John Foad wrote: > > The churchwarden of St Mary's, John Chitson, confirmed to me today that the > dial was indeed originally mounted on the nearby chapel. When it was moved > to the new church, it was almost certainly canted to bring it to the > declination of the original wall. > > The Hawkshead dial may be the exception to the general rule that declining > dials which are also canted, are usually ones which have been re-located.
That's interesting - I shall add details of that known move to the dial entry. On the matter of the Hawkshead dial I certainly think we have to establish whether its current orientation is correct or not because if it is correct (ie as a combined declining and canted dial) then it probably did come from somewhere else. And that might then be a pointer to where it did come from. Local history has it that it was installed in 1845 as a memorial to the Archbishop of York who founded the school in 1585 three years before he died. A bit late as a memorial you might think but presumably he was still well thought of after so long. Interestingly that Archbishop was Edwin Sandes - from a very famous Cumbrian family. He is also famous for being put into the Tower in 1553 for supporting the cause of Lady Jane Grey and after 'devising his own release' had to flee England to Germany until Mary died and Elizabeth I came to the throne. Although I personally doubt it, one is drawn to wonder if his turbulent life was somehow connected with such a memorial being raised 260 years after his death. Patrick --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
