St Nicholas - Little Horwood- Bucks
Posted by: 
Norfolk12
N 51° 58.230 W 000° 51.048
30U E 647632 N 5759938
A scratch dial to the left of the doorway inside the Porch of this old church at Little Horwood in Buckinghamshire,
Waymark Code: WM8C4M
Location: United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/10/2010
Views: 2
A scratch Dial an early type of sundial:
HISTORY
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.
Frequently, several appear on one church but no regional variation in design has been established. Their boundaries of occurrence are slowly appearing. Some counties (e.g. Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire) have few dials whereas others (e.g. Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire and Kent) have many.
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.
Due to rebuilding, mass dials can end up almost anywhere on a church, even the north wall. They are frequently found inside a later added porch over the south door
Sundial Type: Other
Related Web Site: Not listed
|
Visit Instructions:
Only one log per location per person. You should log your own waymarked sundials as well.
GPS in photo optional.
Recent Visits/Logs:
| There are no logs for this waymark yet. |
|
|
|