Duffield Court, off Chapel Street, Duffield, Amber Valley, Derbyshire Located in the car park of these flats are two 15 ft (5 m) tubular steel columns, both topped with some variant of the Falks 'Beaufort' lantern. The complex appears to date from the 1960s, making these two installations original to the construction, and they still appear to be in operable condition to this day.
The first of the two installations is to be found on a narrow grassed area that is opposite the main building.
These versions incorporate the full-length Perspex bowl; other variants included an open lantern with the lamp exposed, an open lantern with a prismatic refractor dome surrounding the lamp, or a type with a small depth bowl.
Interestingly, the column shafts are slightly narrower than the 76 mm (3 inch) diameter of the lantern spigots are, requiring a wider top adaptor section for the lanterns to secure into.
Unusually, the column bases are flat-sided, and are possibly a Falks product too. An outdoor socket is attached to the column door, although this too looks quite old (but still newer than the columns themselves are). The supply cable is exposed, and appears to be standard flexible cable, which is a bit of an electrical discrepancy!
The other column is situated near the garages.
Although the Perspex has become slightly translucent through age, the lamp is still visible - today, this is an LED replacement for a traditional GLS (incandescent tungsten filament) type.
Although some slight corrosion exists on the metalwork, the paint is still keeping the worst of this at bay.
At the end of Chapel Street, there is access to the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway. This short but quite attractive cast iron column, with ornamental post-top lantern, is one of several that provides illumination to the Duffield platform after nightfall. The equivalent mainline platforms are visible in the background.
This lantern also runs an LED GLS lamp.
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