Blessed Mary’s Church, Braddock

This is the oldest surviving vertical church sundial in Cornwall. The motto, ’Ut hora sic vita fugit’ (’As an hour, so does life fly’) and the date, 1660, are still distinguishable with difficulty. There are faint remains of letters below which may be HP on the left and OC on the right. They may be initials of the churchwardens of the time. Perhaps the most interesting feature of this dial is the way the numerals are written. If they are read from inside the chapter ring, the morning VI appears as IV and the ensuing three numbers and the evening VI are treated in the same manner. This makes sense if you adopt the "anticlockwise convention" in which the components of the Roman numerals are read consistently in an anticlockwise direction. It is not a mistake since quite a few other dials of this period (e.g. St Martin by Looe, SRN 0461) follow the same system. The dial is a small one.