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Key facts and quick links....

• The Conference was generally judged to be a great success. A short summary is here

• The complete programme, details of the dial tour and the auction catalogue may all be viewed here.

• A summary of the questionnaires that delegates were asked to complete at the end of the conference may be found here

• No fewer than forty pictures taken at and around the conference can be seen here

• In a 'lively' discussion, delegates tempered the council's ideas for a change in society direction by showing the Council's analysis was almost completely wrong. See summary here.

• At the meeting we played a clip from a radio Interview that our Chairman, Frank King, had with Chris Evans on the 28th March 2012 about sundials.
  Details of how to hear it yourself are here!

Review of the 2012 Conference

Here we look back at some of the various events and outcomes of, the 2012 Conference. 

Scroll down to see a detailed summary of the conference.

This year our programme of oral papers was particularly strong.  Just click on the image of the printed programme at the left to see the full depth of the talks, the abstracts and all the other aspects of the conference too.

[Click on any one for a larger image]

Some pictures taken during the conference

[Click on any one for a larger image]

Some pictures taken during the conference

[Click on any one for a larger image]

Here are some pictures taken during the Conference.  Click on any of the thumbnails for a larger view...
Images © J Davis, C Lusby Taylor 2012 and used with permission

 

Here are some pictures taken during the Conference.  Click on any of the thumbnails for a larger view and hit the back button to return here...
Images © J Davis, C Lusby Taylor 2012 and used with permission.

What did delegates think of the 2012 conference?

In common with the practice of the last three years, all delegates to the conference were given a questionnaire to complete and asked to return it after the end of the meeting.  The total attendance over the three days was 84 delegates, a figure which included 23 couples so the highest response we could reasonably expect was approximately 61 returns since most (though not all) couples only send in one return between them.  In all we have received 41 questionnaires back -  that's 67% of our highest expectation which is good by any standard and is one of our highest ever responses.  The thumbnail below links to a table that summarises the responses that have been received.   However it should be noted that comments that were expressed as questions have not been included in the analysis.  In the interests of openness anyone wishing to see any or all of the actual responses or who might wish to do their own analysis of the responses, may see an 'anonymised' PDF of them here (NB the file is 2.8MB in size).

Click the thumbnail below (or this text!) to see a one page summary of the results of the 2012 Delegate Questionnaire.

In summary:

• Everyone without exception enjoyed the conference and appreciated the all-in-one venue

• Every respondent thought that the conference was good to excellent value for money

• All those staying at the hotel liked the accommodation

• Delegates enjoyed the conference for its lectures, to meet other people, the venue, the dial tour and the auction

• 92% felt we should consider an hotel based conference again

• 88% wouldn't even change anything next time

• 65% of delegates had viewed this conference page at some time before the meeting and all but one had found it useful

• About half (51%) of delegates felt the discussion forum should be repeated (see summary below)

• Very few delegates recorded problems of any sort. In fact nearly 60% of delegates had no suggestions for improvement at all.

Thank You!
The Conference has been generally acclaimed a success!  Thank you to all our speakers and to all those who brought displays, for helping to make this conference so enjoyable.
The Conference Organiser, Patrick Powers would also like to thank the many members who have sent him messages of thanks and appreciation regarding this, his last conference as organiser.  The organiser's final report to the trustees about the conference may be seen here.

On the Saturday afternoon we embarked upon our usual coach tour of some nearby dials and took a look at some of the Cotswold scenery in the process. 

This year's tour concentrated on some of the many vertical dials in the North Cotswolds.  As will be appreciated many of the prettiest of Cotswold dials are on mediaeval churches in villages where access by coach is virtually impossible.  However we still managed to see nine and a bit dials: The wonderful Great Decliner in Moreton in Marsh, seven of the dials on the High Street in Chipping Campden (where we could also browse the High Street shops) and a real puzzle, the dial on top of a dial in Bishops Cleeve.  A composite picture of all the dials we visited can be seen at the left or in larger size here.  Here is some information about the dials we saw.

First off, on the Redesdale (Market) Hall of Moreton in Marsh is the Great Decliner, SRN 0933. It declines some 83 degrees East. The Hall was erected in 1887 by the 1st Baron Redesdale, the grandfather of the Mitford sisters. We then set off North again to Chipping Campden to see seven dials all on the High Street.  First,  SRN 0752 , on Crosby House, formerly Meadow Cottage, the date of the house is recorded as 1691.  Then SRN 0753. Made in 1700. The gnomon has a curl at the end and it also has a nodus but there’s now no clue why.  Next, SRN 0609 on Dial House. Isaac Warner lived there. He was a from Gloucestershire clock-making dynasty. The Warners moved here in the early 18th Century. Like most High Street dials his doesn’t go beyond 3 pm. This too has a nodus without obvious reason now. Then SRN 0750 at the Cotswold House Hotel. Built in 1815 by Richard Miles, a grocer and chandler in a fair way of business, this superb Regency building has featured in a Miss Marple TV series. There, on an outbuilding to the rear, is a delightful dial, We know Richard Miles paid for it, but who made it and who designed it?  SRN 0754, is over Sundial House (Lloyd Loom Interiors) near the Market Hall. The house was remodelled in the 18th Century and the 1647 dial seems to have been similarly treated. The gnomon has been reset in the wrong place so it doesn’t even show anywhere near the right time.

SRN 0751, is on the recently closed Jaffé Neale Bookshop and is dated 1690 . It is canted out from the wall allowing a later time in the afternoon to be shown than the other dials which, owing to the curve of the street, face more or less south-east. Maybe the dial has been brought from elsewhere? This ‘bookshop dial’ was originally said to be used to set the Town Hall clock but you cannot actually see the Town Hall from here as the Market Hall is in the way. Finally in the town we saw SRN 0608,  on Grevel’s House at the end of the High Street, almost opposite Church Street. William Grevel - a rich London wool merchant lived in this magnificent house at the end of the 14th Century. It is perhaps the oldest house in the High Street. We don’t know if they had a dial then but the house has one today, dated 1815.

From Chipping Campden we turned for home but stopped at the village of Bishop’s Cleeve where there is an intriguing vertical dial SRN 3454 on the church of St Michael’s and All Angels. In fact it is one dial on top of another. The partly hidden dial has both lines and numerals all of which seem correct for the location but the stones seem to have been rearranged. Whatever happened?                [Thanks to Jill Wilson for this commentary]

 

At the 2012 meeting, and perhaps rather mischievously, there was played a clip from a radio Interview that the Chairman, Frank King, had had with Chris Evans on Radio 2 on 28th March 2012.  It was about sundials.  It makes interesting listening.  Not only does it extol the interest that there is in sundials of all types but it proves to be the first 'interview' that Chris Evans has had where he did not ask a question!!  An mp3 audio version of the interview (it is 800kB in size) may be downloaded to your PC and played using Windows Media Player or another proprietary package like IrfanView here