Promoting All Saints’ Church at Hornington Manor Wedding Fayre on Sunday 23 October 2016, and publicizing the Heritage Lottery Fund grant which we have recently been awarded.
Whatever happened to our sun dial?
The more observant among you may have noticed that where there was once a sun dial in the churchyard of All Saints, Bolton Percy, for several months now, there has been an empty plinth.
Has someone stolen it you may have thought? Or possibly the PCC had decided to do away with it as an unnecessary duplication of the clock on the east face of the church tower. And who uses sun dials nowadays anyway? After all, they’ve been pretty much redundant ever since the advent of the speaking clock and especially those with gnomons missing from their face. (Note to Ed: Gnomons are those bits of metal on the sun dial’s face that cast the shadow to the hour and which have been missing from the BP sun dial for years).
Well, to begin with, nobody has stolen it and the PCC don’t want to do away with it. On the contrary they are desperate to conserve it for as long as possible. It has been a feature of the churchyard for as long as anyone can remember and it appears on all historic photographs. In fact, if anyone has a photo or a painting of the church that doesn’t show the sun dial in its place in the churchyard the PCC would be very interested to see it.
You see the sun dial is classified as an ancient monument said to date from the sixteenth century. It has a designated Grade II listing. A recent architect’s inspection noted that it was showing signs of its age and was in need of repair. We had it examined by a specialist stonemason and it was agreed that it could possibly be treated with a repair to its main column; what was referred to as a tiled repair.
These matters have to go through a process of approval. We obtained the approval for the works to proceed from the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC). And thankfully we received a generous grant from the North Yorkshire County Council Locality Budget to cover the estimated cost. But then when the mason started to dismantle the column of the sun dial to undertake the repair he immediately found that it was much more significantly degraded than had been apparent from the previous inspection. Instead of a tiled repair a complete section of the column would have to be cut out and replaced with new stone; and as they say in the world of conservation, that becomes a whole new ball game. And, actually, it does raise a number of extra considerations in the context of a conservation exercise.
In the interests of conserving as much of this ancient monument as possible there would be a drive to limit the length of the column to be replaced. But the mason would need to balance that interest with our requirement for a lasting repair and to satisfy that requirement he would look to replace more than just the minimum length of column. The difference between say 30 inches of stone column compared with 39 inches. On the other hand, another possibility that has been mooted is the replacement of the complete column with the original being preserved for posterity in its damaged state but still conserved in one piece.
Because of these potential changes we had to re-apply to the DAC to vary the scope of the original works. We are still in consultation. The debate ranges around conservation, cosmetics and structural efficacy. To check for a cosmetic match we have to obtain alternative samples of stone: Cadeby or Highmoor for the aficionados. We also have to have a structural engineer’s report on the feasibility of any proposed repair and then we have to submit our proposals to relevant statutory authorities – Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and the Ancient Monument Society (because of the Grade II listing). Provided we get their approval to any final proposals we can then re-apply to the DAC for final approval.
So don’t despair we intend that eventually the sun dial will re-appear on its plinth conserved for future generations. It is a lengthy process but, as with everything else to do with this special church, we think it’s worth it.