Museum of Cornish Life, Helston

This dial was originally in the churchyard and was removed to the museum about 1972 to avoid damage from vandals. The copper face bears the arms of the Borough of Helston, with a motto in the ribbon below ’Vana Umbra et Vapor est Hominum Vita’ (The life of man is smoke and an empty shadow). To the north of the gnomon foot is inscribed ‘W. Odger Helston’, and to the south ‘JOHN ROWE Esq. MAYOR / 1792’. William Odger was a watch and clock-maker and freeman of Helston, and made the dial to mark the end of the fourth of Rowe’s seven terms as mayor. The dial shows hours IIII - XII - IIII - VIII with a noon gap, read from the inside and divided to 30, 15 and 5 minutes. It has a clockwise Equation of Time table. The brass gnomon is 12mm wide. The dial’s original octagonal granite base was moved from the south door to its present position in 1986, where it now bears a replica dial (SRN 2651). The circular-sectioned bulbous pedestal is 1070 high and appears to have an iron ’neck’. Ref: Len Burge: Cornish Church Sundials (2002).