14-Jun-2025
June 2025 Editor : J.Mike Shaw
CHAIRMAN
The BSS Conference in Winchester was well attended and much enjoyed. The Society is most grateful to all those who contributed as speakers, organisers or in any other way. There are further notes on the conference below.
The Registrar
John Foad has regrettably decided to retire as Registrar and has written an entry later in this Newsletter. John has been an absolutely perfect Registrar; he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of British sundials and pays great attention to detail. I am most grateful to him for his many years' service in this role. In the short term, Graham Stapleton and Anton Leach will look after the Register. The registrar@... role-address will become FixedDials@... to correspond to the long-standing MassDials@... address; registrar@... will be retained for a while. We hope to have a system whereby anyone (member or not) can submit information about a U.K. sundial electronically. Graham will check that it is a legitimate submission, and Anton will ensure that it goes into the database and appears in Bridol.
The 2025 Newbury Meeting, Saturday 27 September
This year's Newbury one-day meeting will be on Saturday 27 September in Sutton Hall, Stockcross, Near Newbury, RG20 8LN. A flyer with further information is bundled in with this Newsletter. Please send your offer to give a talk or provide an exhibit or items for sale to newbury@sundialsoc.org.uk There have been instances of emails not arriving at some of the BSS role addresses so if you do not receive an acknowledgement, please send a note to chairman@sundialsoc.org.uk which rarely fails!
BSS Award Scheme for Excellent Sundials
We have now had several submissions for the seventh quinquennial Sundial Awards Scheme which was announced in a flyer sent out with the March Bulletin. Our Webmaster, Anton Leach, has kindly agreed to place all entries on our website and David Hawker has kindly agreed to display a selection of the entries at the 2026 Conference. Please send your entries to designawards@sundialsoc.org.uk
The March Bulletin Follow-up
The March Bulletin Follow-up was well attended. The lead article was by John Davis and I am most grateful to him for giving additional background information about the Double Horizontal sundial which was the subject of the article. I was also most grateful to Andrew Hodgson for presenting the Postscript which discussed his approach to the design and implementation of a ceiling sundial. The next Bulletin Follow-up will be in July. The date will be announced by email. If you missed any of the Follow-ups you can find them all on the BSS YouTube channel at: youtube.com/@the-BSS
Frank King
THE 2025 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
This year's AGM will be held on 27 September 2025 at the Newbury Meeting. The 2024 Annual Report was included in the March Bulletin and the 2024 Annual Accounts are presented in the June Bulletin.
The Business to be conducted will be formally notified in the September circulation/mailing.
The Trustees
THE 2025 CONFERENCE IN WINCHESTER
The conference had a slightly different format from those in previous years, notably it ran from Tuesday to Thursday and delegates were invited to make their own arrangements for accommodation. Many chose the conference hotel (who gave a small discount) but several opted for the more economical Travelodge across the road. David Hawker laid on another splendid gallery of photographs, and there were many other interesting items on display. We are grateful to all those who gave talks. The Andrew Somerville Lecture was given by Oliver Cooke of the British Museum.
I was especially grateful to Fred Sawyer for driving the audio-visual equipment and for giving two most entertaining talks. We must all give copious thanks to Martin Jenkins for setting us a particularly stiff examination in a coffee break and, at dinner, providing each of us with a universal analemmatic sundial as a placemat. I was very careful not to spill anything on mine and have since tried it out in the sun. It works very well.
Christine Northeast made several visits to Winchester to check on the local sundials and gave us all a map with comprehensive notes. She was aided in her task by John Foad who in turn contacted Suzanne Foster, the Winchester College Archivist. We are all very grateful to Christine, John and to Suzanne, and are further in debt to Suzanne for guiding us so ably round the College sundials on the Wednesday of the Conference.
The venue for next year's Conference is under discussion.
Frank King
FIXED DIAL REGISTER
I have been fortunate enough to see the Fixed Dial Register through some interesting times, but ill health and the passing of the ages mean that the time has now come for me to pass the reins to the very capable hands of Graham Stapleton. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have been so helpful over the years. You know who you are, and you have been a delight to work with. Farewell
John Foad
EDUCATION
On June 14 I will be in York at the About Time Festival at St Olave's Church. Details at https://www.abouttimeyork.org
My talk on sundials is entitled Fun with the Sun and is on from 14:00 to 14:45. The programme for the day starts at 09:30 and runs to 17:00.
You can attend any of the sessions and don't have to be there all day. There is no charge, but a donation is encouraged.
Peter Ransom
WEBMASTER
The website has remained mostly the same since the last Bulletin. There has been some tidying up, and the addition of more resources under the 'Making Sundials' section. I've also put in a 'Quick Links' line on the home page for out most popular pages. If you haven't already, please have a look at the Design Awards section – we have three interesting entries so far.
The ongoing project of making the Bulletin Archive is progressing, and we're at the stage where we could do with some volunteer help to enter the descriptions and categorise the articles. If you have access to a computer and have a few hours spare for the next 3 or 4 weeks, please get in touch and volunteer! It is very straightforward and I can give you a session on Zoom to show you what to do.
I'm compiling a new and up to date list of sundial makers for the website, so if you are one, or if you know of any that we should include on the list, please contact me and let me have some details.
Anton Leach
MEMBERSHIP
We have 3 new members to welcome to the Society, they are from London, Surrey and France.
Jackie Jones
MASS DIALS
The BSS has many boxes of records, mainly Mass Dials, held in the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York. At the Borthwick they train student Archivists and wish to use our Mass Dials Register archive as a case study. This should help the students and give us a more precise and detailed record of what we have stored at the Institute which may well be helpful to us, it certainly will not harm.
New recordings of mass dials has slowed of late but good photographs and reports of previously unrecorded dials are still arriving.
Ben Jones
BSS PHOTOGRAPHIC DISPLAY 2025
Another display of member's photographs was provided at the Annual Conference held at Winchester this year. There were 22 photographs from six members showing a great variety of dials; three from Jenny Brown including a pop-up analemmatic dial with hay bales, beautifully mounted photos of the Brodie Castle dial with fine details from Andrew McVean, dials from Switzerland, Italy and a 3D photo of a German dial from John Allen, the skeleton gnomon at Lelant, Cornwall from Christine Northeast, an equinoctial dial looking back at the sun from Andrew Hodgson and a few different dials from myself including the polar cross dial at Kew, the stained glass window dial at St. Botolph's church, Lullingstone Castle and a dial made for Argentina.
Next year, 2026 is the year for the Sundial Design and Restoration Awards Scheme and I will aim to display photographs of all the dials entered for this Scheme. Therefore there will be a respite from my requests for display photographs.
David Hawker