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.
A vertical declining stained glass dial by Henry Gyles of York (1645 - 1709), now cracked but otherwise in good condition. It is located in the window seat of the Long Gallery on the first floor of Old St John’s College, now (2016) a hotel called Grays Court. It is not dated but records indicate 1693. The wide border has the motto ’Ita Vita’ across the top, and upright Arabic hour numerals for 6am to 5pm in quarter and half hours around the sides and base, with a cross patty for noon, and outward pointing half hour markers. The centre panel shows blue cornflowers, with a winged cherub holding a sheaf of corn above. There are holes in the glass for a gnomon mounting, but the gnomon is missing. The design declination is about 5 degrees east, while its present situation faces almost directly south-east.
Refs:
- The Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, xli: p709 - 725. ’The Painted Glass in Grays Court’, J.T.Brighton.
- York Historian, Vol 4,1984.
- Daniel, Country Life, Feb 26 1987, p 74.
2001
2001
Grays Court, Chapter House Street, York, YO1 7JH, Yorkshire (N)
