Tag: archaeology

Symbol(s) of the Month – Ritual Protection Marks

On By shadowsflyawayIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Cross, St Nicholas at Wade, Kent © Carole Tyrrell

Imagine if you will a medieval church.  Inside it would be brightly painted and very colourful in contrast to the whitewashed interiors that we are familiar with today. Faded vestiges of these colours can sometimes be seen on monuments or pillars. The church porch might be used for other activities besides keeping out of inclement weather.  They were used for ceremonies such as marriages or the ‘churching’ of women and churches were often the hub of community life. But they also had a dark side as they were seen, surprisingly,  as places where evil lurked. In fact, it was believed that the Devil and his horde lived within the church on the ‘north’ or sinister side.  

The medieval world was often harsh and the forces of evil were supposedly everywhere. A bad harvest, plague or fires were all attributed to them. Witches were also believed to be real.  Meanwhile the Church taught that the world was full of evil spirits who were always looking for unwary souls to tempt or possess. 

Even churches needed protection despite priests performing blessings and masses and so the local parishioners took action into their own hands and relied on the use of apotropaic symbols.  This is a Greek word that comes from ‘apotrepein’ which means ‘to ward off’ i.e. ‘apo’ = away and ‘trepein’ = ‘to turn.’ It was a secret language which its medieval creators firmly believed could protect them from evil. They were a way of their creators taking back control  over their world. The marks  were often inscribed near vulnerable places such as doorways, windows, fireplaces and even fonts. In other words, wherever an evil presence might try to enter. But they were not confined to churches as they also appeared in other historic and ancient buildings.

Daisy wheel on fragment of a demolished house in Essex, Southend Central museum. © Carole Tyrrell

But by the 18th century, belief in protective marks had declined. However, they were inscribed into buildings and churches up until the 19th century and have been described as ‘folk magic’ or superstition. But in rural areas the tradition continued and was handed down through generations.

I have seen many medieval survivors of the 17th century iconoclasts in Kent churches such as wall paintings at Selling and a Doom painting at Newington but more recently I have been finding the most enigmatic survivors of all, ritual protection marks. You have to know where to look as they are often well hidden.  I did wonder if the priest knew what was going on and turned a blind eye. But we will never know. However, this is a huge subject and I can only scratch the surface. I’m just intrigued by them and their variety.  In this post I am giving you a selection of what I’ve found so far and possible meanings. I have visited 3 churches so far: St Nicholas, Sturry, St Nicholas at Wade and Hoo St Werberga who all have these marks. As you might imagine crosses feature heavily.

Figure on pillar, St Nicholas, Sturry.© Carole Tyrrell

I first found marks in St Nicholas church, Sturry, near Canterbury in 2023. The churchwarden pointed them out as they’d just had someone in to do a survey of them. There were crosses on pillars near the entrance and on the other side of the church. So, I made a return visit this year and this time found a figure which may be the Virgin Mary as it seems to be wearing a skirt and has a halo.

There was a little note on a pillar indicating a M or Marian mark but I couldn’t find it and then I was distracted by a cream tea.  I also saw circles which appear to have been appear to have been drawn with a compass as well as dots. The small circles are also referred to as hexafoils and are the most common.

Circle, St Nicholas, Sturry, © Carole Tyrrell

According to their information leaflet on the marks;

‘They can range from simple circles, to six petalled flower designs and highly complex geometric designs which are known as daisywheels.’

They are usually small as at St Nicholas, but they can be up to a metre across. It was originally believed that they were created by the masons who built the churches but there are too many for them to be attributed to one trade. It has been suggested that:

‘they may have been created in order to trap the demons that roamed the world within their complex structure by quite literally pinning them to the walls.’ Information leaflet, St Nicholas, Sturry.

Also at Sturry , there are five ‘dots’ on a pillar which could easily be missed but they have significance:

Dots on pillar, St Nicholas, Sturry. © Carole Tyrrell

‘the dots appear to follow numerical values, being found in generally uneven numbers, and commonly in groups of three, five, seven and nine. Certain uneven numbers had considerable significance in the medieval church, such as the Trinity and the seven sacraments, and numbers were also regarded as powerful within aspects of medieval magic’.  Information leaflet, St Nicholas, Sturry

But this is only one interpretation and, as with most ritual protection marks, there can be several and it’s not possible to say definitively which is the correct one.

