north Lancashire sundials
The Lancaster Sundial
The Lancaster Sundial can be found in Williamson Park at Lancaster on the top of the hill near the Ashton Memorial. This was previously the site of the bandstand, built in 1907, but is now transformed into this unusual sundial where you yourself become the gnomon, the part that casts a shadow to tell the time. It is an analemmatic sundial, where the shadow-casting object is vertical, and is moved depending on the date. The time is read by seeing where the shadow crosses points laid out on an ellipse. This is quite different from traditional sundials where the shadow is cast by a triangular shaped wedge, and no-one knows who invented this type of sundial, but the French astronomer Lalande explained the theory behind the analemmatic sundial in 1757.
Follow the instructions on the plaque on top of the Lancaster Sundial so that you are standing on the correct line for the date and your shadow will tell you the time by falling across one of the bronze plaques that mark the daylight hours; each one represents a trade or profession in the area and they were designed by pupils of Ripley St. Thomas School and cast by artist Ray Schofield of Sunderland Point.
The sundial, situated at 54.05º North, 2.78º West has been adjusted for British Summer Time (you will need to take an hour off if you visit in the winter) and for the correct longitude by maths teacher Peter Ransom. But there are some small calculations that you must make to find the ‘real’ time as opposed to solar time. For example, on the first of July you need to add four minutes. The calculation is called the equation of time and there is a graph inscribed into the sundial which shows the adjustments needed for each day of the year to arrive at the time as shown on your watch.
Remember too that if you visit in the summer your shadow will be short because the sun is high in the sky and if it doesn’t reach the edge of the dial you will have to imagine where it would fall if it were longer. In winter, when the sun is lower in the sky, your shadow will be longer, but at any time of year the length of your shadow will vary throughout the day.
Sundial at Lancaster Priory
The sundial, approximately 15 metres south of the tower, can be found just outside the main door of the Priory Church of St Mary. It was constructed in the 18th century and restored in 1894. Built from sandstone it sits on a square base with a flight of six steps on the east side. The bronze gnomon and dial, inscribed with Roman numerals and the text: ‘SIC UMBRA VERTIT, SIC VITA FUGIT’, were removed and stored after being vandalised.
The Priory Church of St Mary, adjacent to Lancaster Castle, is built on
the site of a Roman Fort and Roman remains have been found beneath the chancel. Most of what you will see dates from the 15th century although the Priory was founded in the 11th century and there has been a church here since 630 AD. The doorway at the west end of the church appears to be Saxon in origin and in the north aisle there are some sculptured stones of the same period.
In 1094, Roger de Poitou bestowed the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Martin of Seez in Normandy, France, with the Church of Saint Mary of Lancaster. Provision was made for up to twenty people to claim sanctuary and remain here in safety until the end of their lives. They were to be supervised by a governor, in a place specially set aside for the purpose – probably at the west end on the north side of the tower, though no record remains of what these people were fleeing from. In 1133, the Abbot of Seez confirmed with the Pope, the right of the Prior of Lancaster to collect tithes for the sustenance of the monks who were to celebrate Divine Service at Lancaster.
However in both 1322 and again in 1389 Scottish armies invaded and, although the Priory and the Castle seem to have been spared, much of Lancaster was destroyed. In 1349, the Black Death killed 3000 people in Lancaster – over half the population of the town – and Priory income fell to £26-13s-4d per year.
In 1414, wars with France ended the association of the Priory with its headquarters in Normandy and king Henry V handed over the running of Lancaster Priory to the Bishop of Durham and other trustees who decided to give it to an English monastic house – Brigittine Convent of Syon at Syon Park in Middlesex. The priory then survived until 1539 and the Dissolution of the Monasteries under the reign of Henry VIII which ended 445 years of monks living the religious life in and around St Mary’s Church. It isn’t clear whether the buildings were deliberately destroyed or just pillaged for their stones, though the parish church remained.
St John the Baptist, Tunstall
The sundial above the south porch is dated 1637. It was added after major rebuilding work on the west tower around 1415, when a window was walled-up. There is a room above the porch, which would originally have been used as a schoolroom or meeting room and this is where the Bronte sisters (Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily) would have eaten their Sunday lunch when they were pupils at the Clergy Daughters’ School in nearby Cowan Bridge; the school was established by the Rev. William Carus Wilson in 1824 and the Bronte sisters were amongst its first pupils. On Sundays they would walk the two miles to Tunstall for the Sunday services. In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte refers to it as Brocklebridge Church.
The sundial above the porch.
The sundial in the churchyard at Tunstall has become rather overgrown by the trees and although in fairly good repair the plate and gnomon are missing.
St James the Less, Tatham
This sundial can be found above the porch of the church of St James the Less at Lower Tatham in the Wenning Valley. At the apex of the gable is a rectangular slate sundial plate complete with gnomon which clearly tells the solar time.
Lower Tatham is just north of Wray on the B6480. If you’re going to visit the church you will find it down a narrow lane called Monks Gate, and there is a small signpost which points to it.
There has been a church here since Saxon times and behind the present altar are the remains of an ancient Saxon stone altar. The church you see today was mostly built in the 15th century, though there are some 13th century and Norman remains, notably a carved stone coffin lid with the cross of a Crusader dating from around 1100. The tower was reconstructed in 1722 and the church was restored during 1885-1887, once again by the Lancashire architects Paley and Austen. This was made possible by the generosity of the Foster family of nearby Hornby Castle and the church features in the painting of Hornby Castle by JMW Turner.
