Designer: William Andrewes
Client: Hatfield House
Materials: Cornish De Lank Granite, Zimbabwe Black Granite, Heather Red & Blue Welsh Slate, Elterwater Light Green Slate.
stoneCIRCLE was commissioned to manufacture the stone compass rose to accompany the Longitude Dial at Hatfield House. Installed in 2011 to mark the 400th anniversary of the house, the compass rose is inscribed with the names of the cathedrals of the England in red, some great cities of the world in black and places with connections to the family in green.
It was manufactured in a variety of different stones, mainly from around the United Kingdom and involved carving 7000 letters into extremely hard Cornish De Lank granite as well as the main direction indicators on the compass points which were machined and then had bronze inserted into the letters.
The rest of the installation was made using Zimbabwe Black granite, Heather Red and Heather Blue Welsh slate and Elterwater Light Green slate from Burlington.
The machining of all of the stones and lettering needed to be extremely accurate to ensure that the gnomon would show the correct time once the piece was installed