160C. Off Shaw Street / Sumner Street, Glossop, High Peak Situated within the grounds of St Mary Crowned Catholic Church is a very short cast iron plinth column supporting a Falks 'Beaufort' post-top lantern with a full-length transparent Perspex bowl and internal refractor ring. Although designed primarily for accommodating incandescent tungsten filament (GLS) lamps of up to 200 Watt, the Beaufort could also accommodate 45 - 60 Watt low pressure sodium (the latter wattage being the equivalent of the later 35 Watt SOX lamp) and 80 - 125 Watt mercury vapour (MBF) lamps. This particular example, however, is fitted with a rather older form of illumination, and one that is particularly suited to its Catholic setting - a single wax candle!

Curiously, despite the post (at least) appearing to be of similar vintage to the church itself, the construction of which was completed in 1886, Google Street View imagery reveals that the installation did not exist at all in 2009, and was added subsequently - I assume that it must have existed in this complete form elsewhere until then, rather than being made up of accumulated parts.

Despite the very low mounting height, the lantern is undamaged, and in good condition for its age.

The Perspex bowl, although slightly cloudy, is still transparent enough to allow the prismatic glass refractor dome to be observed. Notice that, because the candle is not positioned centrally, the heat has caused slight warping to the plastic, which is a shame.

The single candlepower light source is probably going to be somewhat dimmer than the Falks engineers had in mind for the Beaufort!

The lantern is positioned atop a cast iron Wardle fuse box - somehow, I don't think that there will be much in here.

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