I visited St Nicholas at Wade at Easter 2025 and the church was bustling as it was being decked with flowers for the celebrations. They very proudly showed me their ‘daisy wheel’ on a pillar. 

Daisy Wheel, St Nicholas at Wade. © Carole Tyrrell

A daisy wheel is a stylised flower pattern and according to English Heritage ‘

‘they are the most easily recognisable. They have been found in early medieval English buildings from the early medieval period right up to the 19th century. Followers of Wicca see them as sun symbols’

Histories and Castles describe them as:

‘geometric rosettes, often with 6 petals that symbolised eternity and divine protection. The medieval mind believed that evil travelled in straight lines and so could be trapped by circular forms, the looping unbroken line of a hexafoil was thought to confuse evil spirits or trap them in an endless journey.’

I previously visited Hoo St Werberga in September 2024. But this time I was looking specifically for ritual protection marks and found them despite being led astray by another excellent cream tea. This time I found a large ship on a pillar which is possibly a reference to St Werberga’s position on the River Dee and the lantern in its tower to guide shipping. My photo did not come out too well although the body of the ship can be seen. So, I attach a copy of a far better photograph that was displayed on the local history desk with their kind permission.

Ship on pillar, Hoo St Werberga. © Carole Tyrrell

In fact it was one of the local history people who proudly indicated one of the most enigmatic and mysterious marks I’ve seen so far. It was a bullseye on a pillar.  It was partly obscured by the organ and other pieces of church furniture and so I might have missed it.   He told me that they know nothing about it and it’s certainly an unusual item to find in a church. .  However, the circles inside each other may have been another method of trapping demons.

Bullseye, Hoo St Werberga. © Carole Tyrrell

I will undoubtedly find more as I explore other churches in Kent especially as I now know where to look for them. They are the traces of a medieval belief system of protection from the threat of unknown demonic forces from which no one was safe not even the rich and powerful. They were seen as holding protective powers and were a way of empowering their creators.

They are a fascinating glimpse into the world and beliefs of our ancestors.

©Text and photos Carole Tyrrell unless otherwise stated.

References and further reading:

392 WITCH MARKS v2.indd (the Fortean Times article on witches marks from 2019)

Witch marks: Medieval graffiti for protection

Witches, Carpenters & Masons – what’s in a mark?

What Are Witches’ Marks? | Historic England

APOTROPAIC / RITUAL PROTECTION MARKS – GAUDIUM SUB SOLE . SUNDIALS . MEDIEVAL TO MODERN

Witch Marks and Secret Symbols: Discover Medieval Witchcraft Protection in England’s Castles and Churches

Apotropaios – Home (one of the best sites on these marks.)

Magical House Protection – the archaeology of Counter-Witchcraft – Brian Hoggard, Berghahn, 2019

Information leaflet, St Nicholas, Sturry, Kent

Symbol of the Month – The Mass Dial

On By shadowsflyawayIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

In light of the mass dial found at St Mary’s In the Marsh, I thought it might be timely to repeat the 2021 Symbol of the Month about them. Easily missed as they are not always where you expect to find them, they are survivors from a time where there were no time keepers such as clocks. People rose with the sun and went to bed at sunset which is why they were so important to villages and their inhabitants.

Mass Dial set into a wall at St James’s, Cooling, Kent. © Carole Tyrrell

Despite the somewhat dispiriting summer, I was determined to escape from the house and see at least one or two local churches.  My little part of Kent is known as Charles Dickens country (I’m not sure that he knows about this) and there are several buildings and churches associated with him. 

One of these is St James’s church at Cooling.  Although closed for services, it is still kept open by local people on most days. The Churches Conservation Trust take care of it and it’s in an isolated spot which borders onto marshes.  It’s also a fair walk from the nearest town, Cliffe.  I didn’t see any signs of much of a village there although there is a 14th century ruined castle nearby. St James’s is the end of a terrace of houses appropriately named Dickens Walk. 

l’ll talk more about St James in a later post as it inspired one of Dickens most atmospheric scenes in ‘Great Expectations’ with the childrens graves in the churchyard.  But while I was there, I found a symbol set within a wall that I had heard of but had never previously seen an example – this was the Mass Dial.  I have to admit that if it hadn’t been pointed out on a display board within the church that I might have missed it as it’s set into an outer wall of the church.  Not many have survived and Victorian restoration may have meant that they are found in odd places.

Mass dials are rare survivors and were a way of telling time before the invention of mechanised clocks and timepieces in the 14th century. 

