173J. Avon Road / Mayfield Road, Pershore, Worcestershire Three notable installations survived on this road in September 2022 - two of these comprised GEC concrete columns still fitted with their original swan neck brackets and Z5580 lanterns, while the third saw a Thorn Beta 4 attached to a Concrete Utilities Byway 'X' column by means of an 'Arc 4' top-entry bracket. As with similar installations on other roads in the town, the lanterns run 70 Watt High Pressure Sodium (SON) lamps these days, having been wired for Mercury Vapour (MBF) lamps originally.
One of the two all-GEC installations is located near Mayfield Road's junction with Station Road.
Although the bowl is discoloured and rather grimy, the lamp is visible within it. No internal refractor dome appears to be present; however, if this lantern ran a glass refractor bowl originally, as the example on Three Springs Road did, a separate refractor may never have been supplied.
If you thought that the column appeared to be leaning in the above two pictures, it was!
The Byway 'X' column is located on a short spur cul-de-sac that branches from the main Mayfield Road.
A Zodion SS54 photocell detector is fitted to the Beta 4's canopy.
Although the bracket is meant to be aligned in such a way that its figured shape matches the profile of the column, as can be seen here, this bracket was slightly misaligned during installation.
The original Concrete Utilities 'drop latch' door has been replaced with a third-party equivalent that uses the far more common triangle head style of lock.
Mayfield Road becomes Avon Road after a bend is traversed; the second GEC column is located a little further up the road.
For saying that GEC concrete columns have a rather functional appearance, generally, they seem to suffer less at the effects of spalling, in comparison to equivalent Stanton and CU products.
This Z5580 also has a Royce Thompson detector fitted; albeit, the later 0.5 Watt version.
The door aperture protrudes slightly from the rest of the column.
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