Conference Edition The Recorder April 2003

An Occasional Newsletter for BSS Recorders —Yarnfield Edition

Tempus Fugit? Is Tempus Fugit really the sible sundial type is repre- most common sundial motto? sented in the remaining 68. Over the last few centuries As soon as any study is at- that motto has become en- tempted the first thing that is grained into the memory of noticed is the enormous varia- Topics most people whether or not tion in the actual text of similar • A look at mottoes on dials they have any active interest in mottoes. So, for example mot- sundials. But is it actually as • Using the Register to answer toes using the words Sunny common as we might sup- questions about dials Hours (or Houres etc) either on The declining dial on Woodstock Town pose? their own or in various forms, Hall is one of the Tempus Fugit group of • How best to use digital cameras dials. The BSS database has for total 58. Included in this num- for dial recording some time now allowed us to ber are ‘I only count the sunny Diem; 12 or even 15 when • New BSS policies on gifted dial record mottoes that are known houres’, and the fuller version: instances of Sieze the Day are collections on the UK’s Fixed dials and ‘Let others tell of storms and added. Tempux (Edax Rerum) with not too much difficulty it is showers I only count your • Better recording techniques occurs 9 times and even We possible to study the fre- sunny houres’. The Sic Vita shall (die all) has 6. Tempus quency of the more common group (including variants like • Difficult photographs! as a word occurs in no less ones. Ut Hora Sic Vita) has 32 en- than 79 mottoes but when tries. Horas non numero nisi At the last count there were English versions are allowed, serenas; 26. Sic Transit Gloria some 885 dials having re- the Tempus Fugit group comes Mundi; 21. As a Shadow (such corded mottoes. Of these in at 84 to snatch the record is Life); 14, Pereunt et Impu- some 512 are on Vertical dials as expected. Inside this issue: tantur has 13, Amyddst ye (268 of which are on Direct Flowers variants number 11, South dials) and 305 on hori- Tempus Fugit? Is it as common 1 Watch and Pray; 19 with Carpe as we might think? zontal dials. Almost every pos- Are our Churches really aligned 1 East-West? The Digital Revolution 2

New Policy on Dial Collections 2 The Next Register 2 Are our Christian Churches really aligned East-West? Recording the Horizontal Dial 3 It is almost an article of ‘faith’ rough and ready idea. any account of inaccurate de- Be a Dial Detective 3 that Christian Churches are lineation or recording but, on Of the 1088 churches with The Worst Photograph? 4 aligned East-West. But how the face of it, more than half of vertical dials, 624 or 57% have often was this achieved to any the country’s churches have non-canted direct South Dials real accuracy? In view of their walls that are oriented toward and 464 or 43% have canted age one might think not often. the cardinal points of the com- Direct South or declining dials. The presence of a sundial can pass to an accuracy that per- Five of these even have canted give a clue and it is interesting mits a Direct South dial simply declining dials! to go through the Society’s to be fixed to a South wall. database to try and get a very Of course none of this takes How did they do it? Page 2 The Recorder

The Digital Revolution “I’ve just bought a digital cam- rarely adequate even if the vice for producing permanent era and I won’t use an ordi- whole image is taken up by the prints at ~30p each from e- nary one ever again”. That is dial. Also digital cameras of- mailed images. When register- a common reaction these days ten have an inadequate optical ing a dial sighting these prints but is a digital camera really as zoom that prevents one from should be sent in with a com- good as it sounds and does it getting close enough to fill the pleted dial report form . BSS really provide an adequate image with the dial. Forget cannot yet accept e-mailed Ideally use a camera image for archive purposes? digital zoom — it simply re- forms and photos because we of 3.3M pixels resolu- The answer is Yes, it can do — duces the resolution of the do not have the facilities or provided that the camera is end image and doesn’t make time to process all the results. tion or above, use the good enough and the resolu- for a good picture. With a digi- We are working on ideas for a highest resolution every tion and image permanence of tal camera use the highest digital archive which can ac- time and use optical the prints is adequate. So, available resolution settings, cept such records but this zoom to fill the frame what camera is good enough get in as close as you can us- needs a mechanism for data and what makes an image ing optical zoom and then get retrieval as well as for storage with the dial. Please sufficiently permanent? Most the image printed profession- and it must be compliant with don’t submit prints digital cameras have a low ally — rather than on a home the approaches adopted by prepared on a home resolution (640 x 480 pixels) PC or Mac. Both Boots and other heritage organisations. computer and printer! setting and if this is used it is Jessops offer an Internet ser- Watch this space!

