126BA. Furnace Road, Ilkeston Situated opposite the now-demolished Belfield Furnishings factory site (which had been the company's second premises within the town), and adjacent the railway lines is a home-made column that features a concrete base with a shaft fabricated from steel sheets welded to produce a crude angle for a bracket. Fitted to the end of this assembly is an abandoned and vandalised Philips MI 80 lantern, which would have run a 55 Watt SOX (low pressure sodium) lamp in happier times. Prior to its demolition, the factory was home to a top-entry Revo C14408T "Bell Top" above its loading bays, and it was actually this that I was planning to photograph. Alas, by the time that I visited, the building was nothing but a pile of rubble, with the Bell Top probably buried somewhere beneath it. Fortunately, I spotted the MI 80, and photographed that instead, so it wasn't a completely wasted journey.
The column was (presumably) installed to provide lighting to this former car park area, though I wonder why someone went to the trouble of fabricating this creation, rather than purchasing a dedicated lighting column, and installing that instead.
As well as the bowl having been completely removed, the lamp is smashed, and even the aluminium canopy shows evidence of heavy impact damage.
The lengthy bracket seems to have been used as a makeshift swing, with the remains of this still visible.
Remarkably, the lantern's (possibly, original) Royce Thompson P5 photocell is still intact on top of the canopy.
The above-lamp reflector / gear tray remains in place, but is very rusty.
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