home page   what's new?   email bobtrubs@indigogroup.co.uk to request updates (please mention Rutland Village by Village) or to offer new information   Rutland Village by Village only WWW Village by Village Ashwell Ayston Barleythorpe Barrow Barrowden Beaumont Chase Belmesthorpe Belton-in-Rutland Bisbrooke Braunston-in-Rutland Brooke Burley Caldecott Clipsham Cottesmore Edith Weston Egleton Empingham Essendine Exton Glaston Great Casterton Greetham Gunthorpe Hambleton Horn Ketton Langham Leighfield Little Casterton Lyddington Lyndon Manton Market Overton Martinsthorpe Morcott Normanton North Luffenham Oakham Pickworth Pilton Preston Ridlington Ryhall Seaton South Luffenham Stoke Dry Stretton Teigh Thistleton Thorpe by Water Tickencote Tinwell Tixover Uppingham Wardley Whissendine Whitwell Wing This site sponsored by   Heart of Albion

Scratch dials in Rutland Scratch dial on Caldecott church. Scratch dials are simple sundials, almost always found on the south side of churches. They are also referred to as 'mass dials' but, as I will explain later, this is incorrect. The 'proper' name for them is 'canonical sundials'. This web site was created before I knew that… They are either circular, as with the example above at Caldecott, or semi-circular. The number of radial lines can vary greatly. Indeed sometimes there are no lines but only shallow holes around the periphery. There is always a hole in centre for inserting a stick ('gnomon') to cast a shadow. Why there are lines in the top half of the circle is an enigma as the gnomon only casts a shadow on the lower half. The lines are to help the clergy start services at the right time of day. Before the Reformation they were known as the 'offices' of the ritual day. Mass would only be performed at one of the these offices, if at all, so this is the reason the name 'mass dial' is wrong. The oldest surviving sundials are Saxon. There are none that old in Rutland. The nearest is at Barnack in Lincolnshire. There would almost certainly have once been much older sundials perhaps cut into turf with a vertical gnomon. In the late 1980s I began to keep notes on where there were scratchdials in Rutland and Leicestershire. However in 2002 Robert Ovens and Sheila Sleath published a book called Time in Rutland. While most of the book is devoted to old clocks, there eight pages discussing scratch dials. Ovens and Sleath state that 'It is thought that by the end of the fifteenth century every Rutland church would have had at least one scratch dial, and in some cases there would have been many more.' The reason for multiple scratchdials is presumably because each priest had their own ideas about the times for the offices. And then there are quite late examples from the seventeenth century which seemingly were required to 'regulate' a newly-installed church clock. There's a good example at Clipsham where it is known that a clock was installed in 1688. Ovens and Sleath's list of churches in Rutland with surviving scratch dials on the south wall is as follows. Braunston-in-Rutland Egleton (no less than twelve survive but some have been relocated; most are around the entrance to the porch and the chancel south window) Lyndon North Luffenham South Luffenham ('four survive' – but see note below) Preston Seaton (only the hole survives) Stretton Tixover Whissendine Whitwell (four survive) However this is not a definitive list as I am aware of further examples at Caldecott and Stoke Dry. Egleton also has a conventional sundial over the porch entrance. This is believed to have been installed in 1872. On 1st May 2026 I visited both North Luffenham and South Luffenham churches and could see no scratch dials. I suspect that fairly recent repairs to the walls have removed them. In addition there are scrach dials which have been relocated and are no longer on a south aspect wall. These are at: Ayston Burley Clipsham Egleton Greetham Lyddington Teigh The real oddity is one on the south elevation of 20, St Mary's Road, Manton. This cottage has a date stone which reads '1733'. Presumably the scratch dial was reclaimed from a restoration of Manton church or the demolition of Martinsthorpe church. Back to top of this page     Back to home page   This website does not gather or store any visitor information. Copyright Bob Trubshaw 2026 No unauthorised copying or reproduction except if all following conditions apply a: Copy is complete (including this copyright statement). b: No changes are made. c: No charge is made. www.hoap.co.uk/rutland

Rutland's history home page what's new? glossary bibliography Rutland's geology Rutland's boundaries Rutland's rivers long, long ago prehistoric Rutland Roman Rutland long ago Anglo-Saxon Rutland Rutland's place-names waterborne transport around the sixth century Rutland's early churches Anglo-Saxon sculpture in Rutland The Matter of Rutland what the Normans did for Rutland Romanesque sculpture in Rutland Rutland in medieval times Rutland's scratch dials Rutland's medieval carvings Rutland's sepulchral effigies Rutland's saltways Rutland in Tudor times Dissolution in Rutland not that long ago Rutland in the 17th century pinfolds and pounds in Rutland dovecotes in Rutland Rutland in the 18th century turnpiking Rutland Rutland's springs and wells changes in Rutland's agriculture since 1800 seems like yesterday Rutland's dialect Rutland's folk customs travellers in Rutland watermills and windmills in Rutland breweries in Rutland gasworks in Rutland ironstone quarrying in Rutland Zeppelins over Rutland redundant telephone exchanges in Rutland Second World War in Rutland WWII airfields and pillboxes in Rutland the making of Rutland Water Rutland Weekend Television free online history resources Victoria County History: Rutland volume one Victoria County History: Rutland volume two free PDFs of Rutland Record issues 1 to 50 old OS maps Historic England Listed buildings database Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland Open Domesday English Place-Name Society database Wikipedia list of places in Rutland (with links to village entries) Wikipedia list of people from Rutland researching and writing local history getting started free advice from 2005 asking curious questions (YouTube video) local history groups in and around Rutland Belton-in-Rutland History Society Cottesmore History and Archaeology Group Langham Village History Group Lyddington Manor History Society Rutland Local History and Record Society Uppingham Local History Study Group you may also be interested in free PDFs written by Bob Trubshaw Earliest Churches in Nottinghamshire How Anglo-Saxons Found Their Way Anglo-Saxon Leicestershire Conversations in Churchyards Little-known Leicestershire and Rutland Bob Trubshaw's YouTube channel Introduction to medieval carvings Anglo-Saxon and Romanesque carvings How Anglo-Saxons found their way Anglo-Saxon shrines at fords Meetings at triangles Rota's Land and Franni's Land Reading Romanesque fonts Church and manor The significances of square headdresses Early churches and waterborne trade Charnwood slate gravestones and C18th trade routes Ironstone quarries of Leicestershire Roman roads in north-east Leicestershire Salt ways in Leicestershire Why Melton Mowbray needed to called 'middle town' Evolving Anglo-Saxon agriculture Nottinghamshire's earliest churches Ploughs not piety? Economic regeneration in the C7th Were Anglo-Saxon weaving huts women-only places? Vale of Belvoir Chronicle Barrowby Until Now website Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland