Last November, the old sundial was taken down from the Bishopthorpe Co-operative building so that it could be restored. Since then sundial restorer Harriet James has been carefully removing many layers of paint and photographing each stage of the procedure.
Harriet says she found that some of the lower layers of paint seemed to reverse the black and white scheme we are familiar with. The oldest layers were limewash. This photograph shows the dial as we've never seen it before - the plain carved stone face with some traces of paint and the earliest layer of limewash. The re-painting of the dial has now been completed using creamy-white and black paint, imitating the original scheme as much as possible.
Unfortunately the gnomon (shadow caster) was beyond repair, although photographs have revealed that it had been restored earlier in the twentieth century. A new gnomon is being made. Find out more about the restoration and history of the sundial here.