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.
This dial on the south wall of the tower below the clock, originally erected in 1794, was restored in 1953 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and in 2013 was repainted again by the Cumbria Clock Company. Under the gnomon are a crown and the letter ’M’, in memory of Elizabeth’s grandmother, Queen Mary, who passed away in 1953 a few weeks before the ceremony. The motto, laid out in two scrolls at the top and bottom of the dial, reads ’Abide with us / for the day is far spent’, in memory of Queen Mary’s favourite hymn.
The dial, gilded on a blue ground, shows 6am to 6pm with some marks beyond these times, divided to quarter and half hours. The rather erratic time scale implies that the dial might decline but the gnomon position doesn’t tally - presumably the consequence of restoration drift.
2014
St Mary’s Church, Barnes, Richmond, SW13 9HL, London (Greater)
SRN
Year
Recorded
Coords
S1319
1952
2002
51.47489, -0.24203 N 51° 28' 29.6", W 00° 14' 31.3"
