A Sun-dial Tile from St. Augustine's Abbey

A SUN-DIAL TILE FROM ST. AUGUSTINE'S ABBEY* DA YID SHERLOCK Canterbury can boast of one of the earliest time-pieces from Britain, an exquisite late-Saxon gold pocket sun-dial found in 1938 and now in the Royal Museum. However, it has recently been shown' that this piece may not have originated in Canterbury because in order to be read accurately it needs to be used on a latitude somewhere in the north of England. In that case the unique late-medieval sun-dial tile here published for the first time may take its place as the earliest surviving time-piece from Canterbury. The sun-dial, which looks not unlike a medieval glazed floor-tile, was loaned to the Department of the Environment in 1969 (AML 801268; SAM 343) along with many other valuable finds from the site of St. Augustine's Abbey through the generosity of the Corporate Body of St. Augustine's College. It was encased in an oak frame on the back of which is a torn label describing its recent history. It reads '. . . begs most respectfully to present to Bishop Coleridge the enclosed 'sun-dial tile' which was fallen from St. Ethelbert's Tower when that ancient and noble structure was battered down by the Canterbury Goths and Vandals of the year 1822. The moulding which surrounds it is a piece of the roof of the dormitory of the Chequers Inn so celebrated by Chaucer in the "Pilgrims Progress to Canterbury". Hugh Price, 28 May 1848'. There is nothing else known about the history of the tile or how this man came to acquire it. In preparation for its display in a new site museum the tile has recently been cleaned, studied and re- • This paper has been printed with the aid of a grant from the Department of the Environment. ' See Acta Archaeologica (Stockholm), xiii (1971), 23-34. 19 [ DAVID SHERLOCK Fig. 1. Sun-dial Tile from St. Augustine's Abbey. (Scale approx. 2/3). 20 A SUN-DIAL Tll.,E FROM ST. AUGUSTINE'S ABBEY assembled in accordance with modem standards of conservation. When taken from its frame and removed of the hard nineteenthcentury cement composition which was used to restore the design, the tile was found to consist of four main fragments and a number of smaller pieces. The top right-hand comer of the tile was missing. The glaze was badly chipped especially around the original incised lines, and as a part of the earlier restoration a yellow composition had been applied around the edges of the tile to match the glaze. There was dirt on the face of the tile and in some of the broken surfaces, some of which looked like remains of earth, thus suggesting that the tile could have lain in the ground for a while before being retrieved. The left-hand and lower sides of the tile had been cut back. When this was done is not clear. It seems unlikely, however, that so harsh a treatment would have been carried out when the tile was given its wooden frame. The tile (Fig. 1) is a trapezium, measuring 159 mm. and 149 mm. (approx 6 in.) along the top and bottom sides respectively, and 152 mm. along the other two sides. It is 22 mm. (7/8 in.) thick. The two sides which have not been cut back are right-angled, not bevelled, and all four have air holes approximately 3 mm. in diameter and from 12 to 25 mm. deep, one in the top side, two in the bottom side and three each in the left and right sides. The fabric is a soft bright orange-pink with a well-sorted sand temper and occasional inclusions of red siltstone or haematite. The face, back and sides have been coated with a thin white slip. This has been line-incised but not so deeply as to reveal the body clay as in true sgraffito. The tile has been given a lead glaze that now appears as a dull yellow colour on the slip. On the right-hand side there are also remains of glaze, under which near the middle of the side is scratched the letter D. This appears to be a primary feature in the tile and might conceivably stand for Dexter or Droit, perhaps an instruction for whoever was to put up the tile. There is no corresponding S on the left-hand side because that side has been cut back. Although the tile is chipped and incomplete the design of the dial is clear. It consists of an inner square (actually a trapezium) around which are inscribed the hours. These number from six o'clock a.m. to noon and back from one to six o'clock p.m. Noon is marked with a cross instead of numerals. The hour lines radiate from a point in the centre of the top of the dial. The gnomon for