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.
The Guild Hall was restored in 1915-1917 and a garden was also created, and the dial may well date from that time.The hours shown are IIII - XII - IIII - VIII, read from the outside, with a noon gap. Hour lines extend only across the chapter ring, and the outer edge is divided to 30, 15 and 5 minutes. The gnomon angle is 51.5°. There is an eight-limbed flaming sun around the gnomon root, the limbs alternately curved and straight. On the west side of the gnomon root is a monogram, possibly ’W P’, and on the east side the (false) date 1695, and the motto ’Shadow & Sun’ is at the south. The northern half of the dial plate is filled with decorative scroll work.
The sundial plinth was made by Chilstone. It is based on their 2018 Chelsea flower show creation and was the closest match to the original plinth shape, which can be seen in the final photograph, from the 1920s/30s.
