BRIDOL is the British Sundial Society's Register of Fixed and Mass Dials, which gives detail and photographs of about 8000 fixed sundials and 3000 mass dials in the UK.
Some of these are in private gardens, but the majority are publicly available.
A strange alabaster carving is sited above the porch clearly symbolising Life after Death, with ears of corn sprouting from the eye sockets of a skull. The skull rests on an hourglass representing the inevitability of the passage of time. Above is placed a design reminiscent of a candle with a scroll behind. The church history records the words on the scroll as ’ANIMA REVERTET’ (The soul will return), but Gatty has ’ANIMA RESURGET’. Lower down is the motto ’VT HORA SIC VITA’ (Life is as an hour), and at the bottom is a pair of wings on either side of an hour glass, with the letters JE and the date 1640. The initials are those of John Elford of Longstone Manor. Across the foot of the carving is ’MORS JANUA VITA’ (Death is the door to life).
Despite the mottoes and the symbology, this is not a sundial. There is another alabaster carving on the north wall of the church, showing a lady and her daughters, and both may come from an Elford monument, broken up during the Reformation or the Civil War.
Mrs Gatty records the mottoes but notes that no traces of numerals or gnomon are to be seen.
