
23.03.2003
 Permission: Images from Internet EU C-466/12 retained and as amended.

 The Dial that Replaced One that a Fisherman Lost The present bridge at Berwick Berwick dialdates from 1624 and is the fourth to have stood on this location. Two of the previous structures were destroyed by flooding and one by an English attack when Berwick was then considered Scottish. The bridge is 355 metres long and was the original route of the A1 before the construction of the Royal Tweed Bridge in the 1920s. The bridge is now a Grade I listed structure and currently is limited to one way working.

Dial (SRN 6352) is at the SW end of the bridge on a parapet in one of the refuges. Restored at the behest of Ruth Lister of Berwick-Upon-Tweed in 1995 to replace an earlier one lost after a local man fishing for salmon tied his net to it in 1953 and the dial got pulled in to the river. Surely, one of the rather more unusual reasons for a dial's loss. This dial is marked with embossed numerals and half hour markers though the hour lines are engraved. The gnomon is substantial and secured by four bolts. It is not clear if there is a noongap and sadly the maker is unknown. Click the thumbnail or HERE to see a better version.
18.03.2023

 The Ellon Castle Sundial Ellon got its first mention in written history in an entry
dated 1132 in  the margin of the 'Book of Deer'. The old motte and Ellonbailey castle is interwoven with historical events of local, regional and national significance. There are tales of a dispute between neighbours that ended in murder, a mistress in the Castle, a secret tunnel and disillusioned Jacobite supporters.Then the tale moves to the Hill of Ardgith, where the castle ruins still stand today, some 20 miles North of Aberdeen.
The walled garden, a Scheduled Monument, is overlooked by the ruinous remains of Ellon Castle and was given to the town of Ellon in 2015. The restoration of the five acre garden in September 2020 was celebrated with the unveiling of the magnificent restored seventeenth century multi-faceted sundial which is thought to have stood at the centre of the garden for more than 300 years. Click the thumbnail for a larger image.
15.03.2023

 Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Dial St. David's Chapel is a Church of Scotland church in Stormontfield, near Scone in Perth and Kinross, Scotland about Stormontfield4 miles North of Perth). Now a Category B listed building, it was built in 1897, to a design by the architect Alexander Marshall Mackenzie. Mackenzie was given the brief that the church should "be able to accommodate 100 people, be of early English design and be built at an estimated cost of Ł550."

The dial is a quite extraordinary square dial with a pierced gnomon coming out of a sun. Decorated with thistles, gilding and coloured polished pebbles in the centre of flower heads which glint like jewels. It has a Scottish motto: “Tak tent o’ time 'ere time be tint, for time will no remain”. The gnomon is pierced with “1837 VR 1897”. It commemorates Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and was gifted by Mr R.W.R Mackenzie, a descendant of the original archtect.
It is recorded in the National Register as SRN 7695

In Scots the motto translates as 'Take account of time before your time is finished'. Sadly the building was put up for sale in 2018 and its present status is unknown. Stormontfield is a fertile and beautiful area, close to Scone Palace, the ancient Crowning place of all Scottish Kings, which has played an important part in the history of Stormontfield over the years. This is an area that is steeped in history.

Stormontfield is a village in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, about 4 miles N of Perth. It is located on the eastern banks of the River Tay. The sundial is cast in lead and decorated with thistles and gilding, it also has coloured, polished Scottish pebbles which look like large jewels in the centre of flower heads. St. David's Chapel, is a Category B listed building. It dates to 1897 and is the work of Alexander Marshall Mackenzie. Click the thumbnail image or HERE to see a close up.

10.03.2023  Permission

 Cadrans solaires pour tous #7 2023 The quarterly magazine "Sundials for all" was launched in September 2021. The columns of this magazine are open to all who are interested in sundials and gnomonics and wish to share their experiences and results. The Magazine is of course written in French but Google Translate readily presents an adequate translation.
Magazine n°7 (2023)  and earlier issue too are available HERE.as a PDF. It contains 17 interesting articles.
07.03.2023

 The 'Scottish Longitude Peculiarity' Here Denis Cowan relates the story Cowan Longitudeabout the problem he first identified over the stated longitude of several otherwise excellent Scottish sundials - all from the period 1877 to around 1913. It was a problem which even now appears to be unique to a few dials in Scotland.

The issue first came to light when Denis developed a sundial trail which he entitled “Sundial Trails to the Home of Golf”. It was intended as an entry in a competition for sundial trails. His entry was in fact three trails in one – one trail to St Andrews (East Neuk) and another from St Andrews (North Fife), as well as a trail in St Andrews itself. When Denis submitted the first trail it was quite rightly pointed out by one of the judges that although “the latitude (56° 20.7′ N) appeared to be correct, the marked longitude (11′ 12″ W) would place it in the middle of the sea! The real longitude should have been about 2° 48′ W.

Read HERE or click on the thumbnail image above, to see just how Denis discovered what was really going on. Partial Spoiler: The dial was not designed to be in the sea!!

04.03.2023  © Denis Cowan, by kind permission of the author and under EU C-466/12  retained and as amended]

 The 'Railway Dial' of NI Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest city Derry in Northern Ireland, UK and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The old walled city lies on the West bank of the River Foyle, which is now spanned by two road bridges and one footbridge. The city now of course occupies both banks of the Foyle.

This imaginative vertical West-declining dial, is constructed from polished Kilkenny limestone and measures 550mm x 400mm. It has a 100mm high, 10mm diameter pointed-pin gnomon. Ingeniously, the dial resembles a railway track so that as the tip of the shadow touches a 'sleeper' it indicates the time as shown in Roman numerals below the bottom 'rail'. The dial is canted out from the wall to its design declination of 86 degrees West.

When the shadow tracks along the top 'rail' it indicates the Winter Solstice, see the zodiacal sign of Capricorn ♑. Tracking the bottom 'rail' indicates the Summer Solstice, with the sign Cancer ♋.  The centre 'rail' then indicates the two equinoxes, indicated by the sign Aries ♈ for Spring and Libra ♎ for Autumn.  The dial was designed by MJ Harley - webmaster of the website on Irish dials that may be seen HERE.  The Latin motto translates as:
"M.J.Harley had me made in the Year of Our Lord 2005". Click on the image or HERE to see a larger version of this dial.
27.02.2023  Courtesy and permission  MJ Harley.

 Fer De Vries article of the month - April 2005 In that month Fer's article discussed the extraordinary events of the French Revolution where there was an obsession with decimalisation even to the point of time keeping. 

Not only were there decimal clocks but also decimal sundials.

Take a look at one such. Fascinating. Click on the image here or HERE to read the article. 

22.02.2023

How about an obelisk? The famous David Harber company can install an obelisk such that its noon shadow measures the progression of the seasons from the Obeliskspring equinox to the winter solstice. Standard markers indicate the spring and autumn equinoxes, winter and summer solstices, and can also highlight birthdays or other significant dates.

The length of the shadow cast by the obelisk at noon can be calculated and shown using markers set into the ground, indicating the spring and autumn equinoxes, winter and summer solstices, and, if desired, birthdays or other significant dates. The length of the shadow cast by the obelisk at noon can be calculated and shown with markers set into the ground. Click on the image or HERE to see the effect.


21.02.2023

The Cannon Bridge Roof Garden  Way back in 2018, no less!,  SunInfo first described Cannon Bridge Dialthe sundial that is located in the Cannon Bridge Roof Garden. This is an acre of rooftop lawn and garden in the heart of the City of London, with fabulous views over the Thames, St Paul’s Cathedral & Tower Bridge. This established garden sometimes provides an unforgettable setting for corporate parties, offering a totally private environment. When open, it is predominantly a summer venue.

It is situated on the top floor of an old trading bank. A huge outdoor space with miraculous views of London, the entire area is planted with grass and shrubs, creating a surprisingly green idyll with views on three sides of Tower Bridge, the London Eye and St Paul’s Cathedral. Recently it has undergone some minor works and it is interesting to see the changes to the sundial.

In 2018 the dial still had traces of the original black infill to the engraved dialplate. Today there is none of that  left and, to be honest, it looks all the better for it. A strong argument for revisiting sundials from time to time! Click on the image here or HERE to see some before and after images - or of course go to this link HERE to see what we wrote about it in 2018. We still want to know who designed it. Do tell the webmaster if you know.

1
5.02.2023  Images courtesy and © VL Thomson.

 A Sundial Anorak's Walk! Real sundial anoraks will remember Christopher Daniel's last Commission - that to place a Noon Mark on the face of the Town FavershamHall in Faversham's Market Place.  A superb way for him to 'sign off' if ever there was one.  This link is to a video clip of a Walk in Faversham which covers one's arrival by train, to the Market Place, to the famous Shepherd Neame Brewery and finally to the lovely St Mary of Charity Church.  Well worth watching to the end of course but Sundial enthsiasts might like the section from 9:13 to 9:37!!
Click on the image or the text link above to follow the walk.


09.02.2021

A Country House Dial Here are few images of a really delightful and competently designed, but not an especial, Country House sundial.  Set in the gardens of a 17thC A Country House Dialdwelling alongside the remains of a Motte and Bailey Castle with 'Norman Revival' additions, the dial certainly adds to the ambiance and of course would have been important in the days before today's time signals. 

Registered in the National Register the dial is reported there as 'very corroded' but those who have seen really badly-corroded dials would probably beg to differ! All scales can still be discerned. The dial is not signed and is presumably a routine dial set for the general latitude of Southern England rather than of the specific location.  Click on the image or HERE to see a few more images of this dial and judge for yourself! Click on the images page for an enlargement.

08.02.2023

A Dial Returned! The historic ORIGINAL 1682 Wynne Sundial from Wrest Park in Wrest Park DialBedfordshire has at last been returned to the Park - though it is now kept securely to prevent vandalism or theft.  It was sold off some considerable time ago and later we heard it had been acquired by English Heritage and was being held in their London Offices. Now we hear it has been returned to the House where it can be seen again.  It has been cleaned and treated and is kept under locked security glass.  It is not easy to photograph because of reflexions from the overhead lights, the floor and the glass itself but it is nice to be able to admire the craftsmanship and its amazing condition.  Nice too to discover for probably the first recent time the long additional motto that lies along the gnomon!
Click
HERE (or click on the thumbnail image here - top left) to read more about this wonderful Dial, a comparison between the existing (but deteriorating) replica that has been at Wrest Park all these years and the now renovated original. Right clck and click to magnifyany image.
01.02.2023

 A Mosaic sundial found in Antioch by Dr Sophie Hay A recently found Mosaicmosaic is formed from part of a three part design on the floor of a dining room of a 3rd-4th century AD villa in Antioch, modern Antakya, Turkey. The mosaic also features a reclining skeleton encouraging its viewers to enjoy life. Looking up at the sundial that reads 8pm, and in his haste to ‘run to dinner’ as the Greek inscription describes, the detail of the man losing his sandal is just glorious. He’s interpreted as an uninvited guest & the man behind seems to respond by saying ‘ill-timed!’. A larger image may be seen HERE and Dr Hay's original Tweet that announced the find can be found HERE. Wonderful!


25.01.2023

 One of the two dials at Steeple Ashton There are two dials at Steeple Steeple AshtonAshton in Wiltshire.  This fine example of a West declining dial has been meticulously engraved  above the South porch. The church is late 15th century and is listed Grade I.  It is a remarkably large church for such a small village and is a 'wool' church because the wealth created by the local wool industry helped pay for it. The Church is surmounted by several grotesques a few of which have been restored.  The other, a cube dial, lies atop of a pillar at a road junction nearby. Click the image or HERE to see more of the dial on the church.

22.01.2023 Image © Brian Robert Marshall and licensed under Creative Commons Licence

 A Glossary of Sundial Terms Some years ago the British Sundial Society BSS Glossarypublished a very useful Glossary of dialling terms. Now in its 3rd edition, it is available for purchase in printed form from BSS but those who might only be interested to check one or two meanings might instead like to know that the 2nd edition document is available on line HERE or by clicking on the image. It lists around 600 terms used in dialling and in astronomy. Complete with formulae and chronology and with over 25 appendices of useful dialling information. All edited by Dr John Davis and published by Archive.Org.

16.01.2023  Coutesy Archive.Org.

 The Birthday Box Dial One of Christopher Daniel's most imaginative sundials must surely be the so called 'Box Dial', that he designed for a friend in Faversham in 2011. This The Box Birthday Dialis a birthday sundial tilted so that on each anniversary the noon shadow of the gnomon is contained inside a gilded box!  The degree of tilt required was some 11.5 degrees and the hour lines were set out as gilded xiphoidal hour lines allowing first the shadow's trailing edge and then the leading edge of the shadow to tell the time. The dial was wonderfully executed by the Devon based sculptor, Ben Jones, in Kirkstone Slate and mounted on a Nabresina limestone pedestal by Clive Sherwood.
Christopher even devised a leaflet about this dial, the text of which is shown here by permission. We truly have lost a most imaginative diallist.  Click the image or HERE to see the four page leaflet
07.01.2023.  Leaflet ©  and permission CStJHD

 The Van Vleck Observatory Dial, Connecticut USA. In 2018 a large bronze Van Vleck DialDirect South vertical sundial was installed some 96 years after the installation of the Clark telescope at this observatory and 18 months after the dial design had commenced. Installation on the outside of the dome wall was supervised by the local delineator and creator, Robert Adzema. The hour lines are corrected for the longitude 72° 39.5585' W such that mean Noon occurs 9m 22s after local mean Noon. The dial weighs 650 pounds (0.29 metric tonne).

