197L. Off Drake Street, Deeplish, Rochdale, Greater Manchester With thanks to Dwight for informing me of these Survivors. Installed within the forecourt for a car repair garage are two 1950s' 15 ft (5 m) Stanton 7 concrete columns with 'B'-type top-entry brackets that both support GEC Z9451 lanterns (the top-entry version of the Z9450), designed for running 140 Watt SO/H / SOI/H lamps originally, and 100 Watt (later 90 Watt) SOX (low pressure sodium) lamps in later years. The choice of lantern is unusual for this mounting height - ordinarily, 25 ft (8 m) would be more likely.

With thanks to the garage staff for allowing me to take these pictures.

The lanterns are both angled to concentrate the majority of one side of their beam over the forecourt area.

Given the sharp radius curve of the B-type bracket, I am surprised that such long lanterns fitted to them at all.

The concrete was painted white at some point in the past, although this has flaked away over time, revealing the original concrete finish beneath. The bracket is in good condition, but the same cannot be said for the column, which sports several vertical cracks at its top.

The doors are missing from both columns, revealing the internal wiring. The presence of weeds growing out of the column suggests that the door has been missing for a long time. The lamp control gear is housed within a dedicated steel enclosure.

At the time of photographing, a small amount of water had gathered in the bowl, though judging by the sediment that was also present, the flooding must be a regular occurrence.

The second column is a mirror image of the first.

The lanterns are positioned with the bowl support ring hinges facing forwards, to allow the bowl to swing away from the bracket for maintenance. The bracket's design would make opening the bowl the other way around very difficult.

This column is cracked horizontally just below the door aperture - apparently, a recovery vehicle backed into it. On a public road, this damage would warrant immediate removal of the column from service, owing to the increased risk of the column collapsing without warning.

The gear box within this column base had rotted away, revealing the components within. These are typical early-mid 1970s' GEC components for 35 - 55 Watt SOX lamps, suggesting that the lanterns were rewired and fitted with lower wattage lamps during this period.

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