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.
The dial is over the arch to the courtyard. Hurworth was said once to have more sundials than any other English village. William Emerson (1701-1782) the eccentric mathematician and dialist was born and died here and SRN 0831, the Bay Horse dial, one of three dials surviving in the village, is said to be one of his. Dated 1739 its time lines are curiously marked and those rising upwards and outwards have no meaning. The story goes that pub decorators once painted the dial out and were forced to restore it, with this curious result. An electric lamp once placed above the dial was jokingly said to let the dial show the time at night.
