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.
Large rectangular vertical dial high on the south side of the church tower.
The dial is on a windowledge and partly obscures a window. It faces west of due south and shows hours from 7am to 6:30pm. Unfortunately, a large part of the bottom half of the dialplate has spalled but what remains is of excellent quality. The full length hour lines terminate on a large circle round the gnomon root. In a double chapter ring are half and quarter hour lines. The half hours are distinguished by a triangle of three holes. Outside these chapter rings are the vertical Roman hour numerals which use IIII at 4pm and, probably, a cross patty at noon.
The gnomon is a simple thin metal strip with a single straight supporter. As the dial declines 12 degrees west, the gnomon lies near the 1pm hour line.
Above the dial are church wardens’ initials ’JR’ and ’JG’ and the date 1802.
In 2003 the dial was reported to have fallen from the tower and to be broken in pieces on the ground. It was restored and reinstated in 2006. Bloxham church is one of the grandest, and its spire is the highest, in the county.
2009
St Mary’s Parish Church, Church Street, Bloxham, OX15 4PY, Oxfordshire
