134H. Cranbrook, Tunbridge Wells, Kent With thanks to Dwight for informing me of these Survivors. Various roads around this village are home to 15 ft (5 m) concrete columns that support lanterns that would, typically, run 80 Watt MBF (mercury vapour) lamps, although they may have been converted to run modern LED lamps instead now.
Doctor Hope's Road is home to this single Concrete Utilities' Byway 'X' column with Arc 4 top-entry bracket and AC Ford AC 730 lantern.
The hammered grey paint finish applied to the AC 730's canopy in the factory remains visible, suggesting that this could be a relatively modern replacement for an earlier lantern.
The start of Oatfield Drive saw an identical (albeit, leaning slightly) column installed.
The detector for a miniature photocell protrudes through the canopy.
A Thorn Beta 4 was fitted to the next column.
Conveniently, Beta 4s and AC 730s both use a common bowl size - despite slight differences in their overall appearances, one bowl type will fit both lanterns.
Returning to AC 730s for this example, the column type has changed - this is an older 'Byway' type (as opposed to Byway 'X').
The Byway has a larger, square base, whereas the Byway 'X' has a bellied octagonal base, and the Byway 'NX' has an even narrower octagonal base.
An even older column (the 'Fluted' design) existed on The Hill.
Rather than having a concrete bracket, this example featured a cast iron swan neck, complete with ESLA-branded fuse box cover, and another Beta 4 - a replacement for an earlier lantern.
The Beta 4 received a replacement (vacuum-formed) bowl at some point after 2009 - the original bowl having become heavily discoloured. The fact that there is no provision for installing discharge lamp control gear anywhere on this installation suggests that the lantern may have run a self-ballasting mercury vapour (MBFT) lamp as a possible explanation for the extreme discolouration - not only would these produce high levels of ultraviolet light; they also become very hot in service. As an LED lamp is now installed, hopefully, this should to conserve the bowl's transparency and colourlessness.
A sleeved Byway 'X' column was to be found on Goddard's Close, complete with AC Ford AC 810.
The lantern would have been (at least) 34 years old in 2024, as a fire in 1990 destroyed the wooden pattern that was used to produce the casting for the AC 810's canopy.
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