It was the Anglo-Saxons who established the dials.  There had been confusion with all the different calendar systems such as the Lunar and Julian, and with a largely illiterate population, a visual way of telling the time was necessary.

It was the Anglo-Saxons who established the dials.  There had been confusion with all the different calendar systems such as the Lunar and Julian, and with a largely illiterate population, a visual way of telling the time was necessary.

According to the Building Conservation website:

‘the Anglo Saxons divided night and day into 8 artificial divisions known in Old English as Tid or Tides.  The 4 daylight divisions were called:

Morgen – 6am – 9am

Undern – 9am to noon

Middaeg – Noon to 3pm

Geletendoeg – 3pm to 6pm. 

Morning, noon and evening are still in use as the last remnants of this division still in use today as are moontide, yuletide and shrovetide.’

But, throughout the Middle Ages, the Catholic church emphasised the reciting of prayers and fixed times during the day as pre-Reformation Britain was still a Catholic country.  These were known as the Divine Offices and were:

Matins – pre-dawn

Prime (6am)

Terce (9am)

Sext (12pm)

None (3pm)

Vespers (sunset

Nocturnes (after sunset) 

However, these were not set as the sun might not shine for a few days and if a mistake was made then the parish priest might end up celebrating certain feasts on different days from a neighbouring parish. 

Mass Dial, St John’s church, Devizes, Wiltshire – note that it still has the marker in it showing how it worked.© Brian Robert Marshall under Geograph Creative Commons Licence.

They were a form of medieval sun dial and originally the hole in the centre of the dial would have contained a horizontal wooden or metal rod that cast a shadow.  This was known as a ‘gnomon’ which is pronounced as No Mon.  These may well have been the local community’s only way of telling the time although medieval life revolved around getting up at sunrise and going to bed at sunset.

According to the British Sundial Society,

‘mass dials can be found on the south side of many churches.  They are usually small and often located on the walls, buttresses, windows and doorways of a church.  However, they can also appear in more unlikely places such as inside churches and on north walls where the sun rarely shines. But they have also been found in porches suggesting that the porch was built sometime after the dial was made.’

The Society goes onto suggest that this may be

 ‘due to the stone blocks having been re-used in the rebuilding of the church.’ 

The location of the Cooling one may indicate that it’s been moved.

Again, according to Building Conservation:

‘if a mass dial is found anywhere other than a church and other than the south elevation of a church, this usually means that it has been moved from its original location often as part of a Victorian restoration.  In such cases, the dials were sometimes rebuilt into the fabric upside down, making them unreadable.’

The positioning of mass dials is important and can vary.  They may be on the smooth cornerstone or quoin of a tower, nave or chancel, above a porch or on a door or window jamb.  Often they are set at eye level and in one church it is cut into a window ledge.

Mass dial, All Saints.Oaksey, Wiltshire. © Brian Robert Marshall. Shared under Wiki Creative Commons

Mass Dial, St Michael & All Angels., Heydon, Lincs. ©Richard Croft. Shared under Wiki Creative Commons

Mass dials also vary in their design as:

‘Some have either a few or many radiating lines, {others} have ‘hour’ lines within the circles or semi circles and others are constructed with a ring of ‘pock’ marks drilled into the stone.’  

British Sundial Society

There are also variants in the way that the hour lines are numbered as they may have Roman numerals or even Arabic ones.  They’re also known as scratch dials as

‘many are quite crudely scratched into the stone.’ British Sundial Society

A full circle version, All Saints, Yatesbury. ©Brian Robert Marshall Shared under Wiki Creative Commons

The 14th century brought mechanical clocks that created a regulated 24 hour time period.  As a result, medieval life changed as it was no longer so reliant on daylight.  However, mass dials were still in use but now they were a complete circle with lines radiating from the central gnomon to simulate the 24 hour clock.  But by the 16th century they had fallen out of use.  Sundials and mechanical locks had overtaken them and it was no longer the Roman Catholic church that dominated after the Reformation.

Mass dials are of great archaeological and historic importance.  However, many of them are now indecipherable due to erosion and vandalism and people may not even realise what they are or their significance.

© Carole Tyrrell Text and photos unless otherwise stated.

References and further reading

https://sundialsoc.org.uk/dials_menu/mass-dials/

https://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/mass-dials/mass-dials.htm

http://massdials.org.uk/links.htm

Click to access CW-Mass-Dials.pdf