Connaught House, Sidmouth

Visible from the beach at the eastern end of the Esplanade is a vertical dial which declines east and shows the hours V-III divided into halves and quarters.It bears the date 2000 (MM) and is enamelled on sheet steel by David Harber. The square dial plate has a blue background with everything clearly delineated in what appears from the photograph to be white though it is actually gilded. At the top is the motto in large capitals ’TIME AND TIDE WAIT FOR NO MAN while across the bottom are the latitude North 50 40 41. longitude West 003 14 42, an unusual degree of precision.. There is a sun at the gnomon root and a shell decoration above. The time is indicated by a spot of light from a hole in a star-shaped plate at the end of the gnomon rod which also acts as the nodus for the declination lines for the equinoxes and the solstices.