The British Sundial Society is compiling a register of all the Mass dials (also known as scratch dials) in the country. So far, 5,500 examples have been recorded and the society is keen to hear from anyone who can help them find more.
A typical Mass dial consists of a circle divided in two equal parts by a horizontal line. If you then draw lines to divide the lower semicircle into four equal parts, you will have five lines that mark the canonical times of day, when ordained priests, monks, and devout Christians were expected to read psalms and prayers set out in a breviary or Book of Hours. The canonical hours, still in use today, are: ‘prime’ (sunrise), ‘terce’ (mid-morning), ‘sext’ (noon), ‘none’ (mid-afternoon), and ‘vespers’ (sunset). ‘Compline’ and ‘lauds’ occur during the night, making seven sets of prayer in each day.
People have been making scratch dials for a long time. There are inscribed and dated examples known from the 5th century, and there are 18th- and 19th-century examples. They are found all over Christendom, especially scratched into the exterior walls of churches on major pilgrimage routes (there are 212 examples in France and 25 in Spain), though England has far more than any other nation.
