Sundials

Capt. Daniel commenced his talk on sundials by saying that he joined the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich in 1964, after a career at sea, being appointed Head of the Department of Museum Services. Since leaving the NMM in 1986 he has been a designer of sundials. His commissioned work includes the famous dolphin sundial at Greenwich, marking the Queen’s Silver Jubilee; the reconstructed vertical sundial at HM Tower of London; the Sir Francis Drake commemorative stained-glass sundial in Buckland Abbey; and the equinoctial armillary sundial in Windsor.

He explained that a sundial is an instrument that determines the time of day from the sun by using an indicator, called a “gnomon” or “style”, to cast a shadow or project a spot of light on to a graduated surface. Sundial time differs from clock time because of the varying speed of the Earth in its orbit of the sun and because of the tilt of its axis. Most people think of a sundial as the horizontal type, usually sited in a garden as an ornament. But for centuries the most common type of sundial in Britain was built vertically on the wall of buildings, particularly churches and market crosses situated in the centre of villages and towns. It was thus easy for people to get an idea of the time, particularly those of church services. The earliest known dial of the vertical kind in England is on the Bewcastle Cross in Cumbria, and dates from the 7th Century. The earliest recorded reference to any sundial dates back to 1300BC in Egypt, whilst the earliest Graeco-Roman sundial has been dated at 300BC.

From Saxon times sundials have played a fundamentally important role in regulating the daily life of mankind throughout Europe and the British Isles. Indeed, the study of the art of constructing sundials, or the “Art of Dialling”, was an integral part of every scholar’s education. Only with the coming of modem communications and the extreme accuracy of timekeeping equipment has the sundial been eclipsed as a scientific instrument and been relegated to little more than a garden ornament.

Sundials fall into two main categories, either fixed or portable sundials. Fixed sundials are those that are normally found outside, attached to a building, fixed to a pillar, or on a pedestal in a garden. Portable sundials used to be carried around by gentlemen of leisure before the days of pocket watches. Capt. Daniel used many slides to illustrate the large number of sundials which still survive in the UK, including those in museums, in the gardens of historic houses, and in National Trust houses and gardens. There is a British Sundial Society with a large and active membership, and Capt. Daniel presented the Group with a copy of their latest Bulletin for February 2000. He also tabled a Shire Album he had written entitled “Sundials”, which gave a detailed account of the history, development and importance of these fascinating objects.

Thank you, Capt. Daniel, for a most instructive and enlightening talk. The next time we see a sundial we will have a far better idea of how and why they were of such importance, and that they still have relevance today.