Sherborne’s Sundials

Dotted around Sherborne School and the town are a number of sundials, some old and some new. Here are some you might like to look out for:

Beckett Room lawn – Sherborne School:

Created in the form of a three-dimensional model of the celestial sphere, the armillary sundial comprises a series of nested rings representing celestial circles with a central arrow or gnomon that casts a shadow to indicate the hour. The armillary sundial on the Beckett Room lawn was presented in summer 2004 as a leaving gift by the parents of three School House boys: Christopher Gosling, George Daubeny and Michael Pope. It is inscribed with the words ‘Carpe Diem’. Made by John Close Sundials.

The Grove lawn – Sherborne School:

In 2000 an analemmatic sundial was constructed on The Grove lawn to celebrate the millennium. Designed and created by Sherborne School’s Works Department, this horizontal sundial has hour markers positioned in an elliptical pattern, the shadow-casting object is vertical (in this case you!) and the time is gauged by standing on the appropriate month and casting a shadow on the elliptical dial.

Lyon House, Richmond Road – Sherborne School:

In 1925, Major John Bowater Vernon (Abbey House 1899-1900), who won a silver cup at the 1925 Chelsea Flower Show for the most attractively laid-out formal garden, was commissioned to build in the garden at Lyon House a lily pond and a rose garden, the centre piece of which was a horizontal sundial mounted on a pillar copied from one erected by Charles II’s at Windsor Great Park.

Sherborne Abbey – south-east end:

The south-facing vertical dial on the south-east end of Sherborne Abbey was erected in 1745 by Sherborne School at a cost of £5.5s.0d. It was built by the Sherborne mason Benjamin Bastard (c.1698-1772), son of Thomas Bastard of Blandford Forum. In 1749 Benjamin Bastard was appointed a School Governor and although Sherborne House is often wrongly credited to him, there is documentary evidence that the stables at Sherborne Castle (1758-9) are his work.

Old School Room (OSR) – Sherborne School:

In 1635, the south wall of the School Room (now the Old School Room) was adorned by the addition of a sundial, the work of Reynold Gillard, at a cost of £1 1s 2d. £1 for the dial, 1 shilling for the iron style and 2 pence for ‘one to hold upp the ladder.’ The sundial was rediscovered in 1886 when the south wall of the OSR was being rebuilt and a bay window inserted. The remains of the sundial are now held in the School Archives.

Science building – Sherborne Girls:

The vertical solar dial on the south front of the science building (opened in October 2011) includes strong references to science. Designed in green slate and stainless steel by David M. Brown of David Brown Sundials in Somerton, each of the ‘numbers’ on the dial is represented by the chemical symbol of that number (e.g., the atomic number for Hydrogen is 1, so there is an H where the 1 would be). It also includes the symbols of Cancer marking the summer solstice and Capricorn marking the winter solstice.

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