WEST DERBY
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FREE Issue 79 West Derby & Croxteth Park January 2013
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SHADOWS OF TIME by Stephen Guy, West Derby Society
Time may seem to race today but to our ancestors the passing of the hours was less important and life went at a more leisurely pace. Clocks were rare and watches unheard of until the 17th century. Most people worked on the land and the sun dictated their lives. Until the industrial revolution and railway age in the 19th century many clocks had only an hour hand – the minutes
were not that important. People had more time to muse and reflect than today. Church sermons could last up to two hours and, as many people could not read, family and friends entertained each other with stories. Sundials played an important part in a world largely without clocks. They were placed in prominent places to give passers-by an idea of the hour. These instruments, going back thou-
sands of years, measure time using the sun’s shadow cast by a stationary arm called a gnomon - on to a plate marked in hours. The first mention of a sundial is in the Bible (Isaiah 38) but the devices had probably been in existence long before then. Sundials are still popular in gardens and as memorials, with some outstanding modern examples. A large stone sundial (pictured) can be seen on the wall of St Mary’s Church in
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West Derby. It bears a Liverpool inscription and the date 1793. It is said to have originally hung on the old West Derby Chapel, which stood in the centre of the Village, although contemporary paintings and drawings do not show it. Following the demolition of the chapel about 1856, the sundial is believed to have been transferred to Moss House which stood at the junction of Derby Lane and Queens Drive. Sundials come in all shapes and sizes. There is one at Eyam Church in Derbyshire, dating from the 18th century, which tells the time throughout the world using a curved graph. Seaton Ross in Yorkshire was the home of sundial enthusiast William Watson. A cottage is graced by one of his massive creations 12 ft in diameter.
William installed others on his farm and local church. His tombstone bears the epitaph: “At this church I so often with pleasure did call, that I made a sundial upon the church wall.” • Join the West Derby Society at its next meeting 7.30 pm on Wednesday 16 January at Lowlands, 13 Haymans Green, Liverpool L12 7JG.
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