The Corpus: Winchester (St Michael) 01

Volume 4: South-East England

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Current Display: Winchester (St Michael) 01, Hampshire

Overview

Object type: Sundial

Measurements: H. 38 cm (15 in); W. 46 cm (18.1 in); D. Built in Diameter of dial 38 cm (15 in)

Stone type: Inaccessible; appears to be of limestone with shell fragments and a projecting fine rib which may be a calcite veinlet; probably Combe Down Oolite, Great Oolite Formation, Great Oolite Group, Middle Jurassic; Bath area

Plate numbers in printed volume: Ill. 671

Corpus volume reference: Vol 4 p. 329

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Present Location

Built into south wall of nave, outside

Evidence for Discovery

First recorded in Haigh 1846

Church Dedication

St Michael

Present Condition

Good; slightly chipped

Description

Only one face is visible.

On a rectangular panel is a circular relief dial having a narrow, plain, raised frame. In the centre is a drilled gnomon hole from close to which radiate the incised lines calibrating the lower half of the dial, and which terminate on the frame. There is a pair of lateral lines placed just above the horizontal, and a vertical line. There are five equally-spaced lines between the vertical and lateral lines to the left, and three to the right. The vertical line is crossed close to its outer end by a short bar with drilled ends. The median line between the vertical and lateral lines to the left is similarly treated, as is that immediately below the lateral to the right. From the frame develop four, heavily damaged, short stems, one running into each corner of the panel where it terminates in a short pointed leaf flanked by a pair of similar out-turned leaves.

Discussion

The dial is plainly ex situ, as it is incorporated into a later medieval fabric. Nonetheless, its pre-Conquest date is evident as it is of very similar form to dials elsewhere in Hampshire, at Warnford (no. 1; Ill. 478) and Corhampton (no. 1; Ill. 438). As noted above (see Chap. VII), the Corhampton dial is in situ in a demonstrably late pre-Conquest fabric.

Date

Tenth to eleventh century

References

Haigh 1846, 410, 414, fig. on 410; Haigh 1857, 178, fig. on 178; Way 1868, 211; Haigh 1879, 198, fig. on 198; Allen 1889, 201; Gatty 1889, 424; Gatty 1900, 67 - 8, fig. on 67; Doubleday and Page 1903, 240 - 1; Johnston 1907, 17; Page 1912a, 73; Jessep 1913, 17; Green 1926, 20 - 1, fig. on 20; Green 1928, 499; Cottrill 1931, appendix; Zinner 1939, 9, abb. 34; Green 1943, 273; Cox and Jowitt 1949, 22, 196; Green and Green 1951, 59, pl. XIX; Taylor 1962a, 169; Zinner 1964, iv, 216, abb. 8; Taylor and Taylor 1965 - 78, i, 178; Taylor and Taylor 1966, 19, 25, fig. 8; Bowen and Page 1967, 288; Hinton 1977, 90; Tweddle 1986b, i, 84 - 5, 187 - 8, ii, 513 - 14, iii, pl. 119b

D.T.

Endnotes