152 - Tamworth Road, Sawley

152. Tamworth Road, Sawley Attached to the front wall of the 'Tressandra' building on the main road through this Erewash suburb are a couple of Atlas/Thorn M30 F floodlights designed for running 140 Watt - 200 Watt linear sodium (SLI/H) lamps. Given the obsolescence of such lamps since the 1980s, the likelihood of these floodlights still operating is distinctly remote; however, the floodlights are in very clean condition, and even appear to have lamps installed within them, so perhaps could still work, provided that the lamp control gear is intact - this having to be mounted remotely in a dedicated enclosure.

The sheet-steel floodlight bodies are now maroon in colour through rusting; the material would have been zinc-coated and finished in stove enamelled grey (or light blue, depending on their age) when new.

Interestingly, my Thorn 1972/3 catalogue illustrates the lamp access as being on the left-hand side of the floodlight, whereas it is to the right on these examples - and the floodlights have not been installed upside-down, as evidenced by the offset position of the wall-mounting bracket. Fellow collector Claire Pendrous has also photographed an example with the entry point on the right; perhaps the catalogue images were accidentally flipped.