It seems that the hardest problem related to getting the patina right! Read more HERE or by clicking on the image.
03.01.2023

 The Strathallan Sundial Back in 2013 the Chalk-works Company was commissioned to design a dial to commemorate the centenary of the co-Strathallaneducational Strathallan School in Perthshire. The result is a free standing Vertical Direct South Sundial standing 1.2 metres high in the shape of a leaf-decorated 'millstone' and sited on the front lawn of the School within its 153 acre campus at Forgandenny. The central 'hole' of the 'millstone' includes a window that displays the school's motto 'Labor Omnia Vincit and the dates 1913 2013'. Click on the image or here to see a larger version of this attractive dial.
30.12.2022  Permission Images from Internet EU C-466/12 retained and as amended]

 The Higham Ferrers Sundial Years ago the St Mary's Parish Rooms in Higham Ferrers near Rushden in Northants was constructed in 1904 and included  a stone Higham Ferrersdial and plaque spread around the right hand corner of the building.  The Parish Rooms have long been associated with the nearby C of E Church whose date is unclear though its land is recorded in 1086 in the Doomsday Book. Over time the Rooms became disassociated with the church to become a valued library and in turn (some locals suggest through the incompetence of the local council) this building had to be sold off to reduce costs.  Currently it is owned by a private housebuilding and development company who use it for their head office. The dial is interesting and in good condition too. It is a West declining vertical dial (it declines about 15 degrees W) and offers the motto I make no sound yet the hours I tell. Click the image or HERE for a view of the dial itself.
28.12.2022  [Permission Images from Internet EU C-466/12 retained and as amended]

 A History of Sundials Time in the ancient world was first measured by naturally Shadow clockoccurring events, such as sunrise, sunset, and meal times. In the early ages of Rome and even down to the middle of the fifth century after the foundation of the city no other divisions of the day were known than sunrise, sunset and midday, which were marked by the arrival of the Sun between the Rostra and a place called Graecostasis.
The single greatest literary source that exists for the sundials of ancient Greece and Rome must be Vitruvius's Ten Books on Architecture written about 25 BC. In Book 9, Vitruvius gives a list of a variety of dials and their inventors.

Sundials resembling the kind of which Vitruvius speaks were in use in Egypt from at least 1200 BC. A near complete sundial was found at Kantara, Egypt dating back to approximately 320 BC, well over a thousand years after the shadow clocks were in operation. Click onthe image here to see and read a really interesting article.
21.12.2022, 02.01.2023

The 'Hidden' Dial of Bitola Well, not really hidden but certainly not easily Bitolafound! This is a very large wall dial in the city of Bitola - in North Macedonia, the second largest city in the Southwestern part of North Macedonia, some 14 kM north of the border with Greece. It was founded as Heraclea Lyncestis in the middle of the 4th century BC by Philip II of Macedon. In there and very high up is the huge declining wall dial with considerable additional decoration and marked with the Philosophical Motto of Heraclitus: "Panta Rhei": Everything Flows. Aleksandar Shulevski of the Astronomical society of Bitola designed the dial which measures 12 by 5 meters, with a declination of 9 degrees East.
Click on the image or HERE for two images of this unusually decorated dial.
19.12.2022  Images courtesy & permission Wikimedia Commons Benjamín Núńez González

Where Better to Site a Dial? Why, a Cafe of course!  This, in what one has to admit is an 'unusual' setting for an armillary sphere, is the dial to be found in East Ruston Cafethe cafeteria area of the East Ruston Old Vicarage Garden in Norfolk.  Set so that it can be seen as one approaches the cafe along a path bordered by high hedges, the large well made armillary sphere is set lower down than might be considered conventional and it is certainly a feature among the tables!  Well made but oddly its gnomon - which is angled toward the polestar of course - has its arrow finial pointing downwards rather than the more usual upwards.  It isn't clear why this might be but the accuracy of alignment in all other respects suggests that it is deliberate.  Anyone who might know the reason for this should please alert the webmaster. Click on the thumbnail or HERE for four closer and larger images.

13.12.2022

 The Muckross Abbey Mass Dial Muckross Abbey is one of the major Muckrossecclesiastical sites in the Killarney National Park, County Kerry, Ireland. It was founded in 1448 as a Franciscan friary for the Observantine Franciscans by Donal McCarthy Mor. It has had a violent history and has been damaged and reconstructed many times. The monks of Muckross Abbey were finally driven out in the 1650’s by Cromwell's forces.

The present ruins are in very good state of preservation with the four walls of the Cloisters and its associated buildings in their original and complete state.

On one of the low walls around the cloisters near the former Abbot's residence can be found a 24 hour mass dial in remarkable condition.  Click on the thumbnail or HERE  for a larger image.
09.12.2022

 A Scottish Dial at East Ruston East Ruston Old Vicarage Garden in Norfolk is always a East Ruston Scottish Dialdelightful one to walk through.  More than that there are several sundials waiting to be discovered there - almost all of which are carefully positioned and aligned so as to read solar time. 

This first one however is a composite dial originally brought from Scotland which cannot of course be mounted in a way that would allow all dial faces to show solar time simultaneously. Nonetheless, it forms a striking example of the traditional Scottish Dial and a means of seeing it resonably close up.

Click on the thumbnail image or HERE  to see a composite image of nine images of the dials that really demonstrate  the skill of the (now sadly unknown) delineator. Any or all of the images may be enlarged once by clicking.



02.12.2022

 The Castletownshend Dial in Eire Courtesy of the excellent website 'Sundials-CastletownshendIreland' and by permission of its webmaster, Michael J Harley, we are able to point readers to this interesting dial which has been on the front of Sundial House on Main Street in Castletownshend since the property was first built at the start of the 20thC.  Castletownshend lies in the South of Ireland, on the coast and to the Southwest of Cork. It is an attractive village situated  about 8km South East of Skibbereen at Lat 51° 32' North Long 9° 11' West. The house and its dial are dated 1907.  The dial is interesting since it declines some 26 degrees East and has a thick gnomon for which the hour lines are properly compensated. The hour lines are unusually laid out.  It's worth noting too that the property also possesses a tall, elaborate offset-laid brick chimney.  Click on the thumbnail here for a larger image.
24.11.2022  Link and material therein to MJ Harley's article by permission.  Image © Cormac Lalor

 The Old Braddan Kirk Dial, IoM This is the last in our series of interestting Braddandials in the Crown Dependency of the Isle of Man. The old Kirk of Braddan is located in one of the seventeen parishes of the Isle of Man in the 'Sheading of Middle'. A church was built here in the C12th after the division of the island into parishes. Just two miles from Douglas it was the parish church for the town until 1876 when a new church was built next to it and this has allowed the original Kirk to keep may of its unusual interior features until today. This is the only one of the churches on the Island of that age which has a tower and, unlike many of the other island churches, it has never been whitewashed. On the south wall is a simple but unusual Direct South sundial which is canted out to face true South. The particularly rare feature of its delineation is that it was carved using longer hour lines to mark the times of services.  Click on the image or HERE to see a few other pictures of this dial.
22
.11.2022  Images courtesy and © the Drs Thomson.

 The Protected Dial of Maughold Village An unusal, small, old dial can Maughold Villagebe seen at Maughold (Machall in Gaelic) in the IOM, not far from the very early fragment we reported earlier. Saint Maughold was a Saint associated with the early Celtic Church. The dial on the green there is now unusually protected under a mesh cover and is mounted on a large stepped plinth. The dial was erected in 1666 to the memory of a Captain Edward Christian, at one time the Governor of the Island, by his son. According to 'A History of Kirk Maughold' by William and Constance Radcliffe, it bears the inscription “Ev (Evan or Euan) Christian fecit, 1666. Latitude 52.8”. The dial's gnomon seems slightly displaced but otherwise it is in working order.  Click on the thumbnail (or HERE) to see four images of this dial. They may each be expanded once by clicking on them.
17.11.2022  Images courtesy and © the Drs Thomson.

 The Dial at Ballaugh Old Church, IOM Situated close to the West front of Ballaughthe Church, this dial is an engraved slate dial mounted on a short stone pillar.  Sadly the gnomon is now missing and the dial is quite badly cracked. The inscription originally read 'The gift of Thos. Moughton, 1813' but the dial is not signed.

Nevertheless, the quality of the engraving is pleasingly deep but with no clear sign of a noon gap - rather indicating that the original gnomon might have been formed from thin sheet rather than have been a more prominent cast one. However the slot for the gnomon seems rather wider. Click on the thumbnail or HERE to see a couple of photographs.

13.11.2022    Images courtesy and © the Drs Thomson.

 The Multi-faceted Dial outside Rushen Castle, IoM The Castletown Castletownsundial sits on the top of a huge column of masonry, some 5ft. high, and 18ft. around which strangely is known locally by the name of "The Babby House". It has twelve faces, three of these, upon which it is said that the Sun cannot shine, would appear to be dummies, put up for the sake of symmetry, as they have no numerals: one other face has lost its gnomon. The date cut on the principal face is 1720, It is said that somewhere in Denmark there is another dial similar to this - rather after the suggestion of a Danish near-duplicate of the Old Court Dial in Queens' College, Cambridge dated some 60 years earlier (details on this page below left). It is certainly strange that nothing is known of by whom, or why, this Dial was erected; its height makes it almost useless for time telling as well as it being remarkably difficult to photograph!

The dial is on a thick pebble-dashed cylindrical pillar at the front of Rushen Castle (Manx: Cashtal Rosien) and which today is partially obscured by a tree. It is recorded as SRN 2173 in the National Register. Click  HERE for some images of the dial. Information taken from Miss A.M. Crellin's book.
08.11.2022  Images courtesy and © the Drs Thomson.

 Two Identical Dials in the same Garden! Hutchinson Square Gardens in Hutchinson Squarethe Isle of Man unusually has two identical modern sundials in it. The garden, now laid out as two squares rather following the fashion seen in London where the garden is an 'amenity' for residents, the dials are both delineated by Silas Higgon of Shropshire and both include an EoT graph and a gnomon gap and are sited in adjacent parts of the central gardens. Clck HERE for some images

The history of this amenity is interesting. By the end of 1940, 14,000 ‘enemy aliens’ had been interned on the Isle of Man. Many of them being Professors and other professionals such as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, Lord Weidenfeld, Sir Charles Forte, and the concert pianists Rawicz and Landauer who all chose to remain in the UK after WW2.
Hutchinson Internment Camp, located in Douglas Isle of Man, was particularly noted as "the Artists' camp" after the thriving artistic and intellectual life of its internees. It was some ten minutes from the beach.

The camp consisted of 39 houses around Hutchinson Square close to Broadway in Douglas. It initially had only 415 internees but soon this figure had risen to 1,205, almost all of whom were German and Austrian; formed from a high proportion of Jewish and anti-Nazi internees. Hutchinson Camp was renowned for its thriving artistic life. The camp represented nearly all of the styles that were being suppressed within the Third Reich at the time with an abundance of academic and creative talent, which was only too willing to teach and learn in the camp environment where they had little else with which to fill their time and cope with their depression.

After the Camp closed as an internment camp in March 1944, it was prepared to house prisoners of war. The barbed wire fencing was strengthened, watch towers were erected and the guard increased. More can be read of the history of the camp HERE

06.11.2022 Images courtesy Dr VL Thomson

 The Ancient Dial at Kirk Maughold in the Isle of Man Kirk Maughold, Maugholdnamed after the Irish Saint Machaoi, is believed to have been the main pre-Norse religious community on the Isle of Man. A large collection of crosses and slabs dating from the early Christian period (4th-13th century) was found in the churchyard, which was once the site of a Celtic Monastery. The current church dates from the 11th C with alterations and extensions carried out over many centuries.
To be found in the NE of the island, near Ramsey, stone fragment 87 is a broken piece of an ancient sundial which has the remains of a border and some interlaced design The radiating lines mark the canonical hours. Information here courtesy of MJ Harley,Sundials Ireland together with a drawing to show what it might have looked like taken from:The Ancient Sundials of Ireland, Mario Arnaldi. Click on the thumbnail or HERE for a close up of the dial as it is today.
31.10.2022  Main photo and thumbnail © Copyright Dr VL Thomson 2022. Text © Sundials Ireland

Some Austrian Sundials The sundials of Austria are well known for their highly characteristic but variable decoration and for their individuality. Most are vertical Austrian Dialwall dials and a few even extend around the corner of the building on which they are sited. 

Click on the image here or HERE to see over thirty such dials.  Certainly different from those that we see here in the UK.  Several date back a long time.  The mottoes are of interest too - sometimes having a hidden meaning or a pun. 

Sit back and peruse this really interesting collection courtesy of 'Travel by Photos'.

26.10.2022

The Declinatory In past times an instrument, usually called a Declinatory, was used in order to find the declination of surfaces prior to designing a sundial for Declinatorythat surface. Several such exist in museums but often they appear to have unexplained issues connected with their practical use.  One such can be that the device obstructs the dial drawing itself or that the device cannot easily cope with a realistically thick gnomon.  Perhaps this is why their use today is hardly ever described?  Despite these issues it can always be interesting to learn of their use and two excellent references might prove of interest to SunInfo's readership. The first, a section in Nicholas Rougeux's 2022 book entitled "Construction and Uses of the Declinatory" may be found HERE and a link to a collaborative study by John Davis and Jane Desborough as set out in the September 2018 issue of the BSS Bulletin may be read HERE.
25.10.2022  Material here linked rather than copied to retain all authors' copyrights [EU C-466/12 retained and as amended]

 The Wright Dial at Laycock The Lacock Horizontal Dial can be found on the terrace of Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire. It is just under 18 inches in diameter and Lacock Abbeywas delineated and constructed in bronze by Thos Wright who was born around 1693 and died in 1767. This excellent and detailed dial shows 4am to 8pm in intervals of 30, 15, 10, 7.5, 5 and 1 min marks and includes 'linear transversals' to allow interpolation of some scales.

There is a compass of 16 points, the UK time of solar noon at no fewer than 17 cities around the world, a family coat of arms and a rare Julian Calendar version of the Equation of Time. It is recorded in the UK National Register as SRN 0140. Click on the image here or HERE to see a few expandable images of the dial as it was in 2016. Some 27 Wright Dials are now known.

