Patrick Powers writes: >It is SRNO 4117 and Carolyn Martin and (I think) >Andrew James did some research. Dial is from St Mary's Alverstoke, Hants
Yes, it was I who did some research on it. I visited the Hampshire Records Office and examined microfilm of the Alverstoke Churchwardens' Accounts for 1749. I found that the churchwardens were Humphry Newdick Abraham and Richard Curry. (I am uncertain of the reading of Newdick - it may be Nendick; and Curry might just possibly be Carry or Corry.) Their expenditures for the year were respectively £17 13s 1d and £10 6s 11 1/2d. These seem mostly to have been on sparrow heads, hedgehogs, polecats, and the like, but the penultimate entry for Mr Curry is "To a Dial £4 15s 0d". Unfortunately there is no record of to whom he made the payment. These are the churchwardens whose names appear on the dial. Frank Evans writes But be assured that the dial is, or at least recently was, fruitlessly mounted outside the South African church. Remarkable! But there. Frank, if you could send me a jpeg without too much trouble I'd be interested to see it! Back to the gloomy houses; I was told when I visited NZ about 10 years ago that a certain power station - somewhere between Auckland and Hamilton I think - had its extremely ugly back side facing the road and the smart glass front away from it because the UK designers had got it the wrong way round in just the manner described. Whether it's true or not, I don't know! Andrew James 51 04 N 01 18 W
