97KC. Cannock Wood Industrial Estate, Cannock, Staffordshire Installed along the access road into the Industrial Estate are a quantity of 25 ft (8 m) GEC concrete columns, as well as one 8 m British Steel replacement column, all of which support GEC Z9454 90 Watt SOX lanterns. Sadly, the majority of these lanterns are vandalised, and many of the aluminium doors from the GEC columns are missing.
The first column along the road from its junction with Cannock Wood Street retains one of the few lanterns to remain intact - its proximity to adjacent houses serving as a deterrent. Nevertheless, the column door is missing. A rusted cut-down Stewart & Lloyd tubular steel column installed alongside this may have served as a feeder pillar for these lights when they worked.
Despite the lack of damage to the lantern, one glance at the blackened SOX lamp electrodes proves that this lantern hasn't worked in a long time.
A Philips-branded ballast and ignitor are located in the column base. This column looks to have been the master switching point for the others, with the base of a two-part photocell relay also being present - I suspect that the photocell would have been wired to switch both this lantern, as well as a contactor installed within the feeder pillar, which would have group-controlled the rest of the circuit.
More substantial lantern damage occurs at the second installation along the road.
A large chunk of the rear of the bowl is missing, while all that remains of the lamp is its cap. Although this Z9454 is equipped with a NEMA socket (complete with a photocell), notice that this is not connected to anything within the lantern. The original GEC bracket has been replaced on this column, and I suspect that the lantern was renewed at the same time.
At base level, a rusted GEC leak transformer is installed at the top of the backboard, but little else remains.
A gate is installed alongside the next example that prevents access along the road to vehicles after the Industrial Estate has closed for the night. Pedestrian access remains available, however.
Again, much of the bowl is smashed, and the lamp is long gone.
This is likely to be an older Z9454, as it does not have any provision for a NEMA socket installed.
This column's base compartment is devoid of all components, save for the incoming supply cable termination.
The British Steel replacement column is next - presumably, the original concrete column was damaged in the 1980s, and this served as its replacement.
Nothing remains of the bowl here at all.
Looking up at the empty canopy reveals that once again, a NEMA socket is fitted, but has also never been connected.
As the label is also a 1980s' type, the previous lantern used here must not have been transferred to the new column. Barely visible some distance to the right of the label is the stamped-on date code that would indicate when the lantern was made. Unfortunately, this proved too faint to be able to read from ground level.
The return to concrete columns also saw a return to the strange replacement brackets.
The damage worsens, as now the missing bowl and lamp have been joined by a damaged lamp support wire!
Such is the amount of time that the installation has lain derelict that daylight is visible through the remaining part of the lamp cap.
This lantern uses the older style of identification label - a metal plate riveted to the inside of the canopy, with the lantern catalogue number stamped onto it. Oddly, the "Code No." field appears to have been left blank; this would be where the manufacturing date code would be stamped ordinarily.
The leak transformer and capacitor remain in this column base.
The identification label on the Z1621 leak transformer remains intact, and as it refers only to SOX lamps, rather than the earlier SO/H and SOI/H sodium lamps, it dates from no earlier than 1964, and the reference to 90 Watt lamps (instead of the original 100 Watt rating), dates it to no earlier than 1967.
The column base on this example looked to have suffered damage - perhaps, this was caused by an implement used in forcing the door off.
Another newer lantern was installed here; presumably, as an ad-hoc past replacement.
Remarkably, this column still retained its door.
The replacement brackets are very functional in appearance.
Despite the door remaining, it featured a rather severe-looking dent caused by hammer blows to its centre.
The final installations saw a return to original brackets.
Apart from a small loss of concrete at the bracket's connection with the lantern, these do not appear to be in poor condition. I assume that only the worst brackets were replaced as part of the earlier maintenance work.
The lamp support wire on this example is bent out of shape, and missing its spring.
An attempt to plug the missing original door using a panel and metal straps had been made here, but the panel has slipped, and also been damaged itself.
The ninth lantern along the road was, as you might expect, wrecked too.
More of the bracket's inner steel pipe was exposed here.
Remarkably, the wiring was largely intact within this column base, although the cabling exiting the termination box no longer led anywhere. The witness mark of an earlier cut-out was visible on the backboard.
I am disappointed in the vandals here - they managed to leave a small piece of the lamp and bowl intact - no doubt, they were tired at having walked such a substantial distance, and were struggling to aim their missiles as successfully to complete their moronic deed by then!
Quite why a snail had decided to ascend the entire column, and rest on the remaining bowl fragment, is a mystery!
Much of the wiring (and components) had been removed here, with only the capacitor and its snipped wires remaining.
The capacitor carried 12/78 as its date of manufacturer. While this would be concurrent with the age of the older Z9454s, I am not sure that this type of concrete column would still have been in production by then - possibly, the columns carried different lanterns originally.
As the majority of buildings on the industrial estate came into view (finally!), the lantern damage began to decrease.
Whilst the lamp remains completely broken, more of the bowl now survives.
Naturally, the door was still missing, however. Oddly, this was the only column along the road where the door was positioned to the side, rather than facing across.
A well-established tree obscured the bracket and lantern on the next column.
The tree's presence had also ensured that the lantern was left alone.
With the next column in more of a clearing, the damage (sadly) resumed.
It was, however, limited to two breaks on the side of the bowl.
The lamp may have remained intact too, but I couldn't be certain from viewing the lantern from the ground.
The following lantern was in even better condition.
Here too, a section of the bracket's internal steel tube was visible.
The final installation of this type was to be found some distance from the actual end of the road. The land on which the Industrial Estate now stands had been the site of the Cannock Wood Colliery, which closed in 1973, and so this may have been the extent of the roadway at the time, with the main colliery site continuing beyond this point. This fact adds weight to the possibility that the columns supported different lanterns, and are older than the Z9454s themselves are.
From this angle, the bowl appears intact...
Of course, from the other side, it isn't! I was surprised to see how the refractor panel detached, rather than breaking upon impact too.
BACK TO SURVIVORS IN CANNOCK CHASE
BACK TO SURVIVORS IN STAFFORDSHIRE
CLICK HERE TO MAKE A MONETARY DONATION
© 2002 - English Street Lights Online