23.10.2022

 The Trelissick Gardens Sundial There is an interesting modern sundial to be found at Trelissick Gardens near Feock, Cornwall. It was delineated and Trelissickengraved by Messrs. Brookbrae Ltd of London (a company frequently associated with the late Christopher Daniel) and was erected on 27 May 1987. The granite base originated from the main front of Trelissick House but this was many years before the National Trust acquired the property and its 300 acres of land. The dial was donated by Mr P Glazebrook in memory of his parents. Sadly there is no information held by the NT about Mr and Mrs Glazebrook.

The unique Latin text 'Cornubiae Hortos Amabant' translates to “Lovers of Cornish gardens”. The octagonal dial is interesting in that it shows summer solar time with a subsidiary scale of local solar time both indicating hours only. Click on the image or HERE for a larger image of this dial.
19.10.22

 The West Park Sundial in Erewash
Erewash dial
In 2016, the Borough Council of Erewash (near Nottingham) and the Friends of its 'West Park' arranged to construct a planetary garden there with a sundial forming the main attraction.

The dial and its construction is described at http://westparksundial.com/ and a BSS Bulletin article dated December 2016 and written by the project organiser, Stuart Allen, is also linked there. It describes the project in more detail.


17.10.2022   [EU C-466/12 retained and as amended]

 Fer De Vries article of the month - March 2005 That month Fer showed Fer26a picture of the distribution of sundials across the Netherlands.  This of course was as it was in 2005 but it is interesting to reflect on the dramatic way in which Northern European countries embraced sundial technology in the past two centuries.  Click on the image here to open a PDF of his entry. 

Click HERE to see the expanded copy of the image he shows.




15.10.2022

 Here's an Interesting Sundial Website! Here is a web site that easily allows anyone to make a vertical (paper) sundial for your own garden. You select your town and then the orientation of the chosen wall, all using the mouse and a printout can then be folded to make a dial - complete with its gnomon. Have a go and see what you think. 

Select the location where you want to place your paper sundial, mark a line along your chosen window or the wall where you want to put it.
Locate your address and press Go!

-Zoom in as far as possible.
-Click once at one end of a long wall.
-Move to and click again on the other end.

Click HERE to go to SundialZone!

12.10.2022

 The Barrow on Soar Millennium Dial
BarrowIn early 2002 a group of villagers in Barrow-upon-Soar in Leicestershire first came together with the idea of marking the recent Millennium by creating a community garden on a theme of time and history. They decided on a large horizontal sundial as the main attraction. Patrick Powers was approached to perform the necessary calculations and to be the Technical Adviser to the project and the villagers themselves came together with local firms and suppliers to create their own simple yet highly imaginative design which intrigues all who see it.

A design diameter of 12m and a tubular gnomon were chosen with the use of inset Arabic hour markers which are further marked outside the chapter ring by fifteen local sandstone rough cut blocks.

The dial was formally opened to the public by HM Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Lady Gretton on the 3rd July 2004. Those with access to Google Earth might also like to see an aerial view of the dial - amazingly in sunshine too - at coordinates 52 45 16.28N, 01 08 12.33W. Click on the image or HERE to see a few more pictures of this dial.
10.10.2022

 Fer De Vries article of the month - February 2005 "Sundials topsy-turvy" Nearly all point gnomon sundials project a shadow point on a surface marked with Fer 25a pattern of hour and date lines.
The shadow of the point is where we read the time and date in the sundial pattern.
It is possible to do it the other way around: the sun projects a pattern of hour and
date lines onto a surface marked with just the readout point. Click the image or
HERE to read Fer's contribution.


08.10.2022

 The Fourth Dial of Frogmore The main three sundials of Frogmore are well Frogmoreknown, are recorded in the National Register and have been shown here.  There is however a fourth less well known dial.  It is an horizontal dial constructed in bronze by Royal Engineers from The Royal School of Military Engineering and presented to HM The late Queen, as their Colonel in Chief, on the occasion of their Tercentenary, 13th October 2016. It is delineated to show solar time from 4am to 8pm in half and quarter hours. The design does not specifically accommodate the thickness of the gnomon. It is mounted on a pedestal of rods and a wooden surbase on the side of which is the Royal Engineers' Crest.  Click on the image here or HERE to see four close ups.



03.10.2022

 The Frogmore Vertical Dial There is an interesting vertical dial to be seen on Frogmore verticalthe left tower of the stables of Frogmore House.  This impressive building has two towers one on either side of the entrance to the stables. On the left tower is the blue and gold-background sundial, on the right is a conventional clock. Both are surmounted by windvanes. The dial shows quarters, half and eighth hours with sometimes misplaced dots attempting to mark the half hours. The dial's most recent repainting shows some inevitable 'creep' associated with this repaint and the current gnomon is rather too narrow and looks like a replacement.  Click on the image here or HERE to see a recalculated version.

01.10.22

 The Second Frogmore Park Dial A dial of significant quality in Frogmore Park, though sadly unsigned. This 16 ins diameter bronze dial displays solar time from 4am to 8pm in half and Frogmore 2quarter hours, further subdivided into 5 min intervals. The thickness of the gnomon is allowed for and decorative aspects include an eight point compass and the figure of Father Time with scythe. The motto is ‘In this garden fair amidst your flowers, serene I stand and show your sunny hours.’ Mounted on a pleasant baluster pedestal having acanthus-leaf decoration, all surmounted by an octagonal surbase. A conventional but attractive gnomon casts the shadow. It is recorded in the National Register as SRN 7246. Unfortunately the dialplate is secured to the pedestal with rusting fixings. Impressive nonetheless. Click on the image or HERE for some extra images.
27.09.2022

 The Francis West Dial at Frogmore Park Francis West (1789–1867) was a well-Frogmoreregarded maker of sundials, microscopes and other optical instruments. He and his sons operated from several locations throughout London, on occasions even operating two or more shops simultaneously. He was variously reported to sell from 39 Southampton Street, 31 Cockspur Street, 41 Strand and 83, 92 and 93 Fleet Street. His sons inherited his business. One of his important dials is now erected in the grounds of Frogmore House, Windsor having been moved less than 20 miles from its original location at Claremont House. Claremont, also known historically as 'Clermont', is an 18th-century Palladian mansion less than a mile south of the centre of Esher in Surrey, England.

In 1922 much of the Claremont estate was sold for housing development, leaving just the house and surrounding 210 acres of garden. Most buildings were demolished, but the house became a school in 1930. The 20 in dia sundial at Claremont was rescued in 1931, by HM Queen Mary and erected in the grounds of Frogmore House where it remains. The decorative gnomon bears the arms of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, King of the Belgians. There is a 32-point compass rose and an Equation of Time ring. 32 cities/locations are marked around the chapter ring showing times of noon in those places. The dial is mounted on a fluted baluster style pedestal. A brass plate on the side of the top support stone reads:

Sundial erected at Claremont by HRH Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg Saalfield KG after his election in 1831 as first King of the Belgians. Purchased in 1931 by HM Queen Mary and erected in the grounds of Frogmore House.’

Click on the thumbnail or
HERE for a few images of this interesting dial

The dial is recorded in the National Register as SRN 7247.
22.09.22

 The Top Ten London Sundials? Way back in 2014, the website 'Footprints of Topten dials of LondonLondon' published its selection of the top ten sundials in London as voted by different people.  There are lots of sundials to see in London, some new and some very old and this selection only scrapes the surface. You may like to see which ones were chosen. Click the image or HERE to see more. 

Why not send your own list of the top Ten Sundials of London to the Web Master at this link webmaster@ppowers.com


15.09.2022

 The Lancaster Sundial The Lancaster Sundial can be found in Williamson Park Williamson Parkin Lancaster on the top of the hill near the Ashton Memorial. This was previously the site of the city's bandstand, built in 1907, but is now transformed into an analemmatic Millennium sundial, where the shadow-casting object is the observer who stands with heels on the line showing the current date. The shadow indicates the time by its position across one of the bronze plaques that mark the daylight hours; each one represents a trade or profession in the area. The plaques were designed by pupils of Ripley St. Thomas School and cast by artist Ray Schofield of Sunderland Point. Diallist Peter Ransom MBE was responsible for its delineation and design.  The time indicated is that of British Summer Time, adjusted for longitude. A separate True North marker is included. Corrections for the Equation of Time are indicated for the first of each month and (separately) by a graph.  The dial shows the time from 6.00 am to 8.00 pm in hours. Click on the image or HERE to see six images of the dial and its design. Each can be further enlarged by clicking on them.
12.09.2022  Images  © The Drs Thomson, 2022

 King Edward's Dial King Edward's Sundial is at Sandringham House, currently a private residence of King Charles III. It was bought by Queen Victoria for her son Sandringham Sundialwho later became King Edward VII. It was long a favourite of the late Queen Elizabeth II. As purchased, the house subsequently proved to be rather too small and additions were made which were completed in 1892. A part of those extensions included an East declining sundial mounted high on the end of the House which even today is readily visible from the other side of the Lake. Queen Alexandra personally chose the main motto for the sundial. It reads:

Let others tell of storms and showers,
I’ll only count your sunny hours.


As a result of it being her particular choice this motto became hugely popular not just in the UK but also elsewhere in the world too. A second motto sits at the top of the dial: ‘My time is in thy hand’ (this is a minor modification of text taken from Psalm 31:15).
The dial was designed and installed by F Barker and Son using gold lettering on a slate coloured stone ground. An Equation of Time table is provided, in recess, at eye level below the dial.  The dial shows 6am to 5pm in half and quarter hours. Inward lozenge-ended half hour markers are included. The original Francis Barker had died of tuberculosis in 1875, aged 56 years and his business had by then passed to his sons. Click on the image or HERE to see some expandable images of this excellent dial.
09.09.2022

 The Two Dials at Levens Hall The pedestal dial at Levens Hall in Cumbria has Levens Hallbeen known as SRN 0694 for some years but it was moved in 1991 slightly so as to be in the open. The maker is sadly unknown but the dial is well delineated and placed on a cylindrical sandstone pedestal 1220mm high with a square capital and plinth.
Recently a second - vertical - dial has been 'uncovered' at Levens Hall - rather to the NNE of the horizontal one and seriously concealed behind vegetation. 
The dial is almost a vertical direct South dial but it appears perhaps to decline very slightly.  A fascinating discovery! 
Click on the image or HERE to see more of these two dials. The images can be expanded by clicking on them.


04.09.2022 mage  © Copyright Dr VL Thomson 2022

 BSS Bulletin September 2022 The latest BSS Bulletin has been issued to Members. It contains the Society's obituaries to both Christopher Daniel MBE and Tony Wood. Links are provided here to Michael Harley's website about the newly discovered monastic dial and to Denis Cowan's website.

Key Contents are:
- Thomas Wright's Horizontal Dials: An Update - John Davis and Darius Panahy
- Obituary- Christopher St John Hume Daniel MBE, 13 November 1933 - 17 May 2022 -
John Davis
- Summer Solstice in Fleet Street
- Obituary- Anthony Oldfield Wood, November 1935 - April 2022 - John Davis
- In the Footsteps of Thomas Ross. Part 40: The End of the Journey - Dennis Cowan
- Polar Dial at Bat Galim, Haifa - CHN
- Hat for the Sun: A Visual Tour of Corniced Sundials in Europe, Part 2 - Manuel Pizarro
- A Previously Unrecorded Early Christian Monastic Dial in Ireland - Michael J. Harley
- A Danish Desktop Sundial - Martin Jenkins
- A Belgian Portable Altitude Dial - Sue Manston
- New Research on Medieval Sundials- Mario Arnaldi, Karlheinz Schaldach and Denis Schneider
- A Note on the Vanished Dial in the Privy Garden, Whitehall - Peter de Clercq
- Sundials Old and New at The Waterways, Great Yarmouth - Christine Northeast

09.09.2022  Links to MJ Harley's article and Dennis Cowan's website by permission and [EU C-466/12 retained and as amended]

The 'Unrecorded' Analemma The analemma is nowadays considered to be Donn's Analemmathe 'figure- of-eight' device employed in a mean-time sundial to correct for the equation of time. But, in earlier times the term was applied to a subsidiary instrument, in the form of a graphical projection, which facilitated the construction of principal works such as sundials. The instrument consists of a rotating celestial planisphere graduated with right ascension and declination with a list of the principal stars and an analemma charting the sun's position throughout the year.

Christopher Daniel wrote that Benjamin Donn (1729-1798) was a British cartographer, surveyor and mathematician. Born in Bideford, he was the heir to a long line of well-respected mathematicians, including his father and older brother, who ran a local school.

A lifetime of study and dedication to mathematics earned Donn the title of Master of Mechanics to the King, an honorarium he would hold for only a short time. Donn died in 1798.
Click on the thumbnail or HERE for more about this rare and fascinating item.
27.08.2022   With publishing permission:  C StJH Daniel MBE

 Sundial Barapullah Park near Sarai Kale Khan, Dehli, India. The Dehli SundialJantar Mantar is not the only huge sundial that India has. There’s also a tall, colourful sundial in the middle of the park at Barapullah near Sarai Kale Khan, Dehli. It was installed in 2013 and is possibly one of those few monuments in Delhi that get overlooked. Its location is also a nice place for all those who wish to spend some quiet moments with friends.

