FROM THE SECRETARY

General Business

This has been a quiet period in which we have recognised a hole in our processes.  After receiving a reminder from our Solicitor, the legal rights to the BSS Logo have been renewed for the next 10 years.  However some members will know that the BSS domain ‘sundialsoc’ became unavailable for several days in early December. This was caused by an unpredictable combination of events for which both the BSS and the web hosting company share responsibility. Hitherto the BSS has not had a process for remembering very infrequent future events which might reoccur every 5 or 10 years. This has been exacerbated by the more frequent turnover of members in certain council positions during these periods. The problem has now been addressed and we have ensured that long term events are remembered in two independent systems within BSS. This will eliminate the dependence on a reminder from the supplier which, for various reasons, was not received in the case of the domain renewal.  

Equipment

Most members who volunteer to work on the Council or as specialists have modern powerful Personal Computers with associated equipment and software at home which they use for their BSS activities and communications. The Society’s entire administration and core activities could not function without this free provision. This is recognised but is not often publicly acknowledged. Sometimes the capabilities of a member’s personal computer system are not adequate for the BSS task to be carried out efficiently or safely. In these cases the BSS will purchase appropriate PCs and software which become registered Society assets but are on loan to the job holder until he/she resigns. The Webmaster and Treasurer positions have both recently been equipped with new PCs. Therefore, it is hoped that having a slow, old PC will now not deter a rush of new volunteers to take on Council work.  

How Sundials Work

Tony Moss has produced an excellent graphical explanation that has recently been added to the BSS web site where it provides an important educational feature. Much time and effort went into producing all the images and then accommodating the presentation on the current website. Tony and Richard are to be congratulated. Please visit the site.  

Restoration Enquiries and Grants.

Several new requests for advice have been received and two potential projects are ongoing and being progressed by their owners/custodians either to obtain permission, in the case of a church, or to agree to an estimate with a restorer. Two sundials are known to have been restored without a supporting grant. The restoration of the vertical declining sundial (1738) on the church of St Nicholas, Leicester, in the city centre has been partially supported by a grant from BSS of £400. The dial numerals and lines have been regilded and the corroded mounting pins have been replaced. The society has received letters of thanks from the church authorities and the BSS will be cited in the list of those who have supported the much more extensive restoration activities on this old church.

Graham  Aldred

FROM THE BULLETIN EDITOR

Monographs.

With monograph No. 5 now published (see the review in the accompanying Bulletin), attention is now turned to the others in the pipeline. The next to appear is likely to be No. 8, Time Reckoning in the Medieval World – a study of Anglo-Saxon and early Norman Sundials by David Scott and Mike Cowham. Numbers 6 and 7 are also progressing but have been overtaken in the processing schedule. These will keep the Editor busy for a good fraction of this year but now is the time to start considering what comes next. So, if you have a personal interest in a particular aspect of dialling, you might like to consider authoring a monograph on the topic. I have a number of areas which I think would benefit from being researched more fully and the results made available to the dialling world, and even some ideas of who would make a likely author. But you can call me before I call you!

Bulletin Articles.

A couple of times in the last year or so, I have received independent articles from more than one author on the same topic. It is often not possible to publish them all without undue duplication so sometimes one article is unpublished and the author feels that effort has been wasted. In an attempt to avoid this problem, I would like to encourage prospective authors to contact me with their ideas at an early stage, so that I can warn them of possible overlaps of study areas. There is an element of ‘first come, first served’ here as I will tend to give precedence to papers which I have been expecting over ones which just appear. This is not an obligatory scheme, simply an attempt at avoiding disappointment.

Another service which I can offer prospective authors is to give some idea of what has already been published on a subject. With over 20 years of Bulletins on the shelf now, many early papers may have been forgotten.   Book Reviews. Naturally, we review all BSS publications and also other books etc. on dialling and associated subjects which the Editor thinks might be of interest to the readership. I am always open to suggestions of titles for review (and for people willing to act as reviewers).

John Davis
01473 658646

REGISTER NOTES

Sadly, we have news of a few more stolen dials, so if you rummage in antique shops or boot sales, or (more promisingly) scan the auction catalogues, could I ask you to take a look at the ‘Stolen Dials’ list on the web site?  You will find the link about two thirds of the way down the Home Page, just under the section on the 2010 Sundial Design Competition. ( Do not follow the ‘Fixed Dial Register’ link on the Home page, as this is very out of date and has not yet been updated.  Work on that is proceeding as fast as possible.)

