Thorpe Street / North Road / Off Park Crescent, Little Padfield, Glossop, High Peak Still extant on each of these roads in June 2026 is one 15 ft (5 m) concrete column that never saw its original bracket replaced with a steel sleeve. In the case of the Thorpe Street and North Street examples, these columns have survived by virtue of the fact that their supply cables employ Vulcanised India Rubber (VIR) cables, which has to be replaced by the local Electricity Company, owing to the old rubber insulation being likely to crack if disturbed, even accidentally, leading to the possibility of the live and neutral conductors touching and creating a dead short. Despite this risk, the local Electricity Company in this area has been extremely slow to replace these supplies (probably approaching ten years at the date of writing!), so the old columns will probably remain in place for many years yet. As for the Park Crescent example, this installation is in private ownership, and seems to have become abandoned.
The Thorpe Street example comprises a Stanton 9 column, complete with A-type (swan neck) bracket. The plan was to replace this column like-for-like, owing to the narrowness of the road at this point.
A crack has appeared in the bracket, just above its connection with the column - that could make for quite a spectacular scene if the old supply cable did ever explode!
Although the Thorn Beta 5's bowl is grubby, it does still appear to be running a 35 Watt SOX (low pressure sodium) lamp. A much newer Charles Endirect CEX2000 20 Lux photocell is now employed, however.
At North Road, a new 5 m Mallatite tubular steel column supporting a Phosco P852 awaits the day when it will be given a chance to shine. The old column here is a Stanton 10 type, with an F-type top-entry bracket.
Given the terrible reputation that the Zodion ZCells have when fitted to working lanterns (they have a habit of letting in water at random, causing the lantern to dayburn, or not work at all), an example that has not worked in approaching a decade is likely to be very unhappy when the new lantern is, finally, energised. By comparison, the SELC / Westire 8480 fitted to the outgoing Beta 5 would work far more reliably.
The bracket here looks to be free of spalling issues around its joint with the concrete.
A SOX lamp remains fitted in the Beta 5, though I am not certain of whether this still works or not.
The Park Crescent example is also a Stanton 10; this time, with the side-entry version of the F-type bracket. Notice the great pretender column in the grass verge to the left - this could be why the older column has become disused.
The top of the column here has several deep vertical cracks present, and where the internal steel conduit is expanding through rusting, the surrounding concrete is pushed outwards.
A very worn GE-made SOX lamp is fitted to this Beta 5.
The large conifer tree on the other side of the road to this column blocked much of the direct sunlight that would otherwise fall on the column, making photographing the installation difficult.
The tree is (possibly) responsible for the bowl having fallen away too. Google Street View confirms that the bowl was still present in 2019.
The spring-based lamp support wire looks to have become slightly tangled over its time.
Looking up at the lantern, and its very rusty gear tray, this must be a relatively early Beta 5 (potentially, an Atlas example, or an AEI Amber Minor) as it is secured to the bracket using bolts - later examples changed to grub screws instead. The ballast is loose on the gear tray, and may have been a replacement for the lantern's original (and larger) ballast.
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