Church of the Holy Rood, Shilton

Early ’scientific’ dial on the southwest buttress of the tower. This seems to be an early scientific dial, as the hourlines are clustered near the noon line rather than being equally spaced. The buttress faces southwest, so this is unlikely to have been the dial’s original position, as such dials much more commonly were south-facing. There are six ’hour’ lines from 1pm to 6pm, a noon line and one more that may be 11am The absence of earlier lines gives some credance to the thought that the dial may be in its original position. Parts of the church are much older, but the tower is Perpendicular, dating it to 1350-1550. The gnomon is missing but a vertical slot is cut in the stone which might have accommodated it, assuming that the gnomon was polar and that the dial was originally south-facing.