70. High Street / Church Road, Belbroughton, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire Thanks to Dwight for informing me of these Survivors. Attached to properties on both of these streets are rather long Revo outreach brackets supporting AC Ford AC 850 lanterns, with both lanterns running 80 Watt mercury vapour (MBF) lamps. When photographed in December 2022, the two lanterns were dayburning, and probably had been for a while, given that the lamps in them were rather dim.
The High Street example is located near to where the road becomes Queen's Hill.
The AC 850's polycarbonate bowl is discoloured heavily, owing to the strong ultraviolet light produced by the MBF lamp, along with general sunlight over the years.
A 1980s' Horstmann T14 thermal photocell is employed - this may be original to when the AC 850 was installed here, as a replacement for another lantern. The photocell shows signs of water ingress, and this is probably why the lantern is dayburning.
The resident of one of the adjoining properties mentioned that the light hadn't worked for a while, but then resumed operation unexpectedly. He commented that he was now in a battle to try to retain it, favouring its appearance over modern LED lantern designs.
A very dull glow was visible through the underside of the bowl.
The supply cable terminates into this Revo Tipton fuse box at the other end of the bracket. With the AC 850 being a gear-in-head lantern, all that is likely to exist within the enclosure these days is the fused cut-out.
The Church Road example was attached to the corner of a building.
The stay bar on this bracket was slightly more ornate than the High Street example was.
The faulty photocell here appeared to be a Royce Thompson P5.
The greened-out lamp appeared brighter here, owing to it not having to compete with direct sunlight, as with the High Street example.
The plaque attached to this side of the building informed the reader that, between 1889 and 1910, the house was used as a charity home for "waifs and strays", and was known as "All Saints' Home" at the time.
The overhead supply cable for the installation can be seen at the top of this picture.
The shadow of the lampholder support bracket is visible within the discoloured bowl.
CLICK HERE TO MAKE A MONETARY DONATION
© 2002 - English Street Lights Online