Bekonscot Model Village, Beaconsfield

The dial is located on a brick column by the Play Area in the north-east corner of the Model Village complex. It forms one vertical face of an elongated cube, ornamented to have a Mock-Tudor appearance echoing the great south gable in which it was originally housed at 42 Penn Road (300m distant), former home of Enid Blyton who named the property Green Hedges. The cube sits on top of a brick column, also copied from Green Hedges. Across the top is inscribed ’TO MEASURE LIFE LEARN THOU BETIMES. MILTON’. Hour lines run to a small semicircle around the gnomon root. Long half-hour lines are in the form of inward-pointing arrows, and there are short quarter-hour lines. Vertical Roman hour numerals mark VI (am) to IV (pm). The gnomon is a knife-edged blade of gilded brass, with one horizontal strut. The sundial was originally commissioned ca 1913 Mr Charles Maggs, the first owner of 42 Penn Road,Beaconsfield. The house was demolished in 1973 and kept in Amersham by Mr Chris Herring, a demolition worker, until 2013. It was purchased by Kari Dorme and presented to the Bekonscot Model Village. The management consulted the BSS about restoration and display. Key members of the restoration team were Frank King, Bo Killander, Eric Marland, Emi Sato, Keith Still, Kevin Noonan and Mark Clarke. The task was finished in 2016. Ref: The Sundial of Adventure, talk by Frank King at the 2015 BSS Nottingham Conference, BSS Bulletin, 27(ii).