I have been asked by the historian, Professor Rosemary Cramp, to comment on her suggestion that the mass dial on Lullington Church, Somerset, England, may be Anglo-Saxon.
The dial is typical of many mass dials. It is cut directly into the building stone without a dial plate. It is in the form of a good, deep circle with a horizontal diameter line ("6am to 6pm") and central gnomon hole. There is a vertical radius ("12 o'clock) and symmetrical radii at about "9am" and "10.30am" and "1.30pm" and "3pm". The 6, 9, 12, 3 and 6 lines are crossed with short ticks close to their outer edges. Other than that I see no clue which would help in dating the dial. To me the only vaguely Anglo-Saxon characteristic is these ticks.
All the Anglo-Saxon dials that I know of, right up to the Conquest (1066), have dial plates of one sort or another. This has not.
Comments and suggestions gratefully received. I can send a picture to anyone seriously interested.
Frank 55N 1W -
