Further to my article the other day about where it was alleged that the sundial from Crossbasket was taken to Tudor House in Washington, USA, I’ve now been able to confirm that is indeed the case.
There was a story about the sundial being taken by the Peter family across the Atlantic in the early part of the 20th Century. I wanted to try to find out more and knowing how many photographs there are of Crossbasket now on Blantyre Project, those very photos were the key to unlock what happened.
Looking back through photos, I saw this one of Marge Mills in 1957 taken at Crossbasket where she was actually sitting on the sundial. Looking at the sundial photo today in America, it certainly DOES look like the very one and same. Right down to the detail around the base. Looking at photos of the James Little College at Crossbasket in the mid 1960’s, the sundial was gone by then, so I’m left to conclude that it was shipped across the Atlantic not in the early 20th Century, but sometime between 1957 and 1965, perhaps following the death of the Little Sisters who lived at Crossbasket.
For now though, I am certain the sundial was shipped to America and now on the estate of the descendants of the family who once lived at Crossbasket in the 18th Century.
