Kingswood Precinct
Lantern acquired in December 2007.
Thanks to George Mela for identifying this lantern. This Heritage-style post-top fitting is unused but was one of twelve which were ordered for a job at a stately home near Lichfield, along with twelve 4m Kingswood 'Metro' columns. Only nine of the lanterns/columns were installed in the end - leaving the remaining three in storage until new owners moved into the house and auctions were drawn up to sell off the contents. Whilst the columns disappeared, the three unused lanterns returned to Jeremy, who had been largely responsible for the nine lanterns being installed and maintained over the years.
The 'strange' 35W size came about on his suggestion - the specification called for SON specifically for the warm golden colour and to match existing floodlighting around the house, gardens and lake. An initial trial column used a 50W SON in a round lantern but this proved too bright, so he suggested 35W (the original owners didn't know that SON lamps were available in wattages lower than 50W!) and Kingswood made up the first two of these lanterns, which proved successful. Consequently they supplied ten more (all complete with 'Metro' columns, etc.) - but Jeremy had to supply the lamps of course!
Several examples of this type of lantern can be seen in Derby's Arboretum, however these are fitted with 70W SON or 125W MBF lamps and the gear is arranged differently. A 110W SON (i.e. also running on 125W gear) example can be seen on the top of the plinth in the adjacent Arboretum Square - this originally held a gas lantern until the 1930s, when a Revo 'Spondon' was fitted. This lasted until the 1970s, when a Phosco P111 was used.
The lantern is of a die-cast aluminium construction and the bowl is a one-piece construction rather than each 'window' being a separate panel. The Derby City-owned examples often feature refractor rings and minicells are fitted instead of the one-part conduit thread cell seen here.
Access to the lamp is gained by removing two brass screws on either side of the canopy.
The gear is located on the other side of the reflector and two more screws need to be removed in order for this to be accessed.