Dear Francine 

Many Leics and Notts churches have scratchdials on south facing walls.
These would have had a stick (?permanently ??temporarily) inserted at the
centre.  Some churches have several such dials (the max I have seen is four
on one window sill), with different patterns of lines i.e. times of services
must have changed.  Clearly these scracth dials only survive when the church
is built of a reasonably hard stone that is (a) soft enough to carve - so
don't both looking for them on granite! (b) hard enough not to weather
quickly - e.g. the surviving Leics examples are on limestone not the local
'ironstone' (an iron-rich, fossiliferous sandstone that crumbles on the
exposed surfaces).

What follows is a copy of remarks I published some years ago:

The old scratch dials or mass dials on churches are a primitive form of
sundial to assist the clergy (and, perhaps, also the bell ringers, choir and
sidesmen) to assess the time of the main offices of the liturgy.  Typically
they are situated on the wall near to where the priest entered, so sometimes
they are by the south porch; where there is a priest's door direct into the
chancel the scratch dial may be there instead.

They deserve better recognition than they currently get - only two books
have been written about them and both are rather old and obscure:

E. Horne 'Scratch dials' (Simpkin Marshall 1929) gives a useful general history

T.W. Cole 'The origin and use of church scratch dials' (The Hill Bookshop,
London no date [pre-1945]) gives a county-by-county list, although this is
far from complete. 

Few of the many church guides I have seen draw attention to the presence of
mass dials and yet many churches [in Leics] that are not too heavily
restored possess at least one. 

The following Leicestershire and Rutland churches are known to have scratch
dials:

Ab Kettleby
Appleby Magna
Ashby Parva
Ayston
Barwell
Belton in Rutland
Blaby
Bottesford
Branston
Burrough on the Hill
Burton Overy
Burton Lazars
Caldecott
Clipsham
Cold Overton
Eastwell
Egleton
Freeby
Glaston
Goadby
Great Easton
Greetham
Houghton
Horninghol
Ibstock
Illston
Kibworth
Kimcote
Kirby Mallory
Leire
Lutterworth
Lyndon
Manton
Measham
Mowsley
Nether Broughton
North Kilworth
Oadby
Orton
Packington
Peckleton
Preston
Ratcliffe on the Wreake (four scratch dials on one windowsill)
Sapcote
Scalford
Seaton
Sheepy Magna
Stockerstone
Stoke Golding
Stathern
Swinford
Thornton
Twycross
Whissendine
Wing



Apologies to wells-and-spas list members who feel they have inadvertently
joined a scratchdials list!!!

Bob


==================================================
Bob Trubshaw     [log in to unmask]
Heart of Albion Press
2 Cross Hill Close, Wymeswold, Loughborough, LE12 6UJ, UK
(0)1509 880725     www.indigogroup.co.uk/albion/
==================================================


At 12:03 01/03/00 -0500, you wrote:
>	Hello people:
>
>	This is a bit off-topic, but I'm hoping the listmembers can help
>with these questions that are puzzling several friends:
>
>	- What method of keeping time did medieval monks use so that they
>would known when to chant the office?
>
>	- When were sundials first used in England?
>
>	- Why do sundials so often appear in English churchyards? What was
>the conneciton of sundial to church activity?
>
>	Thanks!
>
>	Francine Nicholson
>



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