The new items on the Stolen Dials List are – a Barker dial from Westminster College, Cambridge, SRN 1086; an unusual dial by John Hasselhurst from Lower Peover, Cheshire, SRN 0155; a very rare southern hemisphere Sol Horometer by Pilkington and Gibbs, from New Zealand; and SRN 2222 which is the octagonal Richard Whitehead horizontal stolen from Dalemain Country House Hotel in Penrith, Cumbria back in September.  The dials are sorted in the list by maker’s surname.

I am planning to produce a new edition of the Fixed Dial Register later this year.  It will be in the same format as the 2005 edition, being a full A4 sized Register for the North of the country, the same for the South, and a compact A5 abridged volume covering the whole country with abbreviated detail.  In addition, there will be  a DVD with full details for each dial, plus a copy of all members’ reports starting at report no 4001.  More information will be available at the Conference, and in the June Newsletter.  In June, I will be asking for expressions of interest, so that I can assess quantities and place an order for printing.  Meanwhile, if you have any suggestions for changes in the next edition, I would be very glad to hear from you.

MASS DIAL MEANDERINGS

Managed to get a copy of ‘The Scratch Dial’ magazine - not, as it happens, the Journal of the Mass Dial Group, but the Parish Magazine at St Margaret’s Mapledurham, in Oxfordshire. The church, of course, has a dial or two on the north-east quoin stones and they joined 6 or 7 others recorded in a long weekend after snow enforced hibernation.

One reason for the mini safari was to check out one of Noel Ta’Bois’ 800 slides, now on CD but which may, or may not, have been upside down on the wall. The dial was finally tracked down - inside the church, behind a fire extinguisher and indeed, upside down. Always label ‘TOP’ on your photos!

Enormous e-mail from Spain, downloaded into six volumes of text and pictures – ‘Relojes canónicos españoles’ – in Spanish. Apparently a complete gazetteer of Spanish mass dials, but there was no way of knowing; no reply to my ‘thank you for all your mass dials’ and no indication of Pedro Novella’s position in the Sundial World. There were, however, examples of dials with PTMN written on them and one or two with PTMNV written round the edge – indicating that Vespers was also taken seriously by the users of these dials; they work better in Spain anyway.  

From Sunny Spain to Norway and Johan Wikander with the text of his 2009 Conference lecture last year. He is investigating compass rose/sundials and one bears a symbol which is the sixth in the runic alphabet (‘futhark’ or ‘futhork’) and is taken to be the numeral 6 and hence the sixth hour or noon. A dial in Kent also has a runic symbol which can be interpreted as 4 for the fourth hour or hour of principal mass (a little later in Norway?). All a bit tentative but an interesting byway in ancient dials.

As usual NADFAS keep us informed of dials found whilst church recording – one recent letter had a much more interesting scientific sundial noted, which may be related to the prism dials described in December’s Journal.  

Finally: Alan Cook has produced an Appendix to Monograph 3 on the mass dials of Yorkshire, thereby completely covering all Yorkshire churches and is a considerable achievement. The Monograph now forms the Yorkshire part of the Mass Dial Register. Other members’ mass dial recordings in Yorkshire appear in the ‘Yorkshire Annexe’ portions of the regular Mass Dial Register which is now being compiled. Alan has also collected for us the remainder of the late Ted Hesketh’s photograph collection from Pat Hesketh. John Foad will look after the complete Hesketh Archive. Any mass dial pictures will be copied for our Register. 

A.O.Wood
 01452 712953   

EXETER CONFERENCE

Our Twenty First Conference!

The 2010 Exeter Conference will be our twenty first and we have received a considerable number of applications.  There is a full programme of lectures and it promises to be a most interesting weekend.   Our coach tour of dials has been organised by Martin Jenkins and aims to visit several dials close to Exeter.  However, the narrowness of the Devonshire lanes and the restricted parking at many of the dials means that we have had to limit the tour to three coaches, accommodating around seventy persons in all.    In order to try and give as many people as possible their first choice of a Saturday event, Patrick Powers would like to hear from any delegates who might instead prefer to go on a visit to some local gardens or to look around the wonderful City of Exeter, its Gothic Cathedral and/or the city’s mysterious mediaeval underground passages.  Please e-mail me with your preferences at the address below.   This year we are maintaining a special web page about all of the arrangements for the Conference and a link to it is provided in the Conferences section of the Society’s web site.  Delegates are encouraged to visit this page from time to time to learn of the latest information about the conference.

Patrick Powers