casting the sun's shadow has not survived, but there are two holes, 6-7 mm. in diameter, on the noon line and a V-shaped cut in the top side which must have once held it. Both cut and holes appear to have been made after firing since there is no sign of any of the glazed slip in them. Just conceivably, the two holes were used for fixing the tile to 21 DAVID SHERLOCK the wall; but if it was fixed thus rather than mortared in, it is difficult to see how the gnomon was held in the cut without additional support. The angle of the cut is crucial to the understanding of the tile, as will become clear. The chief question which the tile poses is its date: was it made before the dissolution of the abbey? If so where exactly did it come from, how early is it, how accurately did it tell the time and what part did it play in the daily life of the monks of the abbey? Unfortunately, the words already quoted on the back of the frame of the tile are suspect regarding both date and provenance. There were two great towers at the west end of the abbey church but they differed not only in dates of construction but also in the dates when they perished. 2 The south-west tower, traditionally known as St. Augustine's Tower, was built c. 1047 and was partly demolished by Henry VIII's men in 1542. The remainder of it, a huge murus tortus as observed by Stukeley, was finally cleared away in 1793 by 200 men of the Surrey Militia who happened to be stationed nearby in order to make room for the new Kent and Canterbury Hospital, the building of which was begun in that year. The north-west tower, traditionally known as Ethelbert's Tower, dates from c. 1120-30; the greater part of it fell down by acident in 1822.3 The 'Canterbury Goths and Vandals of 1822' are, therefore, more likely to have been the Surrey Militia men of 1793, and the tower from which the tile had fallen, St. Augustine's, not Ethelbert's, There is another reference to the tile nine years later than the date of the label on the back of the frame which says that it was found 'near St. Ethelbert's tower'. 4 As already mentioned, there appeared to be traces of earth on the tile and it could therefore have easily been found when St. Augustine's Tower was undermined by the soldiers. This event attracted a lot of local attention at the time and at least one other archaeological find was picked up as a result of the disturbance.5 i For a copy of a fourt􀃇nlh-century seal depicting the west front of the abbey see Trinity Hall, Cambridge, MS 1, f. 2 (Antiq. Journ., Ix (1980), Pl. IVa) and an early sixteenth-century picture of pilgrims leaving Canterbury with the towers in the background, see Br. Library, Royal MS 18 D ii, f, 148 (R.J. Cootes, The Middle Ages (1972), 141, illus.). ) For the dates relating to these towers see A.D. Saunders 'Excavations in the Church of St. Augustine's Abbey, Med. Arch., xxii (1978), 63; A. Clapham, St. Augustine's Abbey, HMSO 1955, and Edward Hasted, History of Kent, 2nd edn., 1801, xii, 219. • 'Mr. Beresford Hope exhibited an encaustic tile forming a sun-dial found near · St. Ethelbert's Tower ... presented to the college by Mr. Pout', Arch. Cant., i ( 1858), lxxii. 5 See Gentleman's Magazine, vol. !xiii, ii (1793), 667. The other recorded find is a Gaulish gold solidus (see R.L.S. Bruce-Mitford, Sutton Hoo, i, 677). 22 A SUN-DIAL TILE FROM ST. AUGUSTINE'S ABBEY The most compelling reason for postulating that the tile came from the south-west rather than the north-west tower is that it would have been virtually impossible to site it in a south-facing position on the latter without the other tower partially obscuring the sun. The date of the tile has to be deduced mainly from comparison of its fabric with dated floor-tiles, and to a lesser extent from comparison of the dial with other sun-dials in stone. The fabric and size of the tile are entirely within the range of plain floor-tiles that were being laid in St. Augustine's and other abbeys in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The softish orange fabric is somewhat reminiscent of the products of the Low Countries, which were reaching south-east England in large quantities during that period. The floor tiles from St. Augustine's divide into two groups, one with and one without nail-holes, and it is likely that the former were imported from the Low Countries and the latter local copies. At Radwinter (Essex) a kiln produced tiles of this general type early in the fifteenth century but without nail-holes and in a harder, not typically English, fabric. 