180c. Blaen Wern, Gwernymynydd, Mold. Installed by some garages between Blaen Wern and the A494 Ruthin Road is a Concrete Utilities Estate Minor X column and Arc 3 bracket supporting an AEI Amber Minor lantern - the precursor to the ubiquitous Thorn Beta 5. Sadly, the lantern is in rather poor condition, with the bowl having been damaged. Whilst the lantern was operating in daylight for some time, by the time that these pictures were taken in October 2019, this had ceased, although I was unable to be certain of whether the fault had been rectified, or the lamp had failed.
The column has a very slight lean to it; it may have been backed into by a vehicle in the past.
The rear of the bowl is missing completely, whilst the underside shows evidence of airgun pellet damage.
Dating from 1950, the Estate Minor X is the Concrete Utilities' equivalent of Stanton's 10 range of concrete columns. This example will be newer than this, however, as the Amber Minor is a 1960s' lantern.
Unlike the later Thorn Beta 5 lantern, the Amber Minor's bowl slips into an aluminium support ring. The detector from a miniature photocell is just visible on the canopy, in front of the bracket.
The CU logo and 'Kitemark' symbol are moulded into the concrete above the door, whilst 'Concrete Utilities Ltd' is moulded below. The door is the standard CU 'drop-latch' type.
The column itself is in good condition, without any obvious signs of spalling in the concrete.
The lantern, by comparison, is filthy!
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