38b. Former Stanton Ironworks, Lows Lane, Stanton By Dale As is to be expected, the lighting columns around the ironworks site were made at the Company's own concrete lighting column production plant that was on the same site, making these particular columns the least-travelled anywhere! Despite the ironworks having been taken over by the French company Saint Gobain Pipelines in the 1980s, before production ceased in 2007, and the buildings demolished soon afterwards, a number of the 1808 8 m octagonal columns remained extant for much longer - the following photographs were taken in December 2019 and no redevelopment work had commenced at the time.

The closed-off entrance to the main part of the ironworks (the Hallam Plant), with several of Stanton's street lighting products on display.

A GEC Z9464 90 Watt SOX lantern was fitted to the first column to be seen.

Remarkably, all of the columns are in excellent condition, with no signs of spalling at the bracket / column joints. I suppose that Stanton management was keen for extra sealant to be applied to these columns, just to ensure that their own product didn't start crumbling only metres from where they were made!

Alongside the first column is this rather weathered Forest City internally-illuminated Stop sign.

An old version of the Forest City logo exists on the back of the fitting.

The majority of the other columns support the original type of the geared Philips MA 90 lantern, where the lamp control gear was situated in a dedicated shoe at the rear of the lantern. Later versions saw the gear brought into the lantern instead.

This particular lantern's bowl has the tiniest water ingress issue!

The column's inspection door was missing, revealing two chunky supply cables (one is disconnected), along with the remains of a cut-out. The '78' stamped on the backboard is the year that the column was manufactured - most Stanton columns carry this detail. This suggests that the MA lanterns are original, whilst the Z9464 could be a replacement.

Another column is seen behind a pair of locked gates.

None of the lanterns have photocells fitted; they are likely to have been group-switched from the buildings instead.

Peering through the gap in the centre of the gates sees more columns heading off into the distance. After over a decade of dereliction, nature is beginning to take over on the former roadway.

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