6 Such tiles continue into the mid-sixteenth century in Kent where they have been discovered inter alia at Bekesbourne Palace. 7 In view of the apparent absence of nail-holes (as distinct from the air-holes in the sides) and despite the softish fabric, the sun-dial tile was probably part of the local fifteenth to early sixteenth-century group of plain tiles. It thus falls within the later monastic period at St. Augustine's. As a wall sun-dial it is at first sight comparable with the ubiquitous parish church sun-dials scratched on stones usually beside a south door. These often had no gnomon, and anyone wishing to tell the time simply held a stick in the hole in the centre of the top. A few still have the remains of an iron gnomon set in this hole (e.g. North Walsham, Norfolk). The Canterbury tile resembles a number of them in having a cross instead of a numeral to mark the position of noon (e.g. Sherborne St. John, Wilts). But in three ways the design is more sophisticated. Firstly, all the scratch dials known to the writer either at first hand or in illustrations are enclosed in a circle or semi-circle or have lines like the spokes of a wheel, whereas the Canterbury dial is in a square. Secondly, this square is not in fact rectangular but wider at the top to allow for perspective when viewed from below. Thirdly, whereas scratch-dials were scratched on stones already and in some cases long ago, in position, this dial began life as a moveable object and had to be especially • For Radwinter see P.J. Drury, Med. Arch., xxiv \1980), 262. 7 Ex inf. T. Tatton-Brown, Director, Canterbury Archaeological Trust. 23 DAVID SHERLOCK designed to take account of latitude and orientation during its erection. The gnomon of a vertical sun-dial erected on the equator will stand at right-angles to the face of the dial but, if the sundial is north of the equator, the gnomon needs to be bent downwards to take account of latitude. The angle of the V-shaped cut in the Canterbury tile, as far as it can be accurately measured, is at 38° 45' to the surface of the tile when projected outwards as a gnomon. This is only 29' short of 90° when added to the latitude of Canterbury which is 51° 16' N. This nice calculation does not, unfortunately, help to prove the tile was made locally because, firstly, the cut was made after firing and, secondly, a number of centres of tile production in the Low Countries are on a nearly similar latitude to Canterbury. The V-shaped cut also shows how the orientation of the tile was accounted for. If a sundial faces due south the gnomon will lie above the noon line; if it faces east or west of due south the gnomon will need to be bent in the opposite direction to be read correctly. The gnomon of the Canterbury tile is positioned about 5° to the left of the noon line ( an accurate estimate here is not possible) so that the tile faced approximately 5° E. of true south. In reality, as far as can be ascertained from the surviving remains, St. Augustine's Tower was orientated west of due south. 8 This contrary difference need not necessarily mean the tile was not intended for this tower for the part of the wall in question was refaced in the fifteenth century and need not necessarily have been on the same alignment as the footings which now survive at ground level; nor need the tile have been set flush with the face of the wall. Apart from the fabric, the main clue for the date of the sun-dial is the presence of the 2 x 12 hour system in the numbering. This system came in with the invention of mechanical clocks and the earliest surviving clocks in England are those at Salisbury and Wells Cathedrals, which were made about 1377. The first documentary reference to a mechanical clock in England is in 1394 when Abbot de la Mere ordered one for St. Alban's Abbey. Prior to that date the St. Alban's chronicles use the canonical hours, prime, terce, sext, nonnes and compline, but after 1394 they changed to the 2 x 12 hour system. 9 At St. Augustine's there are no references to clocks or to such a changeover but a sun-dial of this type is unlikely • See plan in Saunders, op. cit. in n. 3 above. • See C.F.C. Beeson, English Clocks, 1971. 24 A SUN-DIAL TILE FROM ST. AUGUSTINE'S ABBEY to be earlier than the fourteenth century. 