Archaeologia Cantiana Vol 127

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Archaeologia Cantiana - Vol. 127 2007 page 346

The Scratch Dials of Kent. By Chris H. K. Williams

TABLE 10. KENT’S SCRATCH DIAL INCIDENCE BY TYPE ON
CHURCHES WITH DIALS (PER CENT)

Notes:
a See Table 6, note (a).
b Author’s analysis of Winzar recordings. Percentages calculated from 54 churches with at
least one categorisable scratch dial

TABLE 11. CORRESPONDENCE OF RADIAL LINES ON KENT SCRATCH
DIALS TO THE MEDIEVAL TIME SYSTEM (PER CENT)

Notes:
a See Table 6 note (a).
b Mass, noon and hour lines as shown in Fig 2. Author’s analysis of Winzar recordings.
c Tolerance range up to ±3º and ±5º.
d Tolerance up to ±3º.
e Judged against the modern time system, 9 a.m. Mass results in a scratch dials mass lines
moving seasonally between 11º and 48º to the sunrise line. Allowing ±3º tolerance the
presence of mass lines is shown below:

90 per cent of quarter dials have a mass line(s) – over half two or more

lines.³⁶ As a group, quarter dials do not accord with the medieval time system. Many of those who made them must have been meeting a newly perceived requirement – the obvious candidate being the modern equal hour time system. As this (and its associated clocks and scientific sundials) spread, the implications of the traditional system would have become increasingly apparent. Many quarter dials show alternative mass lines for different times of the year on the modern equal hour system (Table 11)

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