194C. Various locations, Birkenhead, Merseyside With thanks to Dwight for informing me of all of these Survivors. Still extant on several streets in the Birkenhead area in 2023 are a variety of 15 ft (5 m) concrete columns, still in largely originally condition, complete with their (mostly) original lanterns.

South Road is home to two 'Byway' columns, made by Concrete Utilities.

These columns are topped with swan neck brackets and GEC Z9481 35 Watt SOX lanterns.

The lanterns feature polycarbonate bowls, which have discoloured over their lifetimes.

This example also shows signs of water ingress within the lantern.

The second example is much the same.

One slight difference is that this example does not accommodate a one-part photocell on its canopy, as the other one did.

An identical setup exists on Reservoir Road North.

Here, a Royce Thompson P42 two-part detector is positioned to the side of the bracket connection.

Pine Walks was home to several 'Estate Minor' columns; again, made by Concrete Utilities.

An ELECO 'Goldenray Mk X' HW-932 was fitted here.

A (rather blackened) 35 Watt SOX lamp is visible within this lantern.

The Estate Minor column is notable for its hexagonal base, with three wide sides, and three narrow sides.

For variety, there was also a GEC column installed here.

This supported a top-entry Thorn Beta 5.

These columns taper inwards both above and below the door aperture.

A SELC / Westire photocell is fitted to the Beta 5.

Another Estate Minor existed further up the road; however, this column is redundant and has had its electricity supply transferred to a new 6 m column installed alongside.

Both the new and old columns support ASD Micro Highway Diamond LED lanterns; the elegant concrete swan neck bracket of the old column having been butchered mercilessly to accommodate the side-entry lantern.

Within the stripped column base, the witness mark of a long-removed Venner time switch case remained visible, along with one for a sodium lamp leak transformer above it.

Looking up reveals a possible reason as to why the old column remains in place - the top of the wall has had security spikes added, and because the column was positioned alongside the wall, the spikes pass around its shaft.

The next column remained in service, however.

This bracket had also been subjected to civic vandalism, in order to accommodate a newer side-entry Beta 5.

One Estate Minor survived intact, also with an HW-932 fitted, on Mountwood Road.

As this column was situated beneath trees, moss had formed on the upper part of the swan neck.

Surprisingly, the Perspex bowl on this example was more clouded than the earlier example, which was exposed to full sunlight, was.

One identical installation existed on Rose Mount.

This example's bowl was noticeably more clouded again.

The sides of varying width around the column base taper to equal width at its top, with the contours then continuing into the swan neck.

The clouding has turned the refractor panels into white oblongs.

Nearby Palm Hill had two of these installations surviving.

A sparrow used this example's bracket to catch up on some sunbathing.

When the second column was pictured by Google Street View in August 2022, it was seen wearing a heavy coat of foliage - presumably, as a method of camouflage!

Some remnants of the plant remained attached to the lantern even when pictured eleven months later.

The growth had cracked the front portion of the bowl.

Two 'Byway-X' (once again, produced by Concrete Utilities) columns with 'Arc 4' brackets on Kingsmead Road South supported Z9481s.

These Z9481s have acrylic bowls.

The other example is situated on the other side of the junction; the road is particularly wide here.

A small hole existed in the underside of the bowl, resulting in debris gathering within it.

This Byway-X and 15° side-entry bracket on Kingsmead Grove supported an ELECO GR 550.

Although the lantern is long enough to accommodate a 55 Watt lamp, a shorter 35 W lamp is fitted.

The bracket joint doesn't quite match up with the profile of the column.

Finally, one last 'Byway' column and HW-932 combination was awaiting removal on Howbeck Road.

This view demonstrates the height difference between the old and new columns, as well as the immense size difference between the two lanterns.

Approximately 60 years of different lighting technologies, separated by only a metre.

Unlike the Estate Minor swan neck, the Byway equivalent does not feature the wider collar at its joint with the column.

Appropriately, both the old and new columns are CU products - though concrete columns are no longer manufactured, and so the 'CU' in the modern era no longer means anything.

< Previous | Next >

BACK TO SURVIVORS IN MERSEYSIDE