Hardly anyone goes here so you can spend hours! And the best part? It’s so close to Nizamuddin and Lajpat Nagar so there's planty of food nearby! It is at Lat: 28.58290N  Long: 77.26567E and is some 36m in diameter(118ft)!! Visit our composite image HERE or just click on the thumbnail.
16.08.2022

 Clocktime Solartime Convertor Michael J Harvey's website is devoted to the clock solar timedials of the Island of Ireland and it presents a most comprehensive summary of the dials of both Northern and Southern Ireland.  It is well worth a look and SunInfo will, with Michael's permission, shortly be showing a few of these fascinating Irish sundials. On that site and courtesy also of Anselmo Pérez Serra, he shows a very useful convertor which allows anyone examining a dial in the field and holding a smartphone and knowing one's Lat/Long, to see the current solartime for current clock time.
Scan or click the QR code shown here or click this link to go to this very convenient convertor.

06.01.22 © Copyright Michael J Harvey/ Anselmo Pérez Serra and used with permission

Just imagine! Places where ordinary sundials work in the summer but not Rjukanin the winter - even when they might be bathed in sunshine throughout the year? You might think this cannot be but in Viganella in Italy and now in Rjukan in Norway that is so.  How so?  Read more here.

6.11.2013

 BSS's First Chairman - Andrew Somerville This entry includes a link to the Link to a published BSS Bulletinobituary of Andrew Somerville, first Chairman of the British Sundial Society. 
It is to be found as the first article of the June 1990 edition of the Society's Bulletin which also (courtesy of BSS) includes a number of other interesting articles too.
Click HERE to read the PDF of this historic BSS edition as it is on their website..

26.08.21 [ [EU C-466/12 retained and as amended]


Remember an entry that used to be here? Go to our Archive Page1 or to our latest page Archive Page 2 We place most older stories from the SunInfo page there after they have been removed from the main page to make room for more recent news.  So, if you want to look for something you once saw on SunInfo which is not there now, here's the place to look.  Entries are frequently dated with their original dates of insertion/amendment on the SunInfo page and they are placed here in order of their removal from the SunInfo web page.  But why not browse the Archive anyway?  There's a lot there.

More News


ArchiveRemember an entry that used to be on this page? Go to our Archive Page1 for stuff we archived during 2015 - 2017 or to our latest page Archive Page 2 for stuff archived 2018 onwards. We place many of the older stories from the SunInfo page there after they have been removed from the main page to make room for more recent news.  So, if you want to look for something you once saw on SunInfo which is not there now, here are the places to look.  Entries are frequently dated with their original dates of insertion/amendment on the SunInfo page and they are placed here in order of their removal from the SunInfo web page.  But why not browse the Archive anyway?  There's nine or so years' worth of entries there.. Enjoy your browsing.
05.12.21, 01.01.2023, 02.01.2024

Sundial Conferences for 2024.
1. The North American Sundial Society
(NASS) will hold its 2024 conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from Thursday June 20th to Sunday June 23rd. The conference will be held at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, 900 West Georgia Street, Vancouver BC. The conference will start Thursday afternoon with a traditional reception and sundial door prizes. Friday will be a tour of local sundials with a visit to the Simon Fraser University where NASS helped sponsor the creation of an analemmatic sundial. Go HERE for more details and to book.

2. The British Sundial Society (BSS) has (February 2024)   advertised its forthcoming 2024 meeting which will be held 12-14 April 2024 at the "Delta Hotel by Marriott", Lynch Wood, Peterborough, PE2 6GB which is located adjacent to the East of England events centre, some 6 miles from the city centre. The conference is open to and at the same rates for, non-members of the Society.  Both single and double occupancy conference prices are commendably under Ł400. The day delegate package is only Ł127. More details, contacts for queries and a booking form are HERE as a printable PDF.
29.02.2024

BSS's Free Restoration-Advice Scheme RETURNS at last !!  SunInfo is delighted to report that the British Sundial Society has reinstated its free service relating to advice on Dial Restoration. It will be recalled that this scheme - always an important part of the need for any Registered UK Charity to deliver Public Benefit - had earlier been abandoned so causing problems with the dial restoration fraternity as well as reducing the society's level of public benefit.

There is a rich heritage of privately owned scientific sundials in the British Isles to be found both on pedestals and on walls, some can be several hundred years old. Many are in poor condition but can often be restored or replicated without loss of their original integrity.  BSS Members have a wealth of data and knowledge of historic styles and makers designs so they can confidently offer free advice based on practical experience.

There is a list of Dial Makers on their website which includes some of those who could also restore existing dials. For some restorations there are even modest grants available.  To find out more go to the Grants Policy on the BSS site.

To obtain free advice on potential restorations contact restoration@sundialsoc.org.uk. Oddly, the separate 'Restoration Advice' link on the BSS website is now only available to Members.
17.01.2024

BSS 2022 Accounts - yet another increased loss and a serious omission too BSS Accounts tn 2022The latest BSS Accounts (those for the FY year 2022) have just been published by the Charity Commission. They show yet another small but nevertheless an increasing loss. Indeed, BSS has not reported a profit for five years now as may be seen by clicking on the image or HERE. Moreover, it seems that despite such regular small losses the Society still persists in spending around Ł700 on unnecessarily 'audited' accounts. The Trustees' report for 2022 rightly includes mention - with sadness - of the death of its librarian during the year, but extraordinarily and it has to be said, appallingly, it fails to mention the death of the Charity's President and most eminent UK diallist Christopher JH Daniel MBE in May of the same FY of 2022.  Fifteen months later (August 2023) an apology, correction and addendum are STILL expected by many of the society's membership. What is going on? SunInfo marks the anniversary of Christopher's death on this page. Suninfo's own obituary of Christopher is HERE
11.05.2023

The (Sadly) 'Unplaced' Treasure At the beginning Canterburyof 2023 a competition was launched to find the nation's favourite ' Cathedral Treasure'. Our choice of course was the pocket-sized sundial, measuring just over 6 cm in length, that was found during excavations in the Great Cloister of Canterbury Cathedral in 1938. It is made up of a tablet of silver with a cap and chain of gold, and a separate gold pin. The cap is decorated with interlacing; its end is formed as the head of a beast and the chain and pin also are finished with beasts’ heads. Two of the heads still have tiny gems for eyes. Abbreviated names of the months in Latin are inscribed in pairs in three lines on both broad faces of the tablet. Around the sides are inscribed words, again in Latin, that translate as ‘Health to the maker, peace to the owner’. It is magnificent though in compettion with the other Treasures, it was not placed in the vote. Sadly, sundials do not figure highly in the nation's consciousness these days. Click on the image here to see the beauty of this rare dial for yourself.
07.05.2023 Image suggested by M Bains

The BSS Dial Tour of 2010 The BSS Conference Exeter in 2010visited Exeter again in 2023 - see the announcement below.  It visited Exeter back in 2010 too and for the website a collection of clips (some from cameras with low-ish resolution in those days!) of visited dials  was put together by the conference organiser.  It shows just a few of the many local dials in the area.  Click on the image or Here to see both the people and the dials we saw on that highly popular two-bus tour. How many Diallists of that time do you recognise?
03.04.2023   © Patrick Powers 2010-2023

BSS Reports its Secretary's Resignation  Unexpectedly, in May 2022 it was reported that the Secretary of the British Sundial Society, Mr Christopher H.K. Williams had resigned.  No reason has been given and no replacement has since been appointed even by the time of issue of the March 2023 Newsletter and Bulletin nor in any later ones!  Later information from the Charity Commission indicates that Williams has also resigned from his position as a Society Trustee.
07.09.2022, Mar 2023

Measuring Dial Declination in Google Maps Visitors to this site who might be interested to measure the solar declination of a building via Google Maps or Google Earth may have been dismayed by last year's temporary removal of bearing information from these two useful resources. A solution to this was to be had by choosing to 'measure' an arbitrary line along the side of the property on which a dial is to be placed or assessed and using a right click to establish the Lat/Long of each of these two ends of this line. Then enter these pairs of Lat Longs into: 
http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong.html to obtain the haversine values by which to display the great-circle distance and bearing between the two points - the programme accepts decimal coordinates as well as degs/mins/secs.

NB As of 04.08.2022 the bearing facility appears to have been restored at least for Google Earth Pro.
24.06.2022

NASS Conference 2023 The 2023 NASS Conference will take place in the Kensington Hotel, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA June 8-11 2023. The venue is about 20 minutes from the Detroit International Airport. This conference features a day and a half of interesting talks on sundials, a full day bus tour of local dials, a visit to an observatory, and the announcement of this year's recipient of the Sawyer Dialing Prize. This year too, NASS marks 30 years and a century of the bifilar sundial. Register Here

The conference will start on Thursday afternoon (4:30 - 6:30) June 8, with an opening reception, introductions, and door prizes. On Friday,there will be a tour of local sundials via motor coach. As well as visiting seven sundials, and the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, the conference will also visit the Detroit Observatory. Impressively, attendance rates are being held at last year's level.
04.01.2023, 23.01.2003

 BSS Conference 2023 The BSS Conference of 2023 was held in Exeter at The Mercure Exeter Southgate Hotel over the weekend 21-23 April 2023.  Rates were: Day attendance Ł186 pp, Single room occupancy Ł335 pp and twin room occupancy was Ł455.
As a registered UK charity any & all members of the UK public were eligible to attend this event, subject of course, to payment of the above conference fees etc
. There was no extra payment for non-members.
10.06.2022, 23.07.2022, 01.01.2023, 01.04.2023, 06.05.2023

The Dial at Milton's Cottage Milton’s Cottage, in Milton Cottage DialChalfont St Giles, is the only surviving home of the poet and parliamentarian John Milton – and the place where he completed his epic masterpiece, Paradise Lost and its sequel, Paradise Regained.

It was built in the late 16th century, most probably for the estate manager of The Vache – once owned by one of the Regicides of Charles I.
Fleeing the outbreak of the bubonic plague in London, Milton came to Chalfont St. Giles with his wife and daughters in 1665, where a house had been secured for them by a friend and pupil, Thomas Ellwood. Milton only lived there for less than 2 years. The dial is a modern garden dial of the type having a 'knuckle duster' gnomon.  Click on the image or HERE for some views of this not very inspiring dial.
29.09.21  Images© VL Thomson, 2021

 Riegler's Novel Sundial In 2003 Werner Riegler Riegler dialpublished his recent presentation entitled A Novel Sundial with Double Indicator and Calendar. This novel dial solves the "sundial problem", it shows the time to the minute and the date to
the day over the whole year without intervention.in addition the dial is universal. It can be placed at any point on earth where it will show the time from sunrise to sunset. 

Click HERE to view a PDF of the slide show.
27.05.21

NASS Conference 2021 The 26th Annual North American Sundial Society Conference was held at the Hilton Garden Inn, Philadelphia Center City, 1100 Arch Street, Philadelphia PA 10107. Many attendees planned to spend an extra day or two in Philadelphia as the hotel is within walking distance of Independence Hall, The Liberty Bell, The Benjamin Franklin Museum, The Museum of the American Revolution, Declaration House.

NASS's  summary of the meeting - it is called the NASS Conference Retrospective - 2021 - can be found HERE              
04.2 1, 06.07.21, 08.08.21, 14.09.21

The Mystery of the Missing Dial A 19thC pedestal Alton Towersbase is to be found at the Alton Towers playpark gardens in Staffordshire which are classed as Grade I on the HBMC Gardens Register. 

The register entry specifically mentions a sundial but sadly it is no longer present.  The listing entry is 1037875. So the mystery is where has it gone? Its removal would have needed listed-building consent.

Click HERE or on the image for a larger picture.
26.09.21  Images© VL Thomson, 2021

 The Moot Hall Dial In Aldeburgh in Suffolk, now very Moot Hall dialclose to the sea stands the lovely Moot Hall which today houses the Aldeburgh Museum. It is a superb timber-framed 17C building, erected by the Burgesses of Aldeburgh at a time of great prosperity as a manifestation of civic pride. Today it is still treasured by the people of Aldeburgh as the centre of their community and a symbol of their heritage. The dial declines about 14.4 degs W and shows a little 'restoration drift' as may be seen from a comparison with a recalculated image of the hour lines. Please do explore the links given here to appreciate this lovely Hall and its dial.
26.05.21  Image © VL Thomson 2021

A Modern Dial in Thorpeness In 2007 a dial was Thorpenesserected in the Benthills area of Thorpeness, a town near the coast in Suffolk.  It is a West declining dial with four declination lines and it is elegantly designed, presented and maintained and was delineated by John Morgan Hughes from Norwich, a member of BSS.
Click HERE or on the thumbnail for a larger image of the dial. Click HERE to see a comparison of the dial with a calculated version based on the Lat/Long and three of the Dial's Declinations. The details of the nodus are not known so positioning details of the declination lines are necessarily approximate.  Note that there is an anniversary date line included which the owner has advised relates to his wedding anniversary.. An excellent modern dial.
29.05.21   28.11.2022 Image © VL Thomson 2021. Details courtesy and © P. Dawes

 The BSS Conference of 2021 was held as a 90 minute  BSS 2021Virtual Conference via Zoom on the 17th April 2021 and some 150 participants from around the globe logged in. Feedback about the event has been very positive and all the speakers (Roger Bailey, Woody Sullivan and Fred Sawyer), were very highly rated. Frank King introduced the event.

