The socket stone at Healing – mounted on a stone pedestal to form a sundial
Parish/DistrictHealing/North East Lincs
Locationc. 9m west of church of SS Peter and Paul, Healing
CategoryChurchyard cross (sundial conversion)
National Grid RefTA 21368 10094
DesignationListed II
Stone typeLimestone
Refs
VisitsDS/HH: 12 March 2012

A socket stone at Healing converted (in a most unseemly fashion) into a sundial.

This cross base, now about 9m west of the western door of SS Peter and Paul church at Healing, has been mounted on a modern stone pedestal c. 0.73m high. It is noted in Kelly’s Directory of 1930 that ‘There is a large and ancient stone sundial in front of the west entrance of the church’ so the conversion had taken place by that date. It may date from Fowler’s restoration of Healing in 1875, or from later works in the 20th C.

The socket stone is nearly square (0.70 x 0.73m) and is about  0.34m tall. It has a chamfer on its lower edge. The corners are shaped to form an octagonal top by chamfers stopped with double scrolls. One corner is damaged,

The remains of the shaft are visible, flush with the top surface of the stone, and outlined in the lead in which it was set. The shaft has a rectangular section of 0.22 x 0.34m. There are lead fixings in the top of the socket stone which may have held the original sundial mounted on the stone. There is now a rather ungainly iron gnomon screwed onto the socket stone.

Detail of the chamfered corners with double scrolls as stops
The top of the socket stone – traces of the shaft set in lead can be seen under the rather unsuitable modern gnomon
Healing

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