MANX SUNDIALS

Compiled by W. W. GILL

(Read to the Society by J. Brew Shimmin)

MR. W. H. HAMER, of Alderley Edge, Cheshire, died in May, 1940. By profession he was an engineer, and in the course of his work had travelled much abroad. His chief hobbies were bird-study and dialling, both of which he pursued during his many sojourns on the Island. While here he lived in turn at Douglas, Port St. Mary and near Colby, and besides studying bird life on Langness, he explored the Island for sundials and left behind him others of his own construction. The extensive manuscript account of the subject that he deposited in the Manx Museum gives all the details then obtainable of dials existing here, together with his observations on dials and dialling in general, many pages of purely scientific calculations, and a collection of photographs, drawings and rubbings. What I am now going to read to you consists of selections from the non-scientific part of his manuscript, prefaced by the remarks of the only two previous writers on the Manx branch of the subject. Portions of Hamer’s work were read by him to this Society on 10th February, 1927, but have never been incorporated in the printed Proceedings.

The first writer to mention Manx sundials was Joseph Train in his Historical Account of the Island published in 1845 (Vol. II, p. 355), where he describes the White Line, as it then appeared, at the gate of Peel Castle. He says: ‘ The people of Peel generally ascertain by a simple gnomic expedient the hour of high-twelve, when the Sun is shining. Near the entrance of the castle gate a space of one foot broad, and ten feet perpendicular, of the rampart is whitened with lime, in the centre of which a black stripe, four inches broad, extends from top to bottom. When the rays of the sun are not impeded by clouds at noon, the shadow of the castle gate reaches the black line in a particular manner, according to the season of the year. By this primitive dial, called in Manks ooreyder-grieney, most of the timekeepers in the neighbourhood are still regulated, and the guard of the castle was formerly changed by the same expedient. The country people down to a late period, did not reckon time by the hours of the day, but by the traa-shiraeish or service time "; i.e., morning, mid-day, and evening service.

Mr. Hamer discovered a slight error in the marking of this White Line, and it was afterwards rectified by the Government.

The plaster mark can be seen across the bay in clear weather. Though it may have been intended for some entirely different purpose, nevertheless it happens to be on a line marking the meridian, and so it could be used as a dial, but for the apparent noon hour only. The corner of the tower is sufficiently plumb to throw a vertical shadow, and a shadow from this corner through the old black paint-mark indicates the meridian or North-and-South line; and when the shadow falls on it, there will always be apparent noon at the Castle.

Mr. Kelly, the Custodian of the Castle, said on 24th February, 1927, that the noon mark — the cement patch on the wall — had been there as long as he remembered, which was for over forty years. Mr. Banks, the Assistant Custodian, said that his father, who had died during the previous week at the age of 88, had often told him that when he was a boy he had been sent to the pier to get the sun’s noon-time by this dial, and that the clock and watch repairers of the town used it to get their time.

The next writer to touch upon the subject was Miss A. M. Crellin, of Orrisdale, Michael, who treated it in much fuller fashion in her two papers in the Lioar Manninagh of 1889. She describes twenty specimens, and gives the history of each so far as it was ascertainable, but no horological details, except that the majority were plain, with numerals only, though several have the latitude of the Island cut on them, or the name of the maker. . . At the beginning of the 18th century the Island went nearly crazy on the subject of sundials, any amount of people setting to work to make or procure them.’ She states that every house down to the smallest cottage had one, and probably all the parish churches as well.’ Until recent years (she wrote in 1889, remember), it had been the custom on farms to ring a bell or blow a horn at noon to call the workers to their mid-day meal, and ‘ therefore sundials, however simple, would be considered a boon.’

Though Miss Crellin may have exaggerated the number of dials in possession of private householders, it may well be that at one time every old parish church in the Island had its dial, though many have since been broken or lost. We shall see later that a few of them are still in their places.

The churches and churchyards still possessing them are :—Rushen, dated 1829. Maine, dated 1833. Old Kirk Braddan, 1860. Bride, 1824. Ballaugh Old Church, 1813. Patrick Churchyard, (about 1740). Jurby, 1727.

Dials are known to be missing from:—Kirk Arbory, dated 1678. Kirk Santan, (no particulars). Kirk Marown has a pedestal only. Kirk Michael Churchyard, dated 1681.

