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.
This dial was originally in the sunken garden at Otterbourne House, Hampshire, but is now in private ownership. It is a good geographic dial, late 17th or early 18th century, possibly by a top London instrument maker.
The hours are IIII - XII - IIII - VIII, read from the inside, with a noon gap and divided to 30, 15 and 5 minutes. There is no compass rose, but E, W and N, read from the north, are around a central double circle, with S further out to the south, above a floral motif at the gnomon root. Between the double circle and the chapter ring are hour lines, and the names of 18 locations, each positioned at the time when it is noon there, and shown with ’XII’.
The locations are Bantam, Surrat, Babylon, Ierusalem, Constantinople, Rome, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin, Tenerif, Cape Farewel, Barbadoes, Bermudas, New York, Port Royal, Charles Town and Mexico.
Remains of the original gnomon show an unexplained wedge and screw, possibly for a removable gnomon, now lost. The new gnomon, which retains the original wedge, was designed and made by Keith Bunting of Merlin Sundials.