A YouTube video of the conference, lasting a little over 90 minutes, is available HERE.
Updated 23.04.21

 The Dial at Bosworth Field After the remarkable Bosworth Dialdiscovery of the remains of King Richard III a sundial was designed to mark the event, his life and legacy.  In August 1485 King Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth, and buried by the Grey Friars, a Franciscan Holy order, in their friary church. In August 2012, Leicester City Council, the University of Leicester, and the Richard III Society began a search underneath a car park in Leicester, to find King Richard III’s remains and the Grey Friars Church. This coincided with the 527th anniversary of the date King Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth.
Five months after the dig began, the University of Leicester confirmed a skeleton unearthed by archaeologists was in fact Richard III. Later a sundial was commissioned. It has a central gnomon topped with a crown. At ground level is an inscription which tells the story of the Battle of Bosworth derived from the chronicle of Polydore Vergil, an Italian at the court of Henry VII. The sundial marks the points of the compass and the distances to other battlefields of the Wars of the Roses. Around the outer dial are three thrones bearing the names of Richard III, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond and Thomas, Lord Stanley.  Click the image or
here for a larger version.
21.03.21

The Sundials of Cluj County! An excellent book on Sundials of Cluj Countythe dials of Cluj County in the Transylvanian Region of Romania has been published by Dan-George Uza.  At 69 pages, it makes a great addition to one's library of books relating to European dials and also makes, of course, a welcome present for any diallist.  Available from Amazon now in print or Kindle versions.  Two other books are also available  "Cadrane solare din Transilvania, Banat, Crişana şi Maramureş" ("Sundials from Transylvania, Banat, Crișana and Maramureș") again by Dan-George Uza (2014, 276 pages, Romanian language with an English abstract) and
"Erdély napórái"  ("Sundials from Transylvania") by Miholcsa Gyula (2020, 419 pages, Hungarian language with an English abstract..
09.11.20, 19.03.21

Is there a Trifilar Sundial? A query was raised Triflar sundialrecently on the sundial mail list as to whether or not a Trifliar Sundial was possible.  It turns out that it exists! Bernard Rouxel of France designed it.and got him second prize in the Italian "Le ombre del Tempo” contest of 2008. It is here limited to showing true Noon and the date.  Read Fer's article by clicking on the image to download the PDF of it courtesy of the Dutch Sundial Society and Frans Maes.

 Luigi Ghia recently posted to the sundial mail list a link to a
computer animation showing Rouxel's trifilar dial in operation.

This animation was made by him with help from Tonino Tasselli and it has been computed for the summer solstice.
On the sundial plane the shadows of the three wires crossing each other, form a moving triangle. The triangle becomes smaller and smaller until it collapses into a point exactly at noon.
The point where the triangles collapse during the year migrates up and down along the green lines in the animation so this line is the meridian line and it may easily be annotated with dates or zodiac symbols.

A different arrangement of the three wires (for example with a rotation of the whole wire system about the polar axis) sets the triple crossing point at different points along the hour lines other than noon.

05.09.20, 07.10.20

Revisiting a Triple Horizontal Dial Not to be Triple Horizontal Dialoutdone by the trifilar dial design above it seems appropriate to revisit John Davis's remarkable and ingenious Triple Horizontal Dial made some time ago for a client in Redwood Valley USA. It comprises a double horizontal design rather after Henry Wynne but adapted for the more southerly latitude by moving the second scale Northwards. The centre of the dial revealed by this process then is used to display Pacific Solar Time where a nodus allows five family anniversaries to be displayed. 
Download John's article from his website here

13.09.20  [ EU C-466/12]

BSS Virtual Conference 2021: The British Sundial Society’s Annual Conference was to have been held between 16-18 April 2021 in Exeter.  There had been no conference held in 2020 owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2021 conference had also to be cancelled for the same reason.  However in 2021 there was held an abbreviated VIRTUAL conference online in April. The event was about 90 minutes in length; it was hosted by Frank King and featured an all North American 'cast',  Roger Bailey, Fred Sawyer, and Woody Sullivan.  This BSS Zoom event was held on 17 April 2021.

All were welcome - at no charge. But you did have to REGISTER in advance.
16.02.21, 08.08.21

Marking A Meridian Anniversary! On 22 October 1884 the Greenwich Meridian located at the Royal Observatory was selected to be the common zero of longitude & standard of time reckoning worldwide.  Click on the image for the decision details.

22.10.18, 03.11.18


The Pittsburgh Blog! Fred Sawyer, President of NASS recently alerted the Sundial Mail List to the fact that  Glenn Walsh, the author of the American Space Watch Tower Blog, was at the NASS Conference 2018 throughout most of the sessions and he later contributed an article on his blog which summarises the recent meeting quite well.
Take a look here at what Glenn wrote.
24.08.18

The Jantar Mantar monument in Jaipur in Rajasthan, India is a collection of nineteen architectural astronomical instruments built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh II, and completed in 1734.

The instruments allow the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye. The monument expresses architectural innovations, as well as the coming together of ideas from different religious and social beliefs in 18th-century India. Visit this site to find out more about many of the instruments

26.09.18

The 'Dials' of Konark. There is a 13th-century sun temple at Konark near Odisha, India which is attributed to King Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty of about 1250 AD. Dedicated to the Hindu sun god Surya, what remains of the temple complex is a 100-foot high chariot with 24 immense wheels drawn by horses, all carved from stone and quite accurately aligned E-W. Once over 200 feet high, much of the temple is now in ruins. The structures and elements that have survived are famed for their intricate artwork, iconography, and various themes. The wheels, spokes and other divisions of the wheels are arranged in a form and number similar to modern time keeping and consequently they invite use as sundials.  A simple calculation of the angles of the spokes between 6am to 6pm on the South wheels shows why. Click on the images for more!
18.07.18

The Nazeing Church Sundial - a restoration project by Barrie Winter and reported here by Ian Butson.

It was in 2009 that funds became available to restore/replace the relief - carved wooden sundial on Nazeing Church near Harlow in Essex.  Read about this remarkable 2010 project reported at this link HERE in 2014
20.06.18  [©BSS/EU C-466/12]


Lower income and higher costs at BSS!! The 2017 Report & Annual Accounts for the British Sundial Society have recently been published and may be examined at the Charity Commission Website or here courtesy of the CC.  Compared to the position in 2016, they show a reduction of overall income in the year of Ł3,258 and at the same time an increase in expenditure of Ł2,053. As a result, only Ł2,192 was added to Total Society funds in the year. Fees for independent examination of the accounts and (new for this year) for professional preparation of the claim for gift aid, have this year soared by 127%.  Indeed, something approaching 8% of all membership fees currently appears to be being spent on such bought-in professional services.
 
Comment received from a SunInfo reader:
"I am at a loss to understand how they justify spending on professional services"

08.03.18. E.&O.E.


Unusual Dial in Grantham  We were first made aware of this interesting dial in 2017.  It is in the one-time 'Clockmakers District' of Grantham at the junction of Welby Street and Westgate. It was delineated by Charles Westwood in 1790 as a west declining dial that would also show the equinoxes and solstices. It has only relatively recently been recorded in the National Sundial Register where its reference is SRN 6705. Unusually for such an old dial it still retains its original pin nodus.

If you can contribute to this description do contact the webmaster.

19.06.17, 09.07.17, 09.06.2018


SunInfo's Dial Time


SunInfo's 2018 "Dial Time" Newsletter

 

SunInfo was once again delighted to publish its FREE Spring Newsletter to accompany the 2018 Conference Season. 

 

Here you can find a few stories taken from the SunInfo web pages in the past months, some new topics and some updates on older stories too.

 

In the usual PDF format, this four page Newsletter contains news and items of interest to any diallist.

 

Download it free HERE.or read it on Ussuu Here
(use Ussuu's full screen mode to read it)
16.04.17


SunInfo's 2017 "Dial Time" Newsletter

 

Once again SunInfo was delighted to publish its FREE Spring Newsletter to accompany the 2017 Conference Season. 

 

Here you can find a few stories taken from the SunInfo web pages in the past months, some new topics and some updates on older stories too.

 

In PDF format, this four page Newsletter contains news and items of interest to any diallist. For a little more about the Ripple Restoration that is mentioned on page 1, click here

 

Download it free HERE.or read it on Ussuu here
10.04.17


SunInfo's 2016 "Dial Time" Newsletter

 

Once again SunInfo was delighted to publish its FREE Spring Newsletter to accompany the 2016 Conference Season.  Here you can find a few stories taken from the SunInfo web pages in the past months, some new topics and some updates on older stories too.

 

In PDF format, this four page Newsletter contains news and items of interest to any diallist.

 

Download it free HERE. Read it in 'Ussuu' HERE
28.03.16, 12.01.17


SunInfo's 2015 "Dial Time" Newsletter

 

SunInfo's first FREE Spring Newsletter was published to accompany the 2015 Conference Season.  In PDF format the four page Newsletter contained news and details of interest to any diallist. 

 

View or Download it HERE

 

06.04.15


STOLEN DIALS

STOLEN! Do you suspect that a dial known to you might have been stolen? Sadly many dials have been over the years.  A few recent thefts are mentioned in the boxes below.  The BSS has a list of stolen dials (sadly over a decade out of date - not updated since Feb 2010) which is accessible here. There are some 44 dials listed.  If when you can get to see them and you recognise any, do let the BSS Registrar know.

 2014 STOLEN! Thieves stole a sundial from a plinth in a Morley churchyard, where it had stood for 250 years.
The dial had been made by clockmaker and scientist John Whitehurst and had been in the grounds of St Matthew's Church, in Church Lane, Morley.
The instrument, which was made from bronze, was reported stolen on Sunday, February 23 2014 and had last been seen at the start of January. Please inform the webmaster if you have seen this dial.

 

2014 STOLEN!  Thieves in Blickling Hall's secret garden lifted and made off with the sundial and pedestal which is of carved Portland stone and stands 113 cms high.
Jo Bosch, Blickling’s marketing and visitor manager, said the bronze sundial a replacement for an earlier dated from the late 18th or early 19th century, had a metal plate on it which said “Brookbrae Ltd, London”.
The theft happened between 10am on February 6 and 10.15am on February 7 2014.
Please inform the webmaster if you have seen this dial or its pedestal.

STOLEN! An historic vertical sundial (National Register No SRN 2136 - click on image) has been stolen from St Mary's Church in Prestwich, Manchester. The dial is dated 1781 and is a vertical direct south dial which carries the motto "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi". There is some confusion as to the material of the dial; it may be stone or iron. Anyone with further information should contact the police, the Vicar (bryan.hackett@btinternet.com) and send  a copy to webmaster@ppowers.com. Another (B&W) image here

2014 STOLEN! Police are appealing for help in tracing a valuable sundial stolen in Sunderland between noon on Monday, May 5, and 2pm on Friday, May 9, 2014 from a rear garden.
The stolen sun dial is a distinctive brass Grande Armillary Sundial Ensemble, 56 inches tall, believed to be as per the image and made by Henri Studio of Illinois, USA. It is worth hundreds of pounds. Click on the image here for a larger view.

More information here
10.06.14

2014 STOLEN! Police are hunting thieves who stole a unique decorative sundial from a Ł4 million mansion near Potters Bar., Herts
Between Dec 22 2014 and Jan 18 2015, a large brass armillary sphere sundial disappeared from Rabley Park, a historic 12-acre estate in Packhorse Lane, Ridge.
Police say the large ornament can only have been moved by a vehicle.  It has several engravings, including “Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of’, ‘Clacton-on-Sea’, ‘Hemel Hempstead’ and ‘Newcastle’.
Anyone with any information should contact the police

11.02.15


2017 Grade II sundial STOLEN from Conwy churchyard

A Grade II listed sundial dating to 1761 has been stolen from a churchyard in Conwy and its stonework smashed.
The stonework holding the bronze sundial at Conwy church was smashed into three pieces.
Rev David Parry, vicar of Bro Celynnin, said the theft was noticed on Friday morning and reported to police.
"It's very sad. In taking the top, the thieves have severely damaged the stone. It's been part of Conwy's history for a long long time," he said.
"It's a well known landmark, listed in its own right, and we're at a loss to know why someone would want to damage this."    The dial is believed to be SRN 3262, dated 1765, 360mm dia includes an EoT scale and was made by Mereidh Hughes, of Conwy.
14.02.17


Dialplate Stolen Bridge End Gardens Saffron Waldon Bridge end Some time between 2019 and 2023 a gnomonless dialplate was removed from its lovely pedestal in the Bridge End Gardens in Saffron Walden.  The only images we have of it before and after the theft are HERE.  Anyone with information about the whereabouts of the missing dialplate should contact the webmaster.
A "Special" sundial was STOLEN from Bell Vean, Cemetry, Lanner Cornwall in January 2022.
An ornamental sundial that encouraged a Cornwall community to reflect and remember loved ones has been stolen from a graveyard.
The sundial was found to be missing from Lanner Lawn Cemetery, near Redruth, this morning (21 January 2022) after an angle-grinder was used to remove it from its base.
It is made from six interlocking brass rings and has a large inscription that reads: “Take time to rest and reflect on your joys.”
The chairman of Lanner Parish Council, Tim Luscombe, said: “It was a really beautiful and special sundial.
“There are lots of connections with it that we can’t get back again, it had a real emotional value for the community.
“We anticipated it would have a 100 year lifespan but now it’s gone. Even the forge blacksmith in Charlestown where it was made is no more.”  The sundial was commissioned with the creation of a ‘Garden of Remembrance’ in 2005. Members of the parish council designed and built a space to encourage the community to reflect and remember loved ones.
“Lots of people sat in this garden in really difficult situations. It’s nicely planted with low walls around it and it’s just a peaceful place to be. The sundial was the focal point in the centre.
“They’ve stolen from a graveyard. It’s so disrespectful”, Mr Luscombe said.

RECENT SUNDIAL CONFERENCES


The NASS 2019 conference was held in Denver, Colorado 20th - 23rd June 2019. It included presentations and a tour of sundials. Early registration is recommended at the Hilton Garden Inn - Denver Downtown. NASS had a discounted rate of $179/night (plus 15.75% tax). This rate applied 5 days before and after the conference if rooms were available.

Full NASS registration until April 14th was $310-$322 depending upon dinner selection. After April 14th the cost increased to $335-$347.

