Shawbank Road, Lakeside, Redditch, Worcestershire With thanks to Leo Conway for discovering these Survivors. Located towards the end of this cul-de-sac are two 25 ft (8 m) sheet steel columns, with both supporting the vandalised remains of Thorn Alpha 7 lanterns, which were designed for running a 250 - 400 Watt MBF (mercury vapour) or SON (high pressure sodium lamp. The columns may date back to when an Engineering Works (possibly, an iron foundry, as this map indicates two long-gone slag heaps that existed on the site in the past) occupied the land.

Originally, access to the site was through Arrowdale Road, according to the above map, and Shawbank Road didn't exist at all - the houses in the background are built on the site of another part of the Works.

Only the cast aluminium canopies remain on both lanterns; their fragile glass refractor bowls having succumbed to vandals many years earlier.

Nothing remains of the lamp in this lantern either, and the porcelain casing of the lampholder is broken.

The presence of an asbestos-sheathed gasket suggests that these are 1960s' examples, and may, therefore, carry Atlas or British Lighting Industries branding.

The brackets are a plain curved design, which are secured with grub screws at the top of the column.

The second example is in much the same condition as the first is.

A small fragment of the bowl remains extant here.

The lampholder remains intact too, and the Goliath Edison Screw cap from the last lamp to have run in this lantern remains installed.

Surprisingly, the column shafts display minimal rusting, although the door fixing bolt is rusted. Through the narrow gap to the side of the door, I was able to glimpse the silvery appearance of an old capacitor, but was unable to see the ballast clearly.

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