The Society holds regular competitions, every other year for Photos and typically every five years for Sundials. This page will give details of forthcoming competitions and contains the results of recent ones.
Frank King has submitted details of five dials to the 2020 BSS Sundial Design And Restoration Awards
These five very different dials were made over the last five years
Submitted to the 2020 BSS Sundial Design And Restoration Awards by Louise Smail, trustee for the Old Parsonage Building and coordinator of the sundial project:
The Didsbury Parsonage (The Old Parsonage) is a Grade II listed building, next to what was the original village green of Didsbury. The building and gardens were left to the citizens of Manchester by Alderman Fletcher Moss in 1919. Through the Didsbury Parsonage Trust it provides a thriving community hub for the people of Didsbury and beyond, in a locally significant and picturesque setting.
The original stained glass sundial in the Library of the Old Parsonage was designed by the then owner, Alderman Fletcher Moss. This sundial went missing at some unknown time before the Second World War. Using archive evidence, including photographs, John Carmichael constructed full-size working drawings including a rendering of the intended replacement sundial on acrylic. He incorporated his own design of a demountable gnomon which is held in place by two magnets. Any accidental knock results in the gnomon falling harmlessly to the ground without damaging the glass. It can be replaced in a matter of seconds. Unlike the original which had white painted glass between the hour lines, the replacement has clear glass that was frosted (sandblasted) on one side. This creates the darkest optimum shadows. Fuller notes are provided separately.
David Hawker has submitted the following entry to the 2020 BSS Sundial Design And Restoration Awards:
This sundial was made in early 2020 to celebrate a Ruby Wedding for April 2020. It is designed to be mounted on the south facing wall of a house in Sutton, Surrey. However, due to Covid 19 it is yet to be installed.
The dial is made from Welsh blue/black slate and is 380mm high x 254mm wide x 20mm thick (15” x 10” x 3/4”). Dial furniture includes names at the top of the dial, ‘40 Yrs’ carved at the bottom of the dial and a carved date curve for 5th April, the anniversary date. A carved daffodil indicates a spring time anniversary.
The gnomon uses a 5mm brass rod with a nodus made from an 8mm rod drilled and soldered to the gnomon. The gnomon rod is soldered to a brass supporting plate with a tang that is inserted through a slot cut into the slate. The back of the slate is recessed and two brass pins are set through the holes in the tang before being fixed and sealed with two pack epoxy. The dial will be supported by brass brackets.
The design, calculations, carving and metal work are all by the dial maker.
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.
Another recent entry to the 2020 BSS Sundial Design And Restoration Awards is David Brown’s restoration of a large, polyhedral dial which required extensive repairs and reconstruction, fully described in the submission.
David writes:
The Gloucestershire owner of this 650kg fine-grained sandstone sundial, missing all its gnomons and delineations, wanted it restored to working order. Large holes, where the original gnomons had been fixed with molten lead, had collected rainwater and insects over two hundred years and moss, algae and grime had darkened all the surfaces. After cleaning, drying and surface re-shaping was undertaken. Plain sundials were designed and cut for the 25 exposed faces over a period of several months during the Covid-19 outbreak.The completed sundial was transported back to Gloucester in September and set on a new sandstone cube standing on its original base stone.
Here are the details and more pictures.
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.
Congratulations to Mike Shaw, winner of the 2020 Competition with Time…Flys, taken in a private garden in Wirral.
Time…….Flys
Congratulations also to Ian Butson who achieved both second and third places with Singing In Time, from Parade Gardens in Bath, and Amongst the Flowers, I Count the Hours from Duncombe Park, Helmsley.
Here is a recent entry to the 2020 BSS Sundial Design And Restoration Awards which describes a beautiful armillary dial in Sepang, Malaysia that elegantly combines calligraphy with the shape of the dial and the name of the hotel where it is located. Follow the link or click the picture for full details.
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.