Town Hall, Woodstock

Rectangular vertical dial in a niche on the south wall of the Town Hall. The wall declines about 7 degrees west of south, but the dialblock is angled, apparently to make it parallel with the dial on the parish church, which is 5 degrees west of south. The Town Hall was built in 1766. The dial might be old but is only known since the 1950s and was redrawn around 1995. It is almost identical to the dial on the church (see SRN 2454) but differs in several minor respects. It lacks the elegant fleurs-de-lys on the half and quarter hour lines. Some of the lines are clearly inaccurate. The Roman numerals are aligned with the hour lines so that every ’I’ is aligned, rather than every numeral (so, for instance, the strokes of IIII are not parallel). The ’V’ characters are not aligned with the ’I’s so the reason for rendering 7 as IIV is lost. The strokes of III go round the corner in a curious manner. The gnomon has a quite different supporter - an ornate foliage scroll. Although the dial is delineated, like that on the church, assuming it faces 5 degrees west of south, the gnomon is positioned on the noon line and a little too low. Either the dial faces due south and is wrongly delineated to copy the church, or the gnomon is wrongly angled. The motto under the dial reads: "Tempus Fugit". Dial stone redrawn in 1995 (or so) to commemorate a Royal anniv. See SRN 2454 on Woodstock parish church.