St.Andrews Church
Sundials
There are two sundials associated with the church. A curious dial marking the hours on the north wall of the nave and an ancient Anglo-Saxon dial over the south porch ridge.
The internal dial consists of a number of raised numerals spaced over 1.5 metres to record the hours 7 (VII) in the morning to l (XIII) in the afternoon. The numerals were highlighted by a stream of light shining through a slit in the roof over the middle window on the south wall. This timepiece is only accurate on St. Andrew's day, the 30th November, however, since the roof regeneration in 1907, this spectacle can no longer be observed.
The more significant dial, historically, is over a thousand years old and is inset into the exterior south wall of the nave above the porch, it is one of only 38 surviving in the whole of the country. The central rod, known as a gnomon, which casts the shadow over the dial is missing but its location hole can still be seen. The dial plate features a double twist ropework border also found in the Escomb church. It is divided into Anglo-Saxon "tides" not hours, the sunrise, noon and sunset lines being clearly seen, whilst the other two (moonrise and moonset) are unfortunately too faint. People's daily lives were guided by such periods, as mechanical clocks did not exist, it was around this time that Alfred the Great invented his "clock candle", as a means of measuring time.