BUSINESSMAN David Harber is exhibiting his collection of old-style time-keeping devices - sundials - at the last Chelsea Flower Show of the Millennium.

Mr Harber's Sundial Workshop, at Bix, near Henley, is one of 21 exhibitors from Oxfordshire invited by the Royal Horticultural Society to Chelsea from May 25-28.

Mr Harber, who has been in business for six years, employs five people including himself and his wife Sophie and turns over about £200,000 a year. His largest project to date is to build a semicircle of stones in the Ardington and Lockinge Millennium Wood to record the sun shining through as time progresses.

Oxford projects include sundials at Magdalen College and St Cross College.

Most of his sundials, which cost about £2,000 each, are made of welded iron and inspired by a design created by the ancient Greek philosopher Ptolemy.

He said: "As well as being a remarkably accurate timepiece, it can provide an elegant and evocative image of the relationship between time and space.

Story date: Friday 07 May

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