233. Off Clifton Drive South, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire With thanks to Dwight for informing me of these Survivors. Installed within the grounds of St Anne's Library are two cast iron columns that may once have supported gas lanterns before being converted to electricity in the early decades of the twentieth century. The original lanterns employed in this conversion no longer survive, as both swan neck brackets now support Revo Prefect lanterns, dating from the 1960s (or later Relite-branded Prefects instead, which would make them a decade younger), though one of the columns no longer supports the bracket - owing to corrosion, the whole swan neck pipe hangs upside-down by its supply cable.

The first of the two installations is situated adjacent the library entrance.

For now (at least), this bracket remains attached to its cast iron fuse / hand switch box.

The Prefect appears to have been painted the same cream finish as the bracket is painted, but has become grubby from the installation's placement beneath trees. Notice the 'visitor' to the lantern's bowl.

The bracket's spigot cap design is unusual, but would still be the standard 76 mm (3 inch) diameter size.

The second column, complete with its rather precarious-looking bracket. Oddly, this one uses the more common type of spigot cap.

The hand switch mechanism is long gone, though the two guidance arcs are still visible in the casting.

Judging by the finial design (which I was able to see up close!), the bracket appears to be an ESLA product, which would suggest that the conversion to electricity occurred in the 1930s.

Not only has the steel pipe part of the bracket corroded at the fuse box; a portion of the metalwork has also rotted away adjacent the finial.

"A.D. 1904" features in the decorative stonework on this part of the library building. Thus, it is certainly possible that the columns themselves are of similar vintage.

A lamp remains within the inverted lantern - I wonder whether it still works.

The text on the box is difficult to read, owing to the layers of paint applied, but it could be a Lucy - Oxford product. The severed end of the bracket hangs alongside.

I did inform the library subsequently of the potential dangers that the damaged bracket could bring, and suggested that it be made safe as a matter of urgency.

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