113DB. Twigden Road, Kislingbury, Northamptonshire With thanks to Dwight for informing me of this Survivor. Attached to a wooden pole is an AC Ford bracket supporting an ELECO 'Welwyn' top-entry open lantern, which was running an 80 Watt MBF (mercury vapour) lamp when pictured in November 2023. Appropriately, this version of the Welwyn made its first appearance in catalogues in 1953, making the design 70 years old when pictured (although this version may be slightly newer than this, though I wouldn't think by many years - the electricity supply to one of the properties may have been installed in December 1946).
The open nature of the lantern places it very firmly into a bygone era.
A feature of the Welwyn are the three decorative 'prongs' that are cast into the lantern's aluminium canopy.
At some point during the installation's lifetime, a photocell control has been added to the rear of the pole. A Royce Thompson fixing bracket supports the photocell, and may have been supplied with one of the company's P5 units when new, but is seen here running a Fisher-Karpark SS5, dating from the early 1990s.
Although the overhead electricity conductors are in the Aerial Bunched Conductor (ABC) format today, originally, they may have been un-insulated separate conductors originally.
A sizeable AC Ford moulded box is situated below the bracket to house the lamp control gear. This will be a later addition, and hints that the Welwyn may have been converted to run an MBF lamp, after running an incandescent (GLS) lamp when new. The much smaller fuse box attached to the bracket is original, however, and would have provided local protection to the cable between the box and the lantern.
Although the mild steel pipe used for the bracket is pitted heavily through rust, the aluminium-cast finial / top-entry adaptor shows no signs of corrosion, although much of its top paint coat has worn away, exposing a red oxide primer beneath.
Exposure to the British weather has made the frank on the OSRAM-made lamp rather faint; however, there is just sufficient detail left to inform me that it was made at the company's Foshan (China) facility in August 2008 (date code: f888). Although the code could also represent 2018, as the manufacture of mercury lamps was banned in Europe after April 2015, this later date seems unlikely.
Viewing the lantern from below reveals the rather grubby appearance of the surrounding reflector.
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