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Object type: Sundial [1]
Measurements: H. 31.5 cm (12.5 in); W. 43 cm (17 in); D. 18.5 cm (7.25 in)
Stone type: Medium-grained, yellow-brown (10YR 5/8) sandstone; deltaic channel sandstone, Saltwick Formation, Aalenian, Middle Jurassic; from North Yorkshire Moors
Plate numbers in printed volume: 729-31
Corpus volume reference: Vol 3 p. 195
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Only one visible face of the stone is carved.
A (broad): The semicircular dial has a broad plain moulding at the former top (now bottom), with the hole for the gnomon on its lower edge. The curved edge has a run of meander or key pattern, using a slender strand. Six time-lines extend from the gnomon hole at irregular angles, all with a small cross-bar near the tip. At the base of the stone is a slightly rolled plain moulding.
Inscription Highly weathered traces of incised lettering can still be made out across the former top (now bottom) of the dial. The inscription occupied the full length of a strip about 5 cm high above the incised diagonal of the dial. It continued into a second half-line beneath the right-hand end of the first line. This second half-line occupied a strip 4.5–5 cm in height which was defined by another incised horizontal line beneath. The letters in the second half-line seem to have been about 3 cm high. On close examination from a ladder in good light the following letters can still be made out:
[.SVM—]
[—C.T] or [—CT]
Nineteenth-century rubbings in the British Library in the J. Romilly Allen collections (BL MS Add. 37581, nos. 31–2) (Ill. 730) show that the weathering was then slightly less advanced than now. On the left of the top line SVM[A]R can be made out fairly clearly. At the end of the second half-line C and T are clear and there are traces of a short vertical between them (short I?). The inscription probably ended in —CIT. The following reading of the rubbing is therefore reasonably certain: '.SVMAR—CIT'.
These findings to some extent confirm the reading made by Haigh and Fowler (Haigh 1879, 141, fig. facing). They read: '+ SVMARLEÐAN HVSCARL ME FECIT'. The British Library rubbings show indistinct traces of lettering in the second half of the first line which could fit the following further letters of their reading: '.S.ARL.' On the basis of the available evidence their reading can in part be corroborated, but it is likely to have been somewhat optimistic and cannot be accepted as certain in its entirety. (Haigh and Fowler based their reading on a 'cast', probably a paper cast or 'squeeze', which would, if well done, give much more detail than a rubbing.)
The recognizable letters are capitals. C was round, not square.
==J.H.
B (narrow): Plain.
The meander or key pattern would be old-fashioned in the eleventh century.
Inscription The inscription occupies a position across the top of a semicircular dial similar to that of texts at Great Edstone 1 and Kirkdale 10. The text cannot be fully restored, but Haigh and Fowler read it as ending with the Latin maker formula me fecit (Haigh 1879, 141). The first element of the inscription may have been a form of the Scandinavian personal name Sumarliði (Page 1971, 175, n. 3). The inscription is further discussed in Chap. 12 (pp. 46–47).
==J.H.
