Hi Frank, In Roman Catholic churches I noted always 14 Stations, numbered I-XIV. Generally, they are placed symmetrically along the walls of the nave, thus nr. I-VII on one side and VIII-XIV on the other.
Regards, Frans Maes ----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank Evans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Sundial" <sundial@rrz.uni-koeln.de> Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 5:10 PM Subject: church interior dial > Greetings fellow dialists, > This is not really off topic, more off centre, perhaps. The church at > Dalton-le-Dale, County Durham, England has what until now has been > thought two dials. One is an important Anglo-Saxon dial of around 700 > AD, mounted on a later wall. The other, the object of my question, is a > series of numbers on the inside north wall of the nave of this > thirteenth century church. > > Mrs. Gatty describes them incorrectly: "There are some remains of a dial > on an interior wall of St. Andrew's Church at Dalton-le-Dale; only the > numerals I to VII are to be seen now, and these are raised in relief > upon the plaster, and are said to conceal an older set of figures. The > hours would be shown when the sun shone through the south window." > > There is a story currently told that the sun shone on the easternmost > number on St. Andrew's saint's day, 30 November from a former hole in > the roof. Given the low angle of the noon sun on that day this is quite > impossible > > The numerals on the north wall of the nave are in fact VII to XII, not I > to VII, arranged linearly from west to east and occupy most of the > length of the wall at a height of about a metre. They were viewed by > members of the British Sundial Society during their meeting in Durham a > few weeks ago and the general consensus was that the numbers could not > be any form of time measure. A proposal was that they had been placed > under successive Stations of the Cross pictures and that they had > survived where the pictures and the numbers I to VI on the south wall > had not. > > My question is this: What is the history of Stations of the Cross in the > Church of England. Presumably some must be pre-Reformation but they > would generally have been extinguished by Cromwell's men and the puritan > movement. Could the numbers have survived, without pictures, from the > seventeenth century and a gradual story have grown up about their > representing a sort of sundial? > > Speculation welcome. > Frank 55N 1W > > > > > > -- > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.5.5/335 - Release Date: 09/05/2006 > > > --------------------------------------------------- > https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial > > --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