24.02.19, 05.08.19

BSS Bath Conference 2019 This year the conference is being held at the Bailbrook House Hotel in Bath from 26 to 28th April. One of the top hotels in the city, Bailbrook House Hotel is an historic grade II* listed mansion, located just a few minutes from the centre of historic Bath with on-site complimentary parking. As BSS is an English Charity  the Conference is Open to all, not just to BSS Members.
Day Delegate Rate - Ł160
Full Package for two nights Double - Ł525 Single Ł340
Extra nights - Ł95 single and Ł135 double. 
19.02.19

The BSS Conference 2018  took the Society to Norwich - to the Maid's Head Hotel there. The Conference ran from Friday 20 April to Sunday 22 April, 2018. See a summary of the  BSS 2018 Programme. Only 57 delegates attended. On arrival one of two short walks were  planned in Norwich itself for the Friday afternoon and in what for many was a welcome break from recent venues there was a coach tour to view David Payne's sundial trail on the Saturday afternoon. See more about what dials were seen. Full package prices were Ł340 for single occupancy, Ł520 for double. The Day Delegates rate is Ł160. As usual the conference was open to non-members as well as members and at no difference in price. See the delegates out on the tour.
02.02.18,16.04.18, 20.04.18, 27.04.18

Reprise of the 2017 BSS Oxford Conference
21-23 April 2017

The  2017 BSS Spring Conference took place just outside Oxford.  Have a look at our special web page at the link below to see where it was held, what the hotel is like, how to get to it, delegate rates, what else to see and do, how the conference was arranged and the two planned visits to dials and the conference dinner. All Information is  updated regularly.

Our Special BSS Conference page included notes written to accompany Dr Philip Pattenden's conducted tour of The Sundials of Oxford Colleges  which were visited during the Inaugural BSS Conference in 1990! Compare then and now!! Only on SunInfo!!

See our Special Conference Page - 2017

09.05.16 15.09.16, 05.01.17,21.03.17, 23.04.17, 02.08.17


Reprise of the 2016 BSS Liverpool Conference

You can find information about this conference here (or click on the image above).  Only about 55 delegates attended in 2016, even fewer than last year. Read news of what happened there, the programme and how the conference was arranged, the plenary lecturer, how easy it was to get there by land and air, details of the hotel itself, where you could find parking, the conference format, what there was to do, how to get taxis, where the bus stops are, find nearby sundials and even how to see the sights of Liverpool too. 
09.03.16 18.04.16,23.05.16


Check out  our page about the 2012 BSS Cheltenham Conference; a conference that was held over ten years agoThe level of interest is little short of amazing.  Mind you, our page does include summaries, photographs and the results of delegate opinions  - sadly things that are no longer published about its conferences by the current BSS Council.  Indeed, and by way of example, there is still no website entry of consequence on the BSS site about the 2013 meeting in Edinburgh nor one about the 2014 Greenwich Conference nor the 2015 Nottingham one nor the 2016 Liverpool, nor even yet the 2017 Oxford meeting nor that of 2018 either.  Why ever not you may ask?  Well, it might appear to you as a desire for secrecy. A number of issues arose at the Cheltenham conference which may be behind what appear to be moves by the present Council towards ever greater secrecy about their many blunders. Blunders that continue to surprise the dialling community. Their omission from their notes of the problems with the membership survey, of Graham Aldred's evidence in the Christopher Daniel book saga, the successive losses of society assets and their recent quite extraordinary attempts to block you from linking from this web site to theirs.  Hmmm, Shakespeare's Hamlet (1.4 [90]), Marcellus to Horatio comes to mind...


Which BSS Conference was it? Are you a long standing member of BSS?  Can you remember at which conference the delegates were given this little notebook? When closed it measured 4Ľ x 3 ins and contained a pad of paper, an equation of time chart and a two year calendar!  Click the image to find out!!
27.02.14

The Exeter 2010 Conference Tour was videoed Exeter 2010and later moved to YouTube using the rather limited equipment of the time. But despite this it is pleasing to see old friends - one or two of whom are sadly no longer with us - and of course to see how such coach based tours were conducted back then in and around some of the really rural areas of Devon.  Enjoy this short but interesting clip HERE
31.01.2023

Interesting News, Articles & Links

Recording a Dial's Declination. An easy approach to estimating the declination of an existing declining vertical dial.  Here is a PDF of a few self-explanatory slides presented by BSS Member Patrick Powers at the 2005 Newbury Meeting of BSS. (5MB PDF).  You can buy a copy of a Reference card relating to this to carry with you. Click on the link...
19.12.14, 03.01.15

 BSS's Net Current Assets Fall 5Ľ% in a year.  The Charity Commission has received BSS's accounts for 2015.  For those wishing to see how the Society fared in those past twelve months, they may be examined Here.
 

A drop of 5Ľ% in Net Current Assets has been reported in the last year

 

It is thought largely to be because of conference losses.  Earlier Accounts can be conveniently checked and compared in our Document Archive below, see the section 'Policy, Guidance, Rules, Information Sheets & General Documents'.

 

Members attending the 2016 Society AGM got few answers to this further BSS blunder.

03.04.16, 05.04.16, 19.04.16


Every time the sun shines in Seattle, it sheds light on Woody Sullivan and his mission. "I am out to make Seattle the sundial capital of North America, I just love the irony of it," said Sullivan.  More here.

Waymarking™!  Waymarking.com is a super way to see the dials of the world from your armchair and to read a little about them too. 

Have a look at SunInfo's new Waymarking page here.

It  includes links to the waymarking  website and to specific sets of dials. 

All courtesy of waymarking.com


An Early English 'Scientific' Sundial with exactly calculated, unequal hour angles has been discovered at Scadbury Manor, home of the Walsingham family.  The very family that was so connected with the Tudor Court.  More information here.

 The Rostov 'Slab' discovered in 1991 may, it now seems, be an ancient Bronze Age attempt at a combination of sundial and moon dial.  The slab is marked with round divots arranged in a circle, and an astronomical analysis suggests that these markings coincide with heavenly events, including sunrises and moonrises.  Larisa Vodolazhskaya of the Archaeoastronomical Research Center at the Southern Federal University in Russia suggests that the people in the Northern Black Sea region were astronomically savvy with a technology on a par with what was seen in ancient Egypt around the same time.  Amazing, more information here

The Polish Sundial Register now records 1369 dials!  The Catalogue of the sundials of Poland has well exceeded 1100. BSS Member Darek Oczki is the Registrar and his website http://gnomonika.pl/ lists them.  (Sept 2020)
Vertical 768
Horizontal 406
Equatorial 96
Analemmatic 54
Multiple 24
Symbolic 12
Polar 4
Altitude 2
Portable 1
Meridian lines 1
Others 1

Calendars and things from the past

The FREE 2015 SunInfo Calendar is still available here!!!
With one A4 page for each month, this FREE PDF pictorial calendar can be downloaded and printed off to give you images of twelve UK sundials to look at throughout 2015. Each month includes the equation of time correction for each day and a separate page allows longitude corrections to be estimated for anywhere in the British Isles.
Check it out and download it here. Only a 4MB download. Just print it on suitable paper stock. 17.12.14

SunInfo's 2014 Calendar!
With one A4 page for each month, this FREE PDF pictorial calendar can be downloaded and printed off to give you images of twelve UK sundials. Each month includes the equation of time correction for each day of 2014 and a separate page allows longitude corrections to be estimated for anywhere in the British Isles.  Check it out and download it here.  Only a 3.7MB download. Just print it on suitable paper stock. People have
still been downloading this beautiful calendar long after 2014 !!  Why don't you have a look too? Then look at our 2015 one!

A Calendar for 2002?  Why ever should sundial enthusiasts wish to look at - let alone keep - a copy of a calendar for 2002?  Have a look at our photogallery here to see why!

Fotheringham's Calendar. John Knight Fotheringham FBA (14 August 1874 – 12 December 1936) was a British historian who was an expert on ancient astronomy and chronology and who established the chronology of the Babylonian dynasties. In 1929 he wrote a 13 page monograph The Calendar which concisely and clearly describes the history of calendars from that of the Egyptians to the present day.
It is now out of copyright and worth reading
here [2.1MB PDF]
©HMSO, 1929 07.08.16

 Articles, Links and Editorial


Key facts about BSS.  Here are details of the Society, the members of its Council and its management, its appointed and excellent Specialists, how to access its website and its Facebook page, how (and why!) to join the Society, how to send payments to BSS via credit card or PayPal and many recent annual accounts.  In fact more or less everything you need to know about BSS is here - warts and all! There's even help for BSS Members who may like to understand the background to the worrying oddities in today's erratic management of the society.
[ A Disquieting Anniversary] [A Disquieting Delay] [Now the Disquieting Book Dispute!]

 
Interested to have access to more information about the operation of BSS?  Then why not go to our private BSS  Members page. [Password access available upon prior registration with the webmaster].

BSS's "1960's" management approach.  In October 2011 the incoming secretary of BSS suggested using a S.W.O.T analysis of the Society's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.  This is now a rather discredited approach to management (because it can actually limit performance) which was first mooted in Stamford in the 1960s. It is therefore more used nowadays to summarise the outcome of a more professional  analysis of a business. However one good use of it is to provide an historical perspective and allow outsiders to judge for themselves what progress has been made in any intervening period. Two analyses were prepared in 2011.  Have a look at the more detailed of the two here and check which of the suggestions in it have subsequently been adopted and which not!

Quotes of 2013... From the UK Charity Bulletin No 122, May 2013 published by IEL - who happen to be BSS's appointed Independent Accounts Examiners:

Integrity: There's no better test of a person's integrity than their behaviour when they are wrong. (Marvin Williams).
Destiny: Don't confuse poor decision-making with destiny. Own your mistakes. It's ok; we all make them. Learn from them and move on. (Steve Maraboli)

Now, even after 2017 might not these form useful advice for today's BSS Council - and from their own Examiner no less?

The company David Brown Sundials offers a Blog/Website about their recent projects.  Worth a look here


Greenwich Dial 'Restored' by BSS President Christopher Daniel!  In 1969 the 'Meridies Media' noon mark mean time sundial, designed by Dr Tadeusz Przypkowski, with amendments by Christopher Daniel, was installed on the south wall of the Meridian Building in what was then the Old Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Over the years it deteriorated and had to be taken down. In 2009 a movement was started to reinstate a replica. Chris Daniel, who had been curator of the sundial collection of the National Maritime Museum at the time of the original installation and who is now the President of BSS, was asked to design the replacement. This he has undertaken without a fee. The dial was formally opened by BSS Patron, Sir Mark Lennox Boyd on Wednesday 10.10.12 at 12:30pm. It represents a fitting Diamond Jubilee dial in Greenwich Park.  Some early notes about the replacement are here and further details of the ceremony can be found here. An image of this dial appears in the Wikipedia article about Sundials.


New Images and an article are available of the most recent dial commission by BSS President, Christopher Daniel MBE.  This is the Noon mark on the Guildhall in Faversham, Kent which was declared 'open' by the Town's Mayor in April 2013.  We are now pleased to be able to present a photogallery of the results of this commission and an article about it.  More details in the panel opposite (see: "The Faversham Dial"), or go straight to our Faversham Photogallery and/or to Chris's  Noon Mark article.  To learn even more about this sort of dial consider joining the British Sundial Society.  You will surely not regret it.

01.08.13, 01.09.13


Odd how sometimes you might not get a reply from the BSS Trustees.  Here, after four years and coming up to five, is one of those.  In the past the trustees have objected when their professionalism has been questioned yet STILL there are examples of quite serious blunders which some might think of as being in this category.  The related issues with the permanence of the Library and with the President's book collection mentioned above are probably two of the longer lasting ones for members of the Society but the mistaken forwarding of financial transactions to a non-member is really quite serious, is worrying to those of us who place trust in charities and of course it is contrary to duty for any Trustee.  No apology or even an acknowledgement, has been received in respect of this letter - now nearly five years later.  More important is the secrecy with which this is enveloped - like so many of the other issues with BSS. Yet again, the membership of BSS have not so far been informed.  Why ever not?  Odd thing 'professionalism'.  Not much unlike 'Integrity' really...  There's more on the matter of BSS Integrity here

31.07.14,28.08.14,29.09.18


 

Linking to the BSS web site if you find you are being

'Forbidden' from doing so by BSS!

Direct hyperlinks to the BSS website from SunInfo were at one time being blocked by BSS. That stopped for a while when the new BSS web site opened but then from late 2015 some visitors to SunInfo reported that this was happening again. 

 

You might well wonder why any professional entity like BSS should want to make it hard for visitors like you to reach them. The more so when the advisory 'error' messages you receive actually says in print what they are doing!

 

All our visitors will know very well that this web site is, and always has been, very supportive of the concept and importance of a British Sundial Society; although it has never had any truck with the many apparent blunders, secrecy, cover-ups or obfuscations that some might have come to see as emanating from the Society in the recent past. 

 

The latest issue to report is, we feel, another rather unprofessional and ineffective attempt by BSS to bar linking from this SunInfo website (and not apparently from others) to pages of the BSS web site.  Clearly the concerns expressed by so many contributors on SunInfo  about BSS and its management must have real merit if BSS would rather you did not read them.

 

So, what is happening?  Who would ever want to block visitors from a website if there's nothing odd going on and especially when what is being said is true? 

 

Well, if you do find a BSS page 'Forbidden' to you - without any reason simply select the whole link, right click and select 'Open Link in New Tab'.  It's as easy as that! 

 

Sometimes you might get:

"The owner of this website (www.sundialsoc.org.uk) has banned your access based on your browser's signature (24ddd725bccc3452-ua32). CloudFlare Ray ID: 24ddd725bccc3452 • Your IP: 86.180.232.181 • Performance & security by CloudFlare" .

In this case simply set your browser to Incognito and go back in.

 

You can also go to our special links page BSS links .  Indeed, this new SunInfo links-page is now in a limited way, a sort of 'One-Stop-Shop' for some key BSS pages; so you can use it from within SunInfo to peruse as many of the provided pages of the BSS website as you like.

 

Give it a try and thank you for staying with SunInfo.  It is very much appreciated. 

