Former Bevercotes Colliery Site, Newark on Trent, Nottinghamshire

141. Off the B6387, Bevercotes, Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire Installed on the access road leading to the former Bevercotes Colliery are a number of Stanton 6B 25 ft concrete columns, all fitted with early Revo C13723/S lanterns. The colliery was opened in the 1960s, meaning that these installations are probably the site's original roadway lights. The colliery closed in 1993, and the buildings were subsequently demolished, however, the lighting was retained, but presumably no longer operated. Sadly, the lanterns have suffered badly from attacks by vandals, and many are in something of a ruinous state by 2010, with only the bowl support frames still surviving on many of the lanterns.

The following photograph is the sight that greets you when you turn on to the access road.

The first lantern is missing the glass front panel from its bowl, but is otherwise in a good condition. Perhaps this column's proximity to the main road is what has kept it relatively undamaged. Notice the yellow and black bands painted around all of the column bases; presumably, this was done in order to improve the visibility of the columns.

The following installation is also in a reasonable condition, given its age and length of dereliction. The underside panel of the bowl on this lantern has fallen away, revealing the (SOX) lamp inside.

The damage is worse on the third lantern - both a side refractor and the underside panel are missing. The lamp is also smashed.

The base of this column was largely empty - only the supply cable and rubber-sheathed cables feeding the lantern remained. The backboard lay in the grass nearby.

A few more columns along, and now, the bowl is missing in its entirety. The remains of the lamp cap can still be seen in the holder.

The bracket on the next column (located adjacent a bridge that once brought the road over the railway line to the colliery) had somehow swung around. This bracket was, by far, in the worst condition in terms of spalling. Owing to the lantern being now being situated away from the roadway, damaging it must have proven difficult to the vandals (good!), as the lamp was still intact, despite the bowl being broken.

The next installation was not so fortunate, however - only one side refractor and the rear glass panel survived.

The next lantern was perhaps in the best condition - it still looked to be fully intact, although the spalling at the bracket joint is of concern.

Finally, the column situated opposite (what I assume was) the former main entrance to the colliery was also in a poor structural condition, and its lantern wasn't in the best of conditions either.

Thanks to Robin Idle for informing me of the installations featured on this page.

A return visit to the site in October 2012 revealed some very upsetting sights for the discerning street lighting enthusiast; see below for details.

The first and second columns from the main road still appeared much the same as they had during my previous visit.

Only at the next column position did things start changing from last time...

The column had been lowered to the ground, as had another that previously existed nearby (just visible in the background, to the left of the tree in the centre of the picture).

The next column remained upright; this also appeared unchanged from last time.

Nearby was another toppled column.

The lantern was still visible in the undergrowth.

Again, the following column was untouched.

The column located adjacent the bridge, whose bracket had rotated away from the carriageway, now lay on the embankment.

One final column had managed to avoid this onslaught.

A final two columns were grounded...

The lantern fitted to this column was in the best overall condition of all the lights that existed on the road - most of its bowl was still intact, although the panel ordinarily beneath the lamp and made up of dimply Perpsex was cracked..

The final column visible showed evidence of scrape marks along the front of the column shaft - presumably, these were made by the machinery that was used to lower the columns.

I found one of the two bowl refractors partially buried in nearby soil, but couldn't see any other parts of the bowl.

Although the reason behind the columns' lowering is unclear, I suspect that the landowner ordered this work, owing to the increasingly precarious state of the bracket arms - there was potential that they would give way under their own weight and cause injury to anyone standing beneath them at the time.

Just shy of a decade later, I paid another return visit; this time, in August 2022. The site remained undeveloped, and in fact, nature seemed to be claiming back the land for itself. The first installation's condition hadn't deteriorated noticeably since the 2012 visit.

The lamp remained intact within the damaged lantern.

The second column had begun to spall around the front of the bracket.

The bowl was in the same condition as it had been previously.

The lamp remained visible through the smashed bowl underside.

The third column appeared to have been removed completely (this being the first on the road that had been pulled over when I visited last), with the next remaining column to be seen being one within the conifer trees.

The previously-intact lamp support spring had snapped, while the lampholder was hanging loosely within the lantern.

Some of the vegetation had been removed from around the next (toppled) column, though the shaft was now buried partially beneath a mound of earth.

A chunk of the column base had broken away from the force of being knocked over.

The remainder of the shaft continued down the embankment.

The empty lantern frame fitted to the next column was the same as it had been previously.

This poor lantern was vandalised quite substantially, with only the rear glass section of the bowl remaining, and even the frame supporting it is damaged. The construction of the arc tube support in the remains of the lamp suggests that this was a Philips product.

The knocked-over column by the bridge remained extant, but was covered in pine needles, and the surrounding vegetation had grown somewhat.

The next column was now the last one to remain vertical.

Part of the bowl is wedged within the lamp support - the damage here seemed to have worsened since my last visit.

Although walking nimbly along the fallen column shaft of this downed installation did occur to me, I elected that doing something of this nature, in a location in the middle of nowhere, with no mobile 'phone signal, and being on my own, might be a trifle stupid - this scenario is why zoom lenses were invented, after all!

Using said zoom lens allowed me to note that the lampholder was missing, and that the bowl support frame was unclipped.

The final column was on flatter ground.

I think that this was the lantern that was the most intact when seen previously, but was now an empty shell - I believe that a fellow collector managed to rescue the gear tray and bowl after calling in at the site.