43. Rolls-Royce, off Elton Road. Located in front of the factory's attractive late 1930s' art deco building are three 15 ft (5 m) Concrete Utilities 'Estate Minor' columns mated with 'Arc 3' top-entry brackets, with two supporting GEC Z5580s, and the third supporting a Thorn Beta 4. A fourth column, a Stanton 10F, has no lantern attached to its side-entry bracket, while an Avenue 3D 25 ft (8 m) column with an 'Arc 1' bracket supports a top-entry Philips MI 80. All of the columns made by Concrete Utilities are old enough to date from when Rolls-Royce moved to the site in 1948 (it having been a hospital previously), where it became the Company's main centre for designing the aero engines for which the Derby sites are synonymous to this day.
The company name is displayed prominently over the main entrance.
The first Estate Minor column is positioned opposite the building, just in front of the perimeter railings, which are supplemented with an electric fence. Although the column appears to be sited between both, it is, in fact, located in front of the two.
The Z5580 is not angled correctly in respect of the bowl refractors - the view seen here is the lantern's 'front'; the hinge should be in the foreground, and the bowl clip should be out of sight, facing away.
The next column is to be found adjacent the building.
This Z5580 is orientated correctly.
The Beta 4 is likely to be a later replacement for another Z5580.
As this Beta 4's bowl offers symmetrical distribution, how the lantern is installed is not crucial.
The 10F column has been without a lantern since 2008 (at least), and no archival images have surfaced (as yet) that would hint at what lantern was fitted.
A length of cable is wrapped around the bracket spigot. Also of note is the visibility of the mastic solution used to create a (theoretical) waterproof seal between the column and the bracket.
Moving to the Avenue 3D in the car park area, and a notable feature of the Arc 1 is the small (intentional) hole in the bracket, just above its join with the column.
The MI 80 is installed above its intended 6 m mounting height, though as the column is installed at this far end of the car park, the effectiveness of any lantern would have been rather compromised!
These earlier images, taken in 2004, show that the lantern was positioned perpendicular to the bracket at the time. Fitted into the lock of the column door was a jammed CU key. It may have been left there by engineers, in order that the door could be opened if and when it needed to be. Unfortunately, the key has rusted into the lock and cannot now be removed.
A small amount of damage has occurred to the bracket's counterbalancing rear fin.
A Royce Thompson P5 photocell, likely to date from when the lantern was fitted, is squeezed in front of the bracket end, and the top-entry coupler.
Attached to one of the buildings was this dayburning Thorn Alpha 8, running a 250 Watt MBF lamp.
A low-quality, ST7316-type photocell is employed. Despite this, the mercury lamp retained its characteristic glow, rather than having colour-shifted to a dull green.
The Wilmore Road Rolls-Royce site also has lanterns surrounding it that can be classed as 'Survivors'. Click here to see them. The same is true for the Moor Lane site; these can be seen here.
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