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Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens opened to the
public yesterday, Saturday 21st July. The free brochure includes the
following description :
"If strollers on the North Terrace of Mowbray
Gardens want to know the time, all they have to do is ask the
pavement.
A particular part of the pavement, that is.
There they will find a special kind of sundial - known as "analemmatic" in
technical terms - which tells the time.
It was a gift from the Friends of Sunderland
Museums to Mowbray Gardens.
The sundial takes the form of a granite footplate
set into the paving, divided into the twelve months of the year. The hours
of the day are carved in a semi-circle around the top of the
footplate.
To tell the time, you stand on the footplate at the
correct month and your own shadow becomes the pointer indicating the correct
time in summer.
It was designed by local sundial expert Frank
Evans, 74, a retired marine biologist who gained his navigational knowledge as a
merchant seaman."
Alan, 55 deg. 56 min. N, 1 deg. 22 min.
W.
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