14. Off Meadow Lane, Alvaston. Installed near the junction of the road leading to Alvaston Park is an abandoned Stanton 7 concrete column supporting a Wardle 'Murray' top-entry lantern designed for tungsten lamps. Derby had many of these tiny 1950s' lanterns in the past; this now being the last known example. The reason that this example has survived is because it is not listed on any street lighting inventory records, nor does it even contain any maintenance number. For saying that the installation had been abandoned for so long, it is in remarkably good condition, with the Perspex refractor ring still being intact when the installation was first discovered, albeit slight cracked and containing at least one bullet/catapult hole, but I don't think this damage is recent. The remains of a GLS lamp could still be seen within the lantern, although this provided no clues as to when the lantern last operated. At the time of original photographing in 2003, street lighting operative Jeremy was going to see whether the old installation could be brought back into service. The only issue that may have prevented this from happening would have been if the supply cable was no longer live; however, as you will see further down the page, it (thankfully) was still connected to a live supply. Since the column was installed, a steel fence has been erected around the perimeter of a caravan sales company whose land the column is nowadays situated upon. Although close to the column's inspection door, there was just sufficient room to access the column's base.

These first pictures were taken on Tuesday, 3rd June.