Since Miss Crellin wrote, the Manx Museum has recovered several dials which had been taken off the Island, and on pp. 114-116, Part II, of the Museum Catalogue printed in 1925, will be found brief particulars of the thirteen specimens then on view. These were tested by Mr. Hamer, and most of them were found to be correct, or nearly so. No. 1 in the Catalogue, however, is a purely ornamental device.

To these thirteen many more have since been added, and taking them together with those still, in private hands, about fifty-three Manx sundials have been accounted for. The numbers for each parish are as follows:

Rushen, six. Arbory, three. Malew, seven. Santan, one (which has disappeared). Braddan, six. Marown, four. Conchan, including Douglas, five. Lonan, one. Maughold, five (one of which has disappeared). Bride, one. Jurby, two. Ballaugh, one. Michael, two (both of which have disappeared). Patrick, two. For Lezayre, German and Andreas none are known. Of half a dozen in the Museum there is no knowledge of the original site.

Manx dials include several different types. The commonest is the horizontal, and next comes the vertical kind which is seen on walls, especially the walls of churches. Others are circular, cubical, reclining and faceted. One is a ‘universal ring-dial,’ English or foreign, which was given to the Museum by P. M. C. Kermode. This and two others are made of brass, a fourth is of copper and yet another of bronze; but the majority consist of stone of one kind or another. Slate is naturally the commonest, followed by marble, limestone and sandstone. The oldest bearing a date are that at Kirk Maughold inscribed 1666 and another at Lewaigue made in the same year. Next comes No. 39 in the Museum Catalogue, made of lead and inscribed Jhon Callin 1669.’

from Journal Manx Museum

Of the Museum collection the outstanding example is No. 12, dated Ballafreer, 1774, and made of Pooilvaaish black limestone. It is a cube measuring about 12 inches by 12 with a pyramidal top making the total height from base to apex about 22 inches. Its gnomons have been removed, but they could be replaced. It is fairly correct for the latitude of Douglas. On the several faces are legends in Manx, Latin and English, and the name of its maker, John Kewley, of Ballafreer. Kewley made other dials as well. It gives the hours for Jerusalem, Boston, and Port Royal, Jamaica; also for Pekin, but these are wrong by more than an hour.

At Ballasherlogue, Colby, is a beautiful old dial dated 1783, which originally stood in the garden of Kentraugh. It is notable for the subdividing of its hours into minutes by the old diagonal scale method.

On one of the broken 10th century crosses (Cast No. 87 in the Museum) are marks which Mr. Kermode believed to indicate that it had been used as a ‘ mass-clock,’ or sundial recording the canonical hours. Similar marks occur on the south faces of hundreds of old English churches. The gnomons are thought to have projected horizontally from the face of the stone, but in no instance has more than the stump of a metal bar been found. Such a gnomon could at best only indicate the hour of noon correctly. The markings on such dials were meant to show the times of morning, noon and evening services.

A modern dial at Garwick is an hour and twenty-five minutes fast about 3 p.m. and its pedestal is far from plumb. It is a good piece of work with a white marble dial on a red sandstone pillar, and is worth putting right.

Close by, in a private garden at Baldrine, is a tasteful circular dial, which is not only 36 minutes fast about 3-30 p.m., but has a raised rim which throws shadows across its face when the sun is low in the early morning and late afternoon, and this impairs its usefulness. Nothing should be allowed to project above the recording surface of a dial except the gnomon.

To those desirous of buying a ready-made sundial a few words of advice may be offered. Dials measuring from six to eight inches in diameter are too small to be of practical use. They may have been made for some mean latitude in England, and it is assumed that they will be correct enough for any place in the Kingdom. This is very misleading to purchasers who have not made a study of the subject. No one should buy a dial which has not been specially made for his exact latitude and furnished with a table allowing for the equation of time and correction for longitude. There are makers who produce beautiful and accurate work, and engrave the necessary corrections on the face of the dial. An admirably clear little book written by a local specialist, Mr. P. G. Smith, of Port St. Mary, entitled How to make a Sundial, will be found very helpful to those who wish either to construct or understand these ornaments to a garden. The late Mr. T. H. Royston, of Peel Road, Douglas, made several correct dials of the horizontal, vertical and equatorial types for insular use.