This is a thread to discuss streetlight columns, lanterns, and anything else related.



This is the original post (note the images don't work due to my site closed):



I never thought that this thread would grow so large - LOL

- Edited by MotorwayGuy on 24th June

Purely my own opinions here but I would guess the top pic is a mid 70's column - obviously with a modern lantern.

As for the bottom pic, looking at the surrounding street environment I would guess its probably 1930's or 40's and sleeved in the mid-80's (judging by the state of the galvanising on the sleve and the adoption of the original lantern rather than providing a new lantern).

Top one 1970s probably stanton and stavely bottom one 1950s, manufacturer heaven knows you would need to look at the company inscription on the outside of the metal access plate

I just found an old picture from another road in the area (1930's):


1935


1951

If you notice, the columns here have swan necks, and open lanterns.

They were replaced by ones like the one in the top picture. I think thy have been replaced by metal ones now though.

I was wondering when they went, and when those were installed. As that picture was taken in the 1930's, and some other pictures show them elsewere, I doubt they would have been removed then. None of them remain from (unless there are some hidden on a private road).

PS. That picture with the metal column in 1951 also now has concrete columns, some of them are sleeved, all with different lanterns, and sleeve types.

The bottom concrete column looks like ELECO issue concrete, which would date it to the 1960s.

The sleeve is definately a 1980s variant, although a vast number of 1980s sleeves were painted white (if you look around Lancashire this is most evident).

The top concrete column looks like ones installed in West Sussex in the late 1970s through to the late 1980s. I've even seen them on what appear to be residential roads built in the 1990s.

Southampton started sleeving its columns in the 1970s, which were mid-late 1940s.

Southampton still has a fair few cast iron columns, most with swan necks and dating back to the 1940s at latest. Within the last couple of weeks the swan necks and lanterns on the columns in the Carlton Crescent heritage area were replaced, so swan necks are still being made!!!

Having recently moved into West Sussex (from Brighton where the only concrete columns appear to be in Portslade) -- this county must be the home of concrete columns, they are everywhere.

http://www.westsussex.gov.uk/ccm/conten ... .enc=UTF-8

Many seem to have been sleeved, but there is a wide range of lamps on them.

And there are indeed a few streets that are residential around Fishersgate/Southwick that have 1990s houses with concrete columns.

The Norfolk bridge on the A259 between Shoreham and Lancing used to have concrete columns on it and that was rebuilt in 1987. it now has metal columns.

Vicky

You might find thats a Lancashire-ism rather than the norm (similar to the white retroreflective stripes on your signals poles which few others seem to use).

Alot of the sleeves applied in Lincolnshire and Humberside in the 80's were plain galvanised. Indeed, there were new concrete columns installed in the 70's in Immingham, which were sleeved from new.

There are alot of villages around Cambridge which have concrete lampost columns

No it didnt. Its has always had metal columns, but it had the lanterns replaced recently and the arms were removed.

There are some more pictures here:

http://www.ukris.co.uk/bexleycolumns.htm

Also, are there any double bracket (unsleeved) still in the world?

Yes, there are still several scattered around Lancashire.

There used to be a small one of them at the end of my road, but it got replaces with a single-mast modern one (so one road is lit, but the other isn't!).

Streetlights online is a good website to visit if you want to see more. Use this link.

Barnstaple used to have some but I expect they are long gone now.

As for the lights on Norfolk bridge at Shoreham; I am only going on a photograph I have here, they rather look like concrete columns on the bridge itself... although that could be the perspective...

Vicky

Where abouts? There's still loads left in Ilfracombe - if you know where to look! As I say, there used to be a couple on my road until they were replaced last year.

Pottington Industrial Estate and the A361 Braunton Road used to. Many were removed in 1993 when Pottington Junction was tweaked. A good few double bracket columns too.

last thing I knew (around 2000/2001) the remaining ones were still there but probably long gone now.

Vicky

There is a streetlight site based mainly on Merseyside. I can't find it on google no matter how much I search.

Someone put a link for it on here a while back. Anyone know which site I mean?

Yep, long gone now. The bypass works will mean that some of their replacements will be dismantled aswell! I think there may still be a few in the Pilton area - particularly at the other end of Chaddiford Lane from Pottington.

Just as an aside, when you say Pottington junction was 'tweaked', in what way was it 'tweaked', and was that when those stupid 'get in lane' signs telling most traffic to queue in the inside lane were put up? Do you know what the point of them is, as the outside lane also goes into Barnstaple!

Most sleeved Conctrete Lamposts are more modern addations. In Dartford, there are a few that were done in the 00's. A canadate for the last concrete lampost built is M18 J3 and J4. This section of road was built in 1979. Very rare to see concrete lamposts on Motorways mind you.