97KIA. Off Hilton Lane, Great Wyrley, Landywood, South Staffordshire With thanks to AgentHalogen_87 for informing me of these Survivors. Surrounding two sides of a forecourt area for a former petrol station (now, a hand car wash and vehicle repair garage) business are four 5 m tapering conical steel columns, with each supporting a Thorn Gamma 3 post-top lantern, designed for installation at the slightly increased height of 8 m, and intended to run a single 250 - 400 Watt MBF (mercury vapour) or SON (high pressure sodium) lamp. Sadly, by June 2025, only one of the lanterns retained its bowl and canopy; the other three of both having been lost - presumably, through vandalism, owing to the low mounting height employed. Two of the outer parts disappeared at some point after April 2017, whilst the third was already missing by June 2009, signifying that these lights are likely to have been abandoned for a number of years.

Two of the columns are installed at the front of the forecourt, with the foreground column supporting one of the damaged lanterns. This column contains no base compartment, raising the question of where the lamp's control gear was housed. It may have been sandwiched into the other column (which does have a base compartment), or the lamp could be a self-ballasting mercury (MBFT) lamp instead.

Some fragments of the broken bowl are still visible on the top of the lantern's base casting.

There must be a hole in the top of the lamp, as water has managed to enter, and then become trapped in the sealed end of the outer bulb.

The moisture has also worn away much of the internal phosphor coating, allowing the mercury arc tube to be seen within.

This column is the only one to retain a complete lantern.

A makeshift bracket (used formerly to support a banner that advertised the car wash) is attached to this column shaft, with the fixing bolts passing right the way through the column structure.

The aluminium canopy is grubby, and a retaining clip is loose.

The bowl remained intact at the time of photographing.

A manual switch is attached to this column's inspection door. I did attempt to turn it into the 'on' position, but the mechanism felt jammed.

The final two columns were situated within a thick hedge, preventing me from determining whether they had base compartments too.

Both of these lanterns had lost their lamps too, with the Goliath Edison Screw (E40) caps of the last lamps fitted still being visible within the lampholders.

The exposed metalwork of the caps are dull and corroded.

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