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 was originally in the north-west corner of the playing field, but has now been moved to a position south of the Cavendish Building. The pedestal stands on a thin stainless steel base with, round the edge, ’This dial given by past and present members of the College commemorates its recognition as an Approved Society of the University of Cambridge’. Inside this is the motto ’Time the Destroyer is Time the Preserver’ (TS Eliot, Four Quartets).
The dial plate is in the form of an incomplete chapter ring, with hour lines extending right across. The diameter at the 6–6 line is 485 mm.
Dial plate is 640 mm above the ground. Hour numerals for 5am to 7pm are marked by dots on either side of the hour lines.
The gnomon and the pedestal are in one piece, and the gnomon is pierced by a circular hole.
The dial was designed by Philip Turner of the Cambridge University Department of Engineering.