 

Remember: SunInfo does not restrict linking to any of its pages by any website and SunInfo reports facts.

E &O.E 25/26.02.14, 05.03.14, 06.07.14,30.11.15, 23.12.16


Earlier BSS Conferences.  Want to see summaries, photographs, programmes and delegate reviews of previous BSS conferences ?

Click for
Norwich 2018
- Sundial trail information here Programme here

Oxford (2017) - Information here
Liverpool (2016)
- (Authors, papers, Issues and other details)

Nottingham (2015) (Authors, papers, Issues and other details)

Greenwich (2014) (Authors, papers, other details)

Edinburgh (2013) (Authors & Papers),
Cheltenham (2012) (Full summary)

Wyboston (2011) (Full summary)

Exeter (2010) (Full summary & Video)
 

20.04.12, 16,01,13, 02.03.13, 27.04.14, 01.08.17, 22,04.18


The Nice Dials of Newstead  There is a wonderful ruined abbey in the Gothic style at Walter Baxter [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsMelrose in Scotland.  It was no longer maintained after 1544 and indeed it is recorded that the last monk there died in 1590.  Part of it was destined to rise again to be used as a parish church from 1610 -1810 and it was presumably in this period that many stonemasons were needed.  Whatever, it is recorded that many of these stonemasons lived and were trained in the nearby town of Newstead and whether or not that is the reason, there are several stone sundials in Newstead mostly dated to the 1650s - 1780s. Denis Cowan (of course!) visited Newstead in 2011 and he later published a fascinating article about these dials in the BSS Bulletin.  Well worth a read. There is at least one with its mason's mark, one was previously thought to have been a date-stone and one that is now stored out of the weather. Nonetheless there are two still thought to be missing. Maybe they are yet to be found?
03.08.17

 There are two vertical declining dials at Grimsthorpe Castle - not one!  Historic England's Listing Details for Grimsthorpe Castle in the parish of Edenham in Lincolnshire, appear to only show one vertical declining dial at this property, yet there are two - both in 'reasonable'  condition for their age.  More than that, the larger one is still showing accurate Local Solar Time too.  

 

Read a little about the castle, find out where the dials can be seen on the building and have a look at two photographs of them. Then, marvel at just how well the larger one is telling the time even today.  All here.

10.08.2017


A 17th century brass sundial was prised from its stone plinth outside the front door of St Tysilio's Church between Llanymynech and Four Crosses in Powys. Churchgoers noticed it was missing on January 11 2018 but they can not say when it was last seen. Dyfed Powys constable Rhodri Treharne said it was an unusual artefact that police wanted to re-unite with the church.
Mrs Carol Davies, churchwarden, said the sundial is about eight inches in diameter and is of a golden brass colour.
17.02.18

The San Marco Noon Mark - Venice. In our Dial Time Newsletter for April 2016 we published a note about the rarely noticed Noon Mark that exists in St Mark's Square in Venice.  It is damaged, rusted, drooping and possibly even now loose as well yet it still shows solar noon to within 13 mins and that after something like 630 years!

Seen again in November 2018 - in this picture taken at a solar time of approx 11:51 am - though the shadow has just passed the noon line. Click on the thumbnail here for a larger image.

Read the original 2016 Dial Time article here
22.11.18


The History of the Countess's Pillar Here's an interesting article about the Countess's Pillarhistory of the Countess's Pillar, one of the more famous dials in Britain which was restored by Christopher Daniel. The dials and the pillar were placed there by Lady Anne Clifford, the last of all the Cliffords, who by her force of character and charitable works left her mark on her property and a legend in the county of Westmorland that remain to this day. The link here is to chapter four of "A Tour In Westmorland by Sir Clement Jones, published 1948".  It makes interesting reading.  Her charitable gift is still in existence and is managed as a named charity by the local council! Click the image here of the South dial to read more about this remarkable 17thC lady and her works.
15.09.20   [EU C-466/12]

Four Treasures of Bromley House Library Dr Anja Thompson-Rohde, who is the Senior Bromley House LibraryLibrarian at the Bromley House Library in Nottingham, regularly gives a short talk on You Tube about some of the Treasures in the Library. The library is one of very few remaining subscription libraries in the UK and was founded in 1816. It holds the BSS Library and with it the Christopher Daniel Book collection. In September 2020 talks were presented about four books held in the BSS Collection. These four talks may be heard HERE.  There is more to read HERE too.  As a subscriptionlibrary Bromley House is only open to paid up BH members and to BSS Members.

Graham Aldred first suggested that this library might be an excellent venue for the Society's books since the private house where they were then being held was being sold (!) and a new place was clearly urgently needed. Particularly appropriate was the fact that at Bromley House there is both a meridian line and a Pilkington and Gibbs heliochronometer. Graham spoke with a trustee of Bromley House who happened to be attending a talk at a BSS meeting and an agreement was subsequently reached. Graham then personally repaired and serviced the Pilkington and Gibbs dial - it turned out that the EoT cam had been wrongly fitted - and now BSS Members and all paidup Bromley Library Members may peruse these books at their leisure and perhaps also observe the sun's transit and even check the time by the sun during their visit!
31.03.21, 02.04.21 (Image thumbnail courtesy Bromley House Library)

Twenty+ years on! To mark the Millennium, Amble Council in Amble Sundial in 2020Northumberland commissioned a firm of architects in Newcastle to turn their asphalted car park into a civic amenity. A part of this was to be a large central sundial and Patrick Powers was commissioned to design it. During a recent visit to Northumberland a detour was made to see how the dial has fared after nearly twenty years! It turns out to be in remarkably good shape. Clearly the area is being very well maintained and is well worth visiting if you are in the area. The dial was set out on a N-S line which was also used to locate a small amphitheatre and on this visit it was pleasing to see locals seated in that to chat as well as others, including children playing, in the square. The redevelopment won the 2002 RTPI Award too. Click here or the image for four images of the dial today and click Here to see more about the dial's development and installation and even about its accuracy - at least at one part of the time scale! - when it was completed.
01.09.20

 Fer De Vries' article of the month October 2003 For the month of Shadow DialsOctober 2003 Fer De Vries took the concept of Shadow Dials.

Shadow sundials was an idea of Hans de Rijk, published in the Dutch Sundial Society Bulletin of "De Zonnewijzerkring" nr. XI, 1982.
Read Fer's article
HERE
19.06.21

 Theme & Variations - of Mottoes? Many British dials include mottoes and Palace dialmany of those have similar versions.  Here attached as a PDF is a list of UK mottoes known to SunInfo and found by many diallists over the years often from unrecorded sources. Not only can the reader see here a list of these mottoes but, in this presentation, you can see many of the variations that can also be found on UK dials.
Click HERE to see the list of UK dial mottoes as known so far.
If you know of others or other variations please do let the webmaster know the wording and the details of the dial on which it has been found. Thanks especially to all who have so kindly contributed to this archive.
23.05.21

 McNally's nine known dials  In the early 1800s there were two County Down Mcnally dialdial makers who sold into England and Scotland as well as Ireland. Richard Melville is well known as one but Joseph McNally is the other and only nine of his dials are known to have survived.
McNally records his profession on one of his dials as “Ship’s Broker and Commissioner” and, it is believed that he lived in Portaferry in Co. Down. John Davis, Michael Harley and Harriet James published a fascinating article in a BSS Bulletin some time ago which is freely available on the Internet HERE. It makes interesting reading.
22.12.21 Courtesy M Harley

 Was it really all down to Railway Time? It is often said that the need forBlackburn Market Hall Railway Time was the reason that GMT was adopted throughout the UK.  That is of course partially true but there were several other factors involved, not least the pub landlords of London and the mill owners of Lancashire.

Courtesy of the most excellent book ‘About Time’ by David Rooney we can really see how the use of GMT arose and developed. 

Click HERE to read a short summary about this.  Click on the image to see more of the picture of Blackburn's former Market Hall and its Time Ball. Now sadly lost.


07.07.21






The British Isles

SunInfo's Historical Document Archive
[Inaugurated May 2012]

Here may be found documents relating to BSS society governance and operation and sundials generally - a bibliographical and historical resource for researchers and diallists
Information and documents held here on our servers are in the public domain or were drafted by authors/editors who, as the  (or as joint) copyright holders, have given their permission for their placement here. Other important information is referenced by links to their internet location.
Following a long standing practice agreed at the time by the then BSS Council, as document originals become available on the BSS website and as webmaster time permits, their mention here is changed to a link to the copy on the BSS website.

SunInfo Privacy Policy

Dialling Documents
Register Ramblings
The Recorder & DialTime Publications

Register Ramblings was the name given to a one-time regular entry in the Society's Newsletter. The column was started by Patrick Powers when he took over as Registrar in 1997 with the purpose of keeping the membership informed about progress with the National Register of sundials. It was produced during Patrick's 10 year tenure as Registrar from the beginning of 1998 to the end of 2007. All are in Word 2003 format. The Newsletter column has been continued by the current Registrar (John Foad) under the title Register Notes. Some of his more recent editions may be seen on the BSS website.

Register Ramblings: A zipped archive of all 37 issues of Register Ramblings

The Recorder: was a four-page colour magazine that was issued to delegates at each BSS Spring Conference and which served to comment on issues of interest to Dial Recorders and the general membership alike.  It was instituted by the then Registrar (Patrick Powers) at the Yarnfield Conference in 2003 as a way of giving something  back to the recording membership and it was published annually until 2014.  A PDF version was usually prepared each year and placed on the BSS website so that those who could not get to the Annual Conference were still be able to read it. The Recorder was edited and published by the Society's Registrar of the time. Here are links to them. There was no edition of the Recorder published for 2015 at which point SunInfo's DialTime 'took over'.. |Tips for the preparation of the Recorder|

DialTime: is by way of being a similar publication to the Recorder but has been published intermittently (usually annually) by SunInfo.
Recorder & Dial Time Issues:| Yarnfield 2003 | Oxford 2004 | Egham 2005 | Durham 2006 | Cambridge 2007 | Latimer 2008 | Grange-over-Sands 2009 | Exeter 2010 | Wyboston 2011 | Cheltenham 2012 | Edinburgh 2013| Greenwich 2014| DialTime 2015 | DialTime 2016| DialTime 2017|DialTime 2018|
 

BSS Policy and Charity Guidance, Rules, Information Sheets, Society and other Documents

The Society was indeed fortunate when Graham Aldred took over as Secretary for he transformed the record keeping and policy structure of the Society.  Prior to Graham's Secretaryship there were few, if any, written policies or even guides for trustees and specialists.  Additionally and because of the Society's small size, past Council decisions had rarely been recorded by former secretaries other than in the (then unsearchable) minutes.  This section lists just some of the Society's approved policies, rules, guidance and other general documents that have been drafted or edited by various trustees as a result of his initiative.  All documents are included here with permission of their authors (or their editors at the time).  Policies may of course be changed at any time by a majority vote of the trustees; for this reason check before you rely on the minutiae of any policy. Where a policy proposal was agreed by the trustees without any change, the original proposal was sometimes used as the policy document. Since April 2011 one policy (that relating to Reserves) has been abandoned, even contrary to a prior agreement with the Charity Commission and without informing the Commission too.   Another (the Expenses policy) has not always been implemented as intended. 
These serious and disquieting issues led to the
resignations of two trustees in 2011/12 - the first resignations of trustees that the society has experienced in its history and despite these, both issues remain unresolved even now.

BSS Policy & Practice
| BSS Constitution 2002 | BSS CIO Constitution 2014 | Implications for BSS in converting to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation|
| BSS Data Backup and Recovery Policy | Dial Register Policy & Guidelines |
Expenses Policy |
| BSS Grants Policy
|BSS Public Benefit and Reserves Statement (2009)| Public Benefit and Reserves Statement 2011|
|
Suggested Code of Conduct for Charity Trustees courtesy 'Alliance for the Voluntary Sector'| Declaration of eligibility for newly appointed Trustees |
| Suggested draft conduct of Paper Ballots at General Meetings |Draft council membership Nomination Sheet |
Early planning for the BSS photographic Register |
| Early thoughts on the need to improve insurance |


Charity Guidance

| The rights of charity trustees to information concerning their charity | Risks of being a Charity Trustee |
Trustee Vetting Requirements|Charity Trustee Welcome Pack|
| Photocompetition Organiser's Guide | Conference Organiser's Guide (2.2Mb PDF) | Fixed Dial Database Structure and Operation |
| CD version of Register - a Preparation Guide | The English Heritage MIDAS standard for databases |
|
Making an offsite backup of the Mass Dial Register| Operation of the Auto-Update process for the two BSS Dial Registers | John Ingram's ten reasons to revisit dials |
|
How to deliberately extend the BSS Register Database Reports table by any number of blank entries | Proposal for encouraging children's interest in dialling |
| Suggestions for Website Improvement - Oct 2011 |
| Members concerns for the future of the Reference Library |Charitable Public benefit and Non Member access to conferences|
| How well the current BSS Grants Policy works | Grant Policy Consultation 2013 - an alternative view | An Individual view about the Grants Policy 2013 proposals |
| Ideas for expanding the role of BSS in Education (2013) |EU legal decision on copyright regarding clickable links |

