The British Sundial Society

This, the sixth scheme, has had a record number of entries, boosted in part by time available due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Visitors to the website are encouraged to submit comments on any or all of the sundials, using the reply box at the bottom of each page, on aspects such as design, craftsmanship and overall function of the dial. These comments will help the Trustees to choose the entries for particular Awards.

In summary, we have a large ‘monumental’ dial in Malaysia; a restoration of very old polyhedral dial; a ‘first venture’ to commemorate a ruby wedding; the restoration of a stained glass window dial; a number of dials (conventional and unconventional) by experts in Cambridge; an obelisk for a garden in Cornwall; a novel altitude dial linked to human activities rather than just the hours, and a number of precision dials of different types cut in slate.

1. David Brown – The Re-birth of a Large Polyhedral Sundial
2. The Cardozo Kindersley Workshop, Cambridge – An Islamic-Inspired Horizontal Sundial in Jeddah
3. The Cardozo Kindersley Workshop, Cambridge – A Portable Stereographic Sundial on the End-Flap of a Book
4. The Cardozo Kindersley Workshop, Cambridge – A Horizontal Garden Sundial in Rutland
5. The Didsbury Parsonage Trust – The Replacement Stained Glass Sundial in Didsbury, Manchester
6. David Hawker – A Ruby Wedding Vertical Sundial in Sutton, Surrey
7. Inscriptorum of Sundborn, Sweden – A Vertical Wall Sundial in South Cambridgeshire
8. Martin Jenkins – The Battle of Britain 80th Anniversary Sundial
9. Martin Jenkins – Janet’s Dial
10. Martin Jenkins –The Rotating Polar Mean Time Dial
11. Martin Jenkins – The Socrates Plato Dial
12. Martin Jenkins – The Zodiac Horizontal Mean Time Dial
13. Syed Kamarulzaman – Ta Ha Sundial, Sepang, Malaysia
14. Frank King – A Portable Stereographic Face Mask Sundial
15. Tool/Toy Project – The Circadian Yardstick
16. The Voss Obelisk – A Pair of Declining Reclining Slate Dials in Cornwall

Martin Jenkins has clearly made excellent use of his time in 2020 and has, just ahead of the deadline, submitted details of five dials to the 2020 BSS Sundial Design And Restoration Awards

Battle of Britain – 80th Anniversary

Because of my interest in flying and 2020 being the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, I decided to design and make a west facing dial to commemorate the event. The dial is slate, 600mm by 480mm x 20 mm thickness. The knowing of time is a very important aspect in flight whether for navigation, fuel management, or coordination between air traffic.

Read More

An unusual submission to the 2020 BSS Sundial Design And Restoration Awards from the team at Tool/Toy Project.

This is the Circadian Yardstick, part of a collection of instruments made by Tool/Toy Project in 2019 for the Oslo Architecture Triennale. The collection consists of a set of objects designed to slow down the daily domestic routine by encouraging regular playful interactions with the Sun in the home. The devices engage the senses, encouraging various ways to listen, touch, watch, meditate, navigate and dance with the sunshine and its effects. 

Another submission to the 2020 BSS Sundial Design And Restoration Awards, this time from our Patron Sir Mark Lennox-Boyd.

Name:

The Voss Obelisk

Type:

Pair of declining reclining slate dials with a third information slate

Year:

2019

Materials:

Burlington Slate dial plates with gold-plated bronze gnomons

Size:

Dial plates are approximately 40 cm square

Location:

Cornwall

Design and delineation:

Mark Lennox-Boyd

Dial Plate Cutting:

Ben Jones

Gnomon:

Fabrication by John Huddlestone.

Obelisk:

Portuguese Granite cut in Portugal and supplied by Lantoom Quarry, Cornwall

Hidden metalwork:

John Huddlestone

Reference:

Mark Lennox-Boyd and Ben Jones: ‘The Voss Obelisk, Time for Evermore’, BSS Bulletin 31(iv) 12-16 (December 2019).

BSS Sundial Design And Restoration Awards 2020

There’s still time to enter the competition, so for those who have been creating dials during lockdown now is the time to share! For more information, see details of the competition.