John. Thanks for your input. I’ve got your book on “Higher Barrowford” and picked up on your web site
http://www.barrowford.org/ . Well worth the read. After wondering around looking at the buildings I left with a number of questions running through my head. Like you, I’m always suspicious about date stones.
In this small are there are four of them.
The sundial at 1839.
Crow Trees barn side entrance at.1741.
Over the barn entrance at the rear of Brookdell. at1767.
The gable of 13 Foreside. At 1755
The first three are in exceptionally good condition while the gable date stone is eroded and painted over for clarity. The two “barn” stones are in sheltered positions and have largely been protected from weathering.
The Crow Trees stone also carries some lettering which may be the Bulcock’s initials but since at this point I don’t really know what the Bulcock’s Christian names are so I have left that one open.
In the case of the Brookdell barn 1767 and the Foreside cottages 1755, the barn cuts into the rear of the cottages suggesting the barn was there first with the cottages built round it. This is plausible since building at this time was a much slower process.
At the moment I think that the sundial is genuine and was designed specially for this building. The reason behind this thinking is that the house is declined facing east approx: 45 degrees. Consequently, the gnomon is offset to the left so that the noon shadow falls vertically in common with standard dials. The end result being numerous morning hours but with a limited afternoon time scale. My quick calculations on this layout tend to confirm this reasoning.
All very interesting (to me) but not solving the question of who instructed the dial to be built in the first place.
John. I would be more than happy to discuss this subject with you directly. My e-mail address is available through Mel.