BSS Related: |BSS Exeter Conference Sundial Tour 2010|Patrick Powers' reasons for resignation as a Trustee of BSS 2011| How sundials work | Link to Information sheet: Know your Society | Link to Information Sheet: We've Changed our Clothes | List of BSS Conferences 1990-2015 |BSS Conference locations to 2013 | The 1998 E-Mail Users Membership Questionnaire |
| The Mass Dials of Gloucestershire - Tony Wood| Venue details BSS Newbury Meeting |Information Sheet MS Publisher Template (22MB) Best with Broadband |
| Link to BSS's list of stolen sundials | Archive of BSS Facebook entries | Link to BSS Bulletin author guidelines |
|Bulletin letter on Concerns about the future of the BSS Library |Collated concerns regarding the future of the BSS Library|

| The full discussion about the BSS Council's faulted 2011 Membership Survey|
An individual response to the 2011 BSS Membership Survey |

| History of the BSS Web Site 1997-2013 |A shorter Oxford Dial Tour |The longer Oxford Dial Tour |
A Description of the Sundials of Oxford Colleges 1990|
|
The Chipping Campden Dial Tour |Piers Nicholson's Oxfordshire Dial Tour|
| Geoffrey Lane's article on the Tyttenhanger Stained Glass Sundial|The Arabic Origins of the Scientific Sundial|
|
Francis Barker's Instructions for Setting a Dial - 1914|An explanation of the Equation of Time |Calculating accurate EoTs over time | An easy way to estimate the declination of a vertical declining dial (5MB) |
| The holes in the dial on Beccles Church
|BSS's promotional brochure for general or public use |A Very Personal Sundial - Ortwin Feustel|
|Of Analemmas Mean Time and the Analemmatic Sundial - Fred Sawyer|
England's first Copernican|
|
Book Review of David LeConte's Guernsey Sundials|BSS Conference Programme 2018|BSS Chairman suggests Dials are Old Hat|Bringing more Members to Meetings|

Documents (incl some early editions)
BSS Accounts: |1997|2000|2001|2005|2006|2007|2008|2009|2010|2011|2012|2013|2014|2015|2016|2017|2018|2019|2020|2021|2022|
BSS Bulletins: | Author index from 2002 to Vol 27| Title Index from 2002 to Vol27|
AGM Reports: 
| PP AGM Reports to Members 1994-2012 - Zipped archive of 17 files| PP report regarding the Cheltenham Conference 2012 | Link to BSS Membership form
Christopher Daniel: |Christopher Daniel's article about the Faversham Noon Mark |The Christopher Daniel Archive Announcement |Bibliography Christopher Daniel's publications and articles
| Portfolio Christopher Daniel's Dial Restoration Projects| Christopher Daniel's Dialling Commissions| CStJHDaniel's Books Donation Document |Christopher Daniel's note for the Highgate School OB magazine|The Life and Times of BSS President Christopher StJ H Daniel|First Books loaned to BSS Library by CStJHDaniel|

 

Dialling Resources
Bibliographies
Obituaries & Other Misc Documents/URLs and works of interest


Dialling Resources:
 Great Circle Studio Solar Data [may be temporarily inactive] | MIDC SPA  Calculator | Sun Ephemeris | World differences between solar noon & standard time noon (2015) |
|The Sundial and Geometry, a Classroom Introduction (4MB pdf)
|Positional Astronomy by Fiona Vincent |The late Fer de Vries' notes on the construction of an hemispherium|
| Printable one page EoTs for 2014|
Comparative Accuracy of EoT 2014|Printable one page EoTs for 2015|Printable one page EoTs for 2016|Printable one page EoTs for 2017| One Page Printable version of 2018 EoT|One Page Printable version of 2019 EoT|The Art of Dialling (podcast)|

|The Sundial Societies of the World|Bifilar Gnomonics (F Sawyer)|Willy Lenders times for sunrise and set and illumination period of any vertical dial|
|On the Design Latitude of Horizontal Dials |
Fer De Vries English article on Bifilar Dials |Estimating Dial Declination|
Sundial Restoration C Daniel|
Mike Shaw's The Universal Dialist’s Companion (then hit download at top left) 12Mb PDF|
Understanding & Constructing Sundials. K.P. Cheung|Kevin Karney's dialling resources 2014|
|
Kevin Karney's dialling resources 2018|The Sundial goes to War - M Barnfield et al a history of the Sundial Compass|
|The Sundials of the National Trust|Glossary of Dialling Terms|The BSS Glossary of Sundialling Terms|

Mass Dial References: Peter Hamilton-Leggett's Bibliography of Mass Dial References (April 1997). | Edward Martin's Original Mass Dial Database
An archive of Peter's original website (History of Walkhampton village, Devon; Battles fought in the United Kingdom and Mass or scratch dials on English churches

The Mass Dials of Gloucestershire - Tony Wood | The increasing importance of European mass dials |

Mediaeval Source Material on the Internet: - Manorial Records| Medieval source material on the internet|UK War Memorials having Sundials. Details of any particular memorial are available from the UK National Inventory of War Memorials (
http://www.ukniwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.002006)

Obituaries: |Andrew Somerville|Margaret Stanier - Obituary | Michael Maltin - Obituary | Peter Hingley, RAS Librarian - Obituary | John Hayden - Obituary |Peter Drinkwater- Obituarial Notice |Fer de Vries - Obituarial Notice| Richard C Mallett - Obituary| Brian Asquith (sculptor) - Obituary| Allan Mills - Obituary|Frank Evans - Obituary|Ian Wootton - Obituary|RA (Nick) Nicholls - Obituary|Reinhold Kriegler  - Obituarial notice|Gianni Ferrari - Obituarial Notice - David Young & Gordon Taylor - Obituarial Notices| Andrew James- Obituary| David Le Conte - Obituary-info/Nicholls2.pdf |Tony Wood - Obituary|Christopher StJH Daniel MBE - Obituary|

Miscellaneous items:
|The 2014 SunInfo Calendar|The 2015 SunInfo Calendar|513 sundial links to websites and information on the Web|How to search the Sundial Mail List Archive |
|History of the Prime Meridian - Past and Present |James River Studio Javascript Dial Calculator suite |A Day out with Edward Martin and Mass Dials |
|The sundial goes to war, an article by Malcolm Barnfield |
A history of F Barker Sundial maker| Telling Direction by the Sun and Moon |
|Leybourn's graphical construction for horizontal dials |Ideas for the improvement of BSS's Educational Profile | Finding the first point of Aries from first principles?|
|Lunar Sundials and the Lunar Analemma|Sundials in the Mathematics Classroom | Michael Harley's Sundials of Ireland |
|
A fascinating and detailed description of Jaipur's  Jantar Mantar in India|Reflexions on Finding True North 2003|
|
Recent restoration works at Jaipur's  Jantar Mantar in India | Interim update on the making of the Greenwich Noon Dial |Sundial Societies, Groups and websites of the World |
|
Denis Cowan's Longitude oddities of Scottish Dials |
Martins Gills Article Sundials on Boulders |
|
Edmund Halley's "A New Method of Determining the Parallax of the Sun, or His Distance from the Earth" |The BSS 1997 Newton Rigg Conference Programme|
|1962 discussions about the Instruments in Holbein's Ambassadors | 1999 discussions about the instruments in Holbein's Ambassadors |Restoration of the dial at Isleworth|
|Sundials at New College Oxford |Establishing geographical coordinates using observations of the Sun and Polaris positions |
|Using flowers as a sundial| Stonehenge as an eclipse predictor? | A Beer Glass Sundial?  |Which direction is Mecca? |
|A Meccano Tellurion |
Astrolabes, Cross Staffs and Dials (by Peter Ransom) Free to read on line|Triumphs and Tribulations in Teaching (Peter Ransom MA Address 2014)|
Fotheringham's Calendar - a history of calendars|Correspondence with the Bursar re the Queens' College Sundial 1986|Designing the Cody Technology Park (DERA) Noon Mark and Analemma|The Noon Dial at DERA (Cody Technology Park)|
|Sun compasses of WW2|
Refurbishment considerations for the dial at Queen's College Cambridge 2006|The Queen's sundials at Windsor|Glenn Walsh's Blogspot on the NASS Conference 2018|
|
Sundial using fingers?|Bulletins of the Sundial Society of Flanders, "Zonnewijzerkring Vlaanderen" 1995-2017 (in Dutch)|History of Britain's Summertime|
|
Catching the Shadow -An Illustrated Talk on The Sundials of Jersey by David Levitt|The Sundial at The Parish Church of St Peter In the Island of Jersey|
|On the method of direction finding by Sun and Watch|
Mac Ogglesby: Some relationships between a straight style of any orientation and its hour plane|Print a paper horizontal dial for anywhere on earth|
|Use two sundials and a book to prove the earth is not flat| A Trifilar dial|The Mottoes of British Dials|Christopher Daniel Career Talk to Air/Sea Rescue|Sundials of the IoM in the 19thC|
|VERTICAL STEREOGRAPHIC SUNDIAL by MACIEJ LOSE.
|Horological History of Charing|

***Please Contact the webmaster if any of these links are found to no longer work or if there is any other problem***


This site is continually being updated with more documents, news and analysis. 

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See some of the many photographs of sundials to be seen on Google®, Here


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The BSS Chairman's Radio Interview!
Just a bit of fun
 

At the 2012 Annual BSS Conference held in Cheltenham, and perhaps rather mischievously, there was played a clip from a radio Interview that the Chairman, Frank King, had had with Chris Evans on Radio 2 on 28th March 2012.  It was about sundials.  It makes interesting listening.  Not only does it extol the interest that there is in sundials of all types but it proves to be the first 'interview' that Chris Evans has had where he did not ask a question!!  An mp3 audio version of the interview (it is 800kB in size) may be downloaded to your PC and played using Windows Media Player or another proprietary package like IrfanView here

Frank King's 2014 lecture

The opening lecture at the BSS 25th Anniversary Conference held in Greenwich on 25th April 2014 was given by Frank King and was entitled:
Extreme Ring Dials or Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend. Have a look at it here.  It lasts 45 mins. Best with Broadband

The Sundial Atlas Sundial Atlas is a public website, the brainchild of gnomonists Savian Fabio and Fabio Garnero. It was created to give all dialling enthusiasts a tool to document and search for images and information on sundials around the world.

 

Do you wish to Subscribe to receive material from SunInfo or even to Unsubscribe from receiving future material from SunInfo whether by email or ordinary mail?  Click here.

 

UK Privacy Regulations 2011

Cookies!  This web page does not itself set or use cookies.  However when making payment to BSS from this site or when using some other linked sites, for example by using PayPal, cookies may be used by those linked sites. Certain pages of this site use Google Analytics - a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google") which uses "cookies".  Similarly it uses the services of Statcounter. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you and/or your computer in the way described above. SunInfo Privacy Policy
Assistive Technology This site may not be suitable for users of assistive or some mobile technology.  The multiple topic nature of this domain and its many and very varied links prevents the full and proper installation of such technology. The Webmaster welcomes enquiries about any specific problems that a visitor may have and will always try to assist where possible.
Links & Change Policy This web site does not use hot linking. In collating information that may be of interest to our visitors, this site like many others employs hyperlinks to other informative websites. In the interests of clarity and speed such links will usually be so-called deep links - ones made directly to the information of interest on the remote site rather than ones simply to its home page.  This policy has been adjudged legal under both EU and UK law  and is  summarised here. However despite this, where links to commercial sites are involved (and where advertising and the like might be circumvented by the use of deep links) then links will usually be made to the home page of the website in question and any necessary secondary information will be provided regarding subsequent navigation.  If you believe that we have not adhered to this policy or you wish to ask us to use home page linking for your site then please do send an email giving full details to the Webmaster. Sometimes on this website links may be specified in full and these should simply be copied and pasted into a separate tab of your browser.  This is especially true where attempts have been made to bar deep links by recognising and barring links from the hosting URL. In such cases linking can simply be achieved by copying and pasting the link into your own browser.
This website operates a policy of 'continual improvement'.  Where errors, spelling mistakes or desirable layout changes and similar issues may come to be identified they are corrected without any erratum being published.

Disclaimer &
Copyright

This website is managed independently of any other sundial related site. The material in this and any connected pages is sourced from several persons and resources and it changes regularly.  Commentary and other material herein will also change in emphasis and at any time may not reflect the policy or opinion of any national sundial society including the British Sundial Society, its trustees, its specialists, its members or even the views of the owner of this website. Whilst providing a forum for comment, which may sometimes be critical, it seeks to be a supporter and a promoter of the British Sundial Society, its objects, its concept and its charitable status.  We try very hard to ensure that the information and views expressed, on these pages are both complete and correct and that no copyright has been infringed. Fair-use is claimed where images and text are used in news related entries and links. Document text is chosen and published on this website with the author(s)' permission on the basis that outwith a contract of employment at the time of writing or a pre-existing or any known subsequent legal transfer of rights, the copyright in the text is assumed to rest with the author and that his/her permission is sufficient to permit publication.  If you have noticed an error or an omission on this or any other page or can suggest an improvement, a useful addition,  or if you believe that any specific copyright may have been infringed, wrongly attributed or has been the subject of any actual or implied transfer of rights away from the original author, then please do send an email giving full details to the Webmaster and action will always be taken, apologies issued and appropriate and corrective text inserted.  Received comments will be published. See here for details of any such.  Except where permission for use has been specifically obtained and stated it should be assumed that under the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act (2013) and the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, copyright is claimed over all images on this domain.

Sundial Society Websites with English text

The North American Sundial Society web site may be reached at http://sundials.org/. The Dutch sundial website (with an English section) De Zonnewijzerkring may be reached at http://www.de-zonnewijzerkring.nl/. The longest established English language sundial web site is probably Sundials on the Internet at http://www.sundials.co.uk. The official British Sundial Society Web site may be found at BSS Web Site. The BSS Facebook Page can be reached at www.facebook.com/sundialsoc.  This however is not currently being maintained. When operating properly, the Facebook page offers a message board facility by which anyone may make comments and ask questions about dialling and/or the society.  The British society also owns the domains www.sundialsociety.org.uk and www.britishsundialsociety.org.uk. When not in use for development purposes these automatically link to the official site.  The Sundial Association of New Zealand operates an English Language Sundials Blog: http://sundials-rosaleen.blogspot.co.uk/.  Websites in languages other than English may usually be understood by using Google Translate.
16/03/2024

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