April 24 to 27th 2014

One of the main attractions of membership of the BSS is the annual conference. This year, being the Society’s Silver Jubilee, we are having an extended, three-day conference in Greenwich, the home of time measurement and the root of the Prime Meridian of the world.

Greenwich has so much to offer us:

The old Royal Hospital, with it grand classical buildings on the River Thames, is now home to the University of Greenwich. We shall hold our conference there, in the King William Court, within sight of the observatory and practically on the Prime Meridian.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich has many glorious instruments retained from when they were used by Astronomers Royal to measure the heavens and time our progress through them.

The National Maritime Museum, the world’s largest, has one of the world’s best collections of navigation instruments, sundials, astrolabes and so on. Not to mention the peerless Harrison clocks used to determine longitude. Our very own Chris Daniel will show us his sundials,
including the famous Dolphin Dial.

The nearby Horniman Museum has a trail of modern sundials, many made by BSS members, that we will visit.

Other attractions include the Cutty Sark, the only tea clipper to have survived, and Greenwich Market, a fabulous old covered market. As with most maritime locations, there are many historic and atmospheric pubs and restaurants in Greenwich.

The university does not have suitable accommodation on campus, but there is an excellent and very reasonably priced Ibis Hotel just outside its gates. So we have booked rooms there. Note that the rooms are almost all double, with a very few twin bedded rooms. Please specify if you need twin beds. From the hotel to the university is about a 5 minute, level walk.

We have hotel rooms booked from the Thursday night to Saturday night. Although we suggest you arrive on Thursday afternoon, and exhibitors will be able to set up exhibits, arrangements on Thursday are very informal, with no speeches. The conference proper will start on Friday morning. We will visit the Horniman Museum on Friday afternoon and the Greenwich observatory and museum on the Sunday morning. The social highlight should be the Gala Dinner on Saturday held in the university’s Council Chamber.

The Society is blessed with members who actively research existing dials and others who invent and make new ones. Several of these are regular speakers at our conferences and will be giving talks on their latest findings. But one of the delights of our conferences, particularly so last year in Edinburgh, has always been getting to know new members. If you are one, please consider givingus a short talk on yourself, what got you into sundials, what your interest is and so on. There is no need to feel in awe of the more vocal members – we really want to hear from you. If you are willing to stand up for a few minutes, please let Chris Lusby Taylor, the Conference Organiser, know – see the reverse of the booking form or use this mailto link.

The conference booking form is here. Please print it, fill it in and return. After the end of February we most likely can take late bookings, but please ask before sending money. Note that members may bring a non-member partner or helper at the member rate. There is not meant to be any suggestion that we require spouses, partners and helpers to be members in their own right. If you are a non-member of BSS and wish to come to the conference alone or with another non-member, then one of you must pay the extra to cover one year’s membership.

Payment can also be made using PayPal. Due to the variety of options for accommodation and meals you should still use the conference booking
form to register and calculate the amount of the fee. Once you have done that, please click the link below, enter your name in the Description field and add the amount as Item Price. Your completed conference booking form should also be returned.