New Policy on Dial Collections Over the past few years the chive requires one of our stan- Ta’Bois’ collection went to Society has occasionally been dard forms to be prepared for David Young for safe keeping presented with collections of each dial and for the photo- and, owing to the large backlog dial records that have been graphs to be archived by on Register entry the WI and built up by Members and oth- County. For these collections the Rodber Collections have ers. One of the earliest was such forms generally have to not yet been entered. It was that of Noel Ta’ Bois which be written by the Registrar and appropriate therefore for a Just two of the 23 volumes from the Regis- came to the Society after the the wording is thus more about view to be taken of our proce- ter of Fixed Dial records. subsequent death of his wife what can be seen from the dures and the Council recently Margaret. More recently we photograph and no longer re- approved a change whereby have received the results of flects the views of the original such collections will be kept the WI’s Millennium Dial Hunt recorder. On top of that the intact in the archives and with in Northamptonshire and now photographic collection is then a new referencing approach the Noel Rodber Collection. effectively split up within the being adopted to satisfy data- The current format of the ar- archive. Fortunately Noel base integrity.

The Next Register— What wouldyou like to see? The next Register is Despite the backlog of entries will present problems not just approximately Latitude 52 with still waiting to be entered we in ease of use but also in all Counties in Wales and Ire- likely to be twice the are on target for the issue of terms of cost and we shall be land included in a so called size of the 2000 another edition of the Register looking at ways in which these Northern book. A cheaper sometime in 2004. This will problems might be eased. ‘pocket’ version could be Edition! Let us be substantially larger than the One idea might be to publish in printed without images and have your feedback 2000 edition because of the two separately available vol- without detailed descriptions continuing discovery of more umes by dividing the country or of course we could publish on what form(s) this and more dials by our ever into North and South. The with better quality images and new Register should vigilant team of Recorders. snag with this approach is that even word searching on Indeed, viewed from a year in order for the two books to CDROM. What would you like? take. away it certainly looks as if it be of similar size, the dividing Let the Registrar know your could be twice the size! This line would have to be drawn at Conference Edition Page 3

Recording the Horizontal Dial more valuable to those who the 1752 calendar change? Some recorders only use the • There may be one or two have an interest in researching (Check the date when April's Furniture box on our recording forms of half hour marker - this sort of connexion. EoT is zero) form when there are extra what are they and do they lines of delineation like those point in or out? Things to record include: for the solstices and equi- • How many points has the Com- noxes. Many dials have no • What form do the numerals pass and is there a Coat of such furniture and so often • Is the sub-style of the dial or marks for Noon and Arms, motto, maker's name, this space is left blank. (usually the Noon line) split 4am/4pm take? date etc? to accommodate the width However, scrolls, sunbursts of the gnomon? • What subdivisions of time • What city names are recorded and other decoration both on are marked and where are and at what hours (or even at and around the dial itself and • Are the main hour numer- they on the dial? what minutes) are they the positioning, and shape of als to be read from inside marked? the time scale, the nature of or outside the Chapter • Is a Watch Faster/Slower the half hour and quarter hour ring? type of EoT scale provided • What other decoration is there markers and other aspects of and with what accuracy is it on the dial? the layout all contribute to a • Do the main hour lines recorded? dial's furniture and should be pass through the numerals recorded so that the Register of the Chapter ring or not? • Is the EoT scale pre or post may in the future become even

