The sundial, on the south side of the memorial, has an inscription beneath it
that reads:
A sundial set permanently to summer time, comprising a
grey granite pillar, rough hewn all over, with rectangular panels with
smooth surfaces carved into it. The sundial is on the south face, incised in
a smooth panel set in the top half of the pillar, with a small inscription.
On the north side, are two panels bearing inscriptions. The pillar is set
straight into the earth beside a path in the wood, and tapers slightly
towards the top. It is roughly rectangular in section and the granite has a
pinkish hue. The face of the sundial is incised with a sunburst and has
Roman numerals incised round it, with the inscription beneath. The gnomon is
triangular, in bronze with a black coating and is also incised with sunrays.
In the expansion of the suburbs after the First World
War, Pett's Wood was threatened with building and a campaign started among
local residents to buy the wood as a memorial to Willett. £12,000 was needed
and the appeal was launched in 1926 with many prominent people on the
committee. The wood was acquired piecemeal over the next two years, except
for 47 acres to the west which were bought by Francis Edlmann, and
responsibility for it passed to the National Trust. It was renamed the
Willett Memorial Wood. The committee decided that a memorial to Willett
should be placed inside the wood, a sundial permanently set to Summer Time.
It is of grey granite from Shap Fell in Westmoreland, designed by G.W.
Miller, a local author of a history of Chislehurst, and made by Farmer and
Brindley of Westminster. The memorial was unveiled by the Marquess Camden,
Lord Lieutenant of Kent, on 21 May 1927. About 1000 people attended the
ceremony, during which the deeds of the wood were handed over to the
National Trust. This sundial is number BSS 0511 on British Sundial Society
register.
William Willett was responsible for the introduction
of daylight saving, campaigning over several years at the beginning of the
twentieth century almost single-handedly. He did not live to see his success
as he died in 1915, a year before the measure was first introduced during
the First World War. Willett was a house builder of quality housing in
wealthy areas of London, and came to live in Chislehurst in 1894 after he
bought the Camden Park estate with a view to developing it. From his house,
'The Cedars', he used to take early morning rides through nearby Pett's
Wood. He became conscious of the many hours of daylight wasted in the
morning when he saw house blinds still drawn on sunny summer days, and
formed the idea that more could be made of daylight by adjusting the clock.
He himself was a lover of sunshine and light, a fact that was reflected in
his buildings, and believed in its benefits for all. He put his ideas in a
pamphlet, 'Waste of Daylight', and campaigned ceaselessly to win over
influential people in government, industry, the trade unions and
agriculture. It was a slow process and his ideas suffered much opposition
and scorn, but he also attracted support from many prominent people such as
Winston Churchill, then President the Board of Trade and Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle. When the measure did eventually come in it was as an emergency
measure to save fuel in the munitions factories. The clocks were put forward
by one hour. The Summer Time Act in 1925 finally made daylight saving a
permanent feature. Willett's daughter, Mrs Gertrude Magrane, wrote of him,
'Above all he loved sunlight, open spaces and fresh air'. In the centre of
Station Square is the Daylight Inn named with reference to William Willett's
campaign to introduce summer time.