10 The dissolution of St. Augustine's in 1538 provides a probable terminus ante quern for the tile. Soon after that, the abbey was acquired by Henry VIII and converted into a royal residence. The church was demolished including part of St. Augustine's Tower. It seems very unlikely that the new palace would have had any use for a simple sun-dial such as this. Dover Castle, always a royal castle, had had a mechanical clock installed as early as 1404, in the reign of Henry IV. While highly ornamental glazed wall tiles begin to appear on royal sites in the middle of the sixteenth century (e.g. at Camber Castle and Nonsuch Palace) these are far superior in quality to the St. Augustine's tile. Without knowing where the tile was fixed, it is impossible to say how accurately it told the time or indeed what part it played in the life of the abbey. The height of the tile is also a matter for conjecture. It was probably visible from ground level and positioned above the south door. It was surely too unusual an object to have been placed high up, for instance at parapet level for a bell-ringer to know when to ring. Sun-dials on walls of public buildings such as churches were a convenient method of telling the time before clocks were invented or widespread. Monasteries, more than any other institution, needed to know the time so that their daily services and other duties could be regulated. Without either a sun-dial or a clock, methods of telling the time were very subjective and this was apparently the situation at St. Augustine's, to judge by the abbey customary written a little before 1250, which nowhere mentions either. Instead, we read of certain abbey buildings being used to mark the shadow of the sun at certain times of the day. So 'on Saints days in Quadragessima the bell for terce is to be rung when the sun is in the angle beyond the entrance of the common parlour . . . . After the octave of St. Mildred, on minor or ordinary feast days the bell for the evening reading in the chapter house is to be rung when the sun is nearly in the centre between the first and middle windows of the chapter house. . . . At daybreak a bell shall be rung • 1° Canterbury Cathedral had a 'new clock' in 1292 (probably a water clock) and a 'chiming clock for the sacrist' in 1421 (Beeson, op. cit. 16, 23). At St. Augustine's there may have been a clock in the nave of the church driven by weights because a number of lead weights were found at the bottom of a hole constructed within the spine wall of the church. They might alternatively have been counter-poise weights for some hanging object of religious purpose such as a tabernacle, as may be depicted in the famous fourteenth-century drawing of the church by Thomas of Elmham (Antiq. Journ., Ix (1980), Pl. Va). 25 DAVID SHERLOCK when the sun has come into the window of the abbot's chapel, and at prime when it has reached the church of Christ. . . . At the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary the bell shall be rung on Sundays when the sun has come down between the chapter house and the dormitory and has touched the cloister lawn.'11 For the feast of St. Michael there was an even more subjective method for knowing when to ring the bell for the first service: 'when you can clearly read the inscription on a coin'. Sonitus mane, antequam moneta ex die bene possit discerni ( an interesting insight into a monk's personal possessions!).12 Such methods as these shed light on the ordinary acta diurna of a great abbey more famed for its achievements in art and architecture, and it is in this tradition that the modest sun-dial tile belongs. As a glazed tile it is unique as far as research in published references to sun-dials can discover. 13 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to the following for help in publishing the tile: Marjorie Hutchinson of the Ancient Monuments Laboratory for conservation work, Dianne O'Carroll of the Ancient Monuments Drawing Office for drawing it, and Lyn Blackmore for her comments on the fabric of the tile; and all three for helpful criticism of this paper. " E.M. Thompson (ed.), Customary of St. Augustine's Abbey (Henry Bradshaw Society xviii, 1904), ii, 261. " Ibid., 268. '' There is a portion of a glazed tile from Coventry dating from the sixteenth or seventeenth century which is just possibly a sun-dial. See Trans. Birmingham Arch. Soc., Ix (1936), 38, fig. 40. Otherwise I can find no other sun-dials in glazed tile in some 3,400 examples cited in Ernst Zinner, Alte Sonnenuhren an europaischen Gebiiuden (Wiesbaden 1964). 26