Chesterton St Marys Church - Oxon
Posted by: 
Norfolk12
N 51° 53.260 W 001° 11.147
30U E 624853 N 5750099
Scratch Dial on this lovely old church at Chesterton in Oxfordshire
Waymark Code: WM857X
Location: United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/31/2010
Views: 5
Mass dials (scratch dials) are medieval (1100 - 1600) dials found on the south walls of churches.
They were usually near the main door or the priest door at about four to five feet above the ground.
About 8 or 9 inches across and rather roughly cut, they come in a wide variety of designs, from semi-circles of dots to complete circles with associated radii. Their chronology is difficult to determine but simple versions with only four or five lines are early whilst those with numbers round the edge (rare) are late.
The gnomon, invariably missing, pointed straight out horizontally and so the dial would not record the same hours at all times of the year. The mass dial is in any case usually regarded as an event marker for the church services rather than a time piece.
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