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 dial is a memorial to Margaret Stanier, long time member of the BSS and editor of the Bulletin. It is mounted on the south-facing end wall of the Rosalind Franklin building, opposite The Pightle, where Margaret had her Fellow’s Room. It was delineated by Frank King, and designed and manufactured by Annika Larsson. The material is blue-grey Welsh Slate, supplied by Ivett & Reed, and the gnomon is a gold plated stainless steel rod, 400 x 8.
The dial indicates the fraction of the daylight period that has elapsed since sunrise, the unit of time being one-twelfth of the period from sunrise to sunset. Such units are clearly longer in summer than in winter so they are known as unequal hours. Accordingly, the hour lines are numbered one to eleven, with six in the central noon position. Roman numerals are used on the dial, with IIII for 4.
The upper section of the plate is decorated with straight and wavy sun rays, and around the lower edge is inscribed ’MARGARET STANIER ยท SCIENTIST’.
Ref: BSS Bulletin 23(iii), Sept 2011, pp 38-44, and 23(iv), Dec 2011, pp 32-37.
Ref: For a detailed discussion of the theory and practice behind this dial see also: http://www.inscriptorum.com/resources/Dokument/The-Margaret-Stanier-Memorial-Sundial.pdf
2023
Rosalind Franklin Building, Newnham Walk, Cambridge, CB3 9HS, Cambridgeshire
