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Aldeburgh: A Gnomon* of Sundials [*We have no authentification for the use of this collective noun.]
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The first is on the Moot Hall on the sea front. The next two splendid examples are nearby (the second, appropriately, in Dial Lane) and the fourth, a 'lost' one in Hertford Place - at the Slaughden Quay end of town, the numerals rather faded. The support for the shadow-casting gnomon is 's' shaped in number 3, straight in number 2 and serpentine in 1 and 4. The first three are south facing, but number four is west facing, so the gnomon rises from just to the left of the bottom of the dial to achieve the correct reading from the sun. Roman numerals abound, also sundial wisdom:
1. HORAS NON NUMERO NISI SERENAS: 'I
count
the bright hours only' [as a sundial works only in the sunshine, this
is 'either totally useless or utterly false'] with the date 1650 below
square pillars supporting a broken scrolled pediment,
3. SEMPER FIDELIS: 'Always faithful'.
Example 2 has been beautifully restored
with golden sun and rays above the house name 'CORREGGIO' (after the
16th century painter of Lombardy), the characters individually painted
on beach pebbles set in cement. See the link to Suffolk Sundials here.
Other examples of lettering in Aldeburgh:
'Wm. C. READE of ALDEBURGH Ltd. BUILDERS and CONTRACTORS' survives close to the Jubilee Hall (original home of Britten's Aldeburgh Festival) on the wall of Reade's old workshops. Black painted brick with white lettering. The superior 'TD' of Ltd., the serif caps of the upper line and the block caps of the lower provide a varied sign readable from way past the Moot Hall.
Below: close to the promenade an unusual red brick building (rendered and cream washed above the ground floor) with a gated area or tiny courtyard. The decorative terra cotta frieze bears the interlaced lettering and numerals seen in Ipswich's Cauldwell Hall Road Co-op: 'BUILT AD 1898'. A similar use of these monogram dates can be seen on the frontage of the Fludyers Arms, Undercliff Road, Felixstowe.
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Howells and Brooks, Chemist in Main Street has a central blank window (where the olde worlde street lamp is casting its shadow in the photograph above) bearing the list: 'Toiletries, Perfume [this in cursive script], Cosmetics, Dispensing Chemist, Films'. The 'leading edges' of the building bearthe vertical word: 'CHEMIST' painted in black against snow white, see the chemists shop in Ipswich's Felixstowe Road. And a few doors away:
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'O. & C Butcher Ltd: Ladies Shop' [Ampersand and 'Ladies Shop' in small caps] is painted, white on black, high above the shop front and is probably preserved and retouched by the white washer of the whole building. Inside the entrance is one of the few surviving island glazed displays in the country and wonderful art deco stained glass above the other display windows: 'Ladies Outfitting & Shoes' and 'Gentlemens Outfitting & Shoes'. We have included the sticker in the internal display window: 'AERTEX Men's Wear / VANTELLA Shirts' for its period resonance. The present proprietors presumably like it too.
The milepost has a curved top and
is
well preserved with its use of the truncated spelling, common at one
time: 'Aldeborough'. 'ALDBORO TO LONDON 94; WICKHAM MARKET 12'. It
stands close to the White Hart public house. More
mileposts/milestones here.
And while we're down this end of the Main Street:
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'Crespigney
Cottages' and 'The Old Custom House', the latter one of the famous
houses in Aleburgh, its front door nearly on the first storey accessed
by a worn stone staircase.
Let's take
a walk back up the shingle towards Thorpeness and discover
Maggie Hambling's sculpture commemorating Britten way up the beach as
it has lettering
cut into it.
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Taken
on New Year's Eve 2006, then besmirched with graffiti, The Scallop sculpture has better lettering cut into the thick steel. A
stencil font (to retain, for example, the centre of the letter 'O')
follows the ripples in the metal.
Benjamin Britten, one of the twentieth-century's most important
composers, spent much of his life in Aldeburgh
and nearby Snape. The inspiration he drew from the area is most
notable in the famous 'Four Sea Interludes' from his opera
Peter Grimes. The violinist Yehudi Menuhin once commented,
'If wind and water could write music, it would sound like Ben's'.
In November 2003, a striking tribute to Britten and his music was
unveiled on the beach just north of Aldeburgh. Scallop, a four-metre
high steel sculpture, was conceived by Suffolk-born artist Maggi
Hambling, and made by Aldeburgh craftsmen Sam and Dennis Pegg. It
stands near the Thorpe Road car park on the coast road between
Aldeburgh and Thorpeness.
The phrase from the libretto of Britten's opera Peter Grimes: 'I
hear those voices that will not be drowned' is pierced through the
steel, to be read against the sky. Images of wings rising in flight,
swimming fish and the ripple of waves are all suggested by the work,
whose scallop forms also recall ancient symbols of pilgrimage, Venus
and the sea.
Indeed, Maggi Hambling thinks of Scallop as a conversation with
the sea: 'An important part of my concept is that at the centre of the
sculpture, where the sound of the waves and the winds are focused, a
visitor may sit and contemplate the mysterious power of the sea'.
Scallop was given to Suffolk Coastal by the artist and by the
Adnams Charity, which co-ordinated the raising of funds from numerous
individual donors and grant-making trusts.
The rather insignificant 'controversy' surrounding the sculpture
and the repeated daubing with paint by vandals shouldn't cloud the
beauty of the structure and the multiple meanings of the quotation.
Shortly after our photographs were taken the graffiti was cleaned off.
If it gets daubed again, rest assured the sculpture will outlive
the paint, will stand and survive in the wild weather of Aldeburgh
beach.