The Woodstock Dial—solving a conundrum? On the first page the dial on original position. However, James in 1999 to take our first Woodstock Town Hall in Ox- closer inspection shows that photograph of the dial on St fordshire is pictured as an ex- time after 6pm is shown and Mary Magdalene’s Church in ample of a dial using the Tem- so the dial is a West decliner Woodstock. It was then clear pus Fugit motto. However, this despite the gnomon being that the Town Hall dial was is not the only thing that is in- placed (incorrectly) along the most probably a copy of the St teresting about this dial. It Noon line Thus, this dial was Mary dial (even down to its was way back in 1998 that delineated as a West declining backward lettering for 7am Anthony Capon first drew at- dial and yet is canted to the and 8am!) rather than one tention to the fact that the dial East. The plot thickened. delineated for its location. was unusual in that it is placed There are only 11 other verti- The Town Hall dial is probably The dial on St Mary Magdalene’s Church, on a ledge and turned or cal declining canted dials modern. It is known only from Woodstock canted to face South. The sus- known in the Register so it the 1950s and was redrawn picion then was that it was a would be nice to find the expla- in the early 1990s. See what dial that was no longer in its nation. It was left to Andrew you think from the pictures

Be a ‘Database Detective’ yourself This issue contains one or two known mass dials of the UK, it Fixed Dials:. If you have an examples of how the database will increasingly become avail- Patrick Powers can be used to extract infor- able for analysis via similar, 16 Moreton Avenue interest in mation both about specific though naturally not identical, Harpenden Herts AL5 2ET researching dials of fixed dials and about the sta- facilities. [email protected] tistics relating to dials and dial a particular type If you have an interest in re- types. searching dials of a particular Mass Dials: or by a particular Tony Wood A database of broadly similar type or maker or if you simply 5 Leacey Court maker do not design is currently being devel- want to know how common or Churchdown hesitate to make oped for the mass dial Regis- otherwise certain dial types Gloucester GL3 1LA ter. As it becomes populated and recorded features are, do [email protected] contact. with information from the not hesitate to ask:. The Registers of the British Sundial Society are formed from archived written records each certified by the individual dial

The British Sundial Society recorder and accompanied by photographic prints or transpar- encies.

The main data on the forms and (since 1998) a scan of one An Occasional Newsletter for BSS Recorders —Yarnfield Edition or more of the photographs of the dial and a scan of the form itself are recorded on a relational database for subsequent search , identification and retrieval. The British Sundial Society was formed in 1989 and is a thriving and friendly Society of nearly 600 members. Its objects are to advance the education of The database content forms the basis of the Register which is the public in the art and science of gnomonics and the knowledge of all types of sundial; to catalogue and advise on the restoration of sundials that still exist in published at intervals and which is made available to Mem- the British Isles, and to research their history. In addition to publishing the Bulletin and other books, it bers at a competitive price. organises meetings and a major conference every year.

Secretary: Douglas Bateman, Searches of the databases can be made for research purposes The British Sundial Society, 4 New Wokingham Road, Crowthorne, Berks upon application to the Registrar (for Fixed Dials) or to the RG45 7NR. Phone: +44 (0)1344 772303 W E’ RE ON THE WEB! Mass Dial Group Coordinator (for Mass Dials) at the ad- BSS Web Site: http://www.sundialsoc.org.uk EXAMPLE. MICROSOFT. COM dresses on page three..

And finally, the search for the Worst Photograph of a Dial!

No, we are not trying to find the Society’s worst photogra- pher! In fact quite the reverse. It is fun to see the results of a stal- wart attempt to photograph a dial in the most adverse of circumstances. That might be because, as here, night had fallen just as the Recorder got to the dial or because the shot could only be taken from a very long way SRN 2050—Minster Abbey, Thanet in Kent. Taken by a away. digital camera as daylight completely faded. Image much processed even to be as good as this!! These are just two of the ‘better’ cases that have passed the Registrar’s Desk over the years. Unless, that is, you know better!! Perhaps you have one of your own to sub- mit? SRN 4428—Bubblewell, Minchinhampton as originally taken from point of closest approach! Now, where is the dial?