Dial in Cumbria

The dial is mounted on Beaumont House, which stands in the grounds of Levens Hall, 5 miles south of Kendal on the A6. It declines 5 degrees west and shows 6am to 6pm in quarter and half hours, the half hours being indicated by inward pointing arrows. It is a white dialplate with bold painted numerals, and each corner bears a leaf motif. The gnomon is a slender rod on a serpentine support. The house is named after Mons. Guillaume Beaumont who set out the world famous topiary gardens here about 1680 and the dial, in various incarnations, and originally wooden, has been there since shortly afterwards. A postcard of 1907 shows it in its current position: a square set as a diamond on the house wall. In 1990 it was of painted wood. Norman Holloway, then inscribed on the face, was not the maker but a Kendal signwriter. Shortly afterwards the dial was renovated by being faced with a sheet of metal and painted (again by Norman Holloway), a more accurate job than before. It then bore the initials ’sBh’, being Hal and Sue Bagot, the Hall’s owners. It has since been renovated yet again, and the name of Holloway has been lost.