Monument record 1516/1/2 - Sundial in Churchyard of St Mary the Virgin

Sundial in Churchyard of St Mary the Virgin. On the south side of the churchyard is an ancient stone shaft on which is a sundial with the date 1652 and the initials JH; TM; CW. It forms part of the former churchyard cross, dating from the 15th century (1). The sundial has a shaft and over-hanging head of square section. It is retained by a plain socket stone which may be part of a churchyard cross (2). Sundial has its gnomon, and shaft in poor condition (3).

The site was visited in 1999 by C Crowe. He concluded that the base and short shaft were designed as the sundial and made of a local fine-grained gritstone which still displays the original herringbone pattern dressing. He also concluded that this was indicative of the possible date of its production in the 17th century, roughly the date of the re-building of the church in its present form. The shaft, in 1999 was capped by a square block in which the holes existed in the top for the brass sundial which was by then missing. His final conclusion was that this was not a monument of national importance (4).

<1> Richards R, 1947, Old Cheshire Churches, Richards R 1947 /63-4 (Book). SCH2309.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ96NW1/1964 (Index). SCH2487.

<3> Department of the Environment, 1971-2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Report). SCH1934.

<4> Cheshire Historic Environment Record, 1990-1992, MPP Scoring Form, Crowe C, 1999. (Unpublished Document). SCH2222.