Melbourn Science Park, Melbourn

The elliptical Kirkstone slate sundial stands on Douglas fir baulks in the lawn 50m south-west of Building F. It was designed and built by Fowler & Co of Newhaven, East Sussex. The dial plate uses Arabic hour numerals for 6am to 6pm BST. The 8am hour line is inscribed ’GOOD MORNING’ and the 5pm ’GOOD EVENING’. The space after the noon line is labelled ’LUNCH / TIME’, and the space before has the same message in mirrored letters. The unnecessarily long 6m spruce gnomon passes through a hole at the south of the plate and is supported by a tensioned wire guy line. Further south on the plate is an EOT curve marked ’DIAL FAST’ and ’DIAL SLOW’, with alternate months marked on the east (Feb, Apr, June, Aug, Oct, Dec, read from the south), and Jan, Mar, May, July, Sep, Nov on the west read from the north. No other inscriptions were observed on the plate but there are signs that small rectangular plaque was once attached to the west of the EOT curve. The Douglas fir supporting baulks were starting to decay at April 2024.