Off Limestone Cottage Lane, Middlewood, Fox Hill, Sheffield, South Yorkshire With thanks to Dwight for discovering these Survivors. Situated between two separate industrial properties (in the past, they were all part of the colossal Batchelor's Foods canning factory) is a 15 ft (5 m) Stanton 7 concrete column supporting a Revo C13723/S "Dalek" lantern, designed for running a 140 Watt SO/H / SOI/H (low pressure sodium) lamp; the earlier equivalent of the 90 Watt SOX lamp. This installation probably dates back to the late 1950s or early 1960s, but is likely to have lain disused for many years, following the factory's closure and subsequent re-purposing into smaller units.
The column is now located in something of a No Man's Land area between the two premises, and serves a new purpose of supporting cords that prevent an adjacent gate from closing.
The side-entry version of this bracket type is employed here. Whilst top-entry brackets, and versions of this lantern, were produced, such a combination wouldn't have worked, as the lantern is designed for taller (25 ft - 8 m) columns, and would be too long to fit on this type of top-entry bracket.
The bracket's connection to the column is in bad condition, with much of the concrete having broken away, and vertical cracks appearing in the top of the column.
The Perspex bowl is still relatively transparent, allowing the lamp to be seen within it. Two small airgun pellet holes in the refractor panel have caused dirt to enter the lantern over the years, resulting in a carpet of grime to accumulate within the bowl.
The factory's former Administration building behind is probably of a similar age to the column.
Whilst this may have been the sole-surviving concrete column on the site by 2025, there is possibility, of course, that further examples did exist throughout the factory site previously.
The column's inspection door was missing. Trying to find a suitable vantage point to photograph the base compartment's innards was challenging, although I did manage to picture the ballast. The use of PVC insulation on the wires emerging from the top of the ballast would suggest a 1960s' installation - an older installation would have used rubber insulation.
A second C13723/S was to be found at the top of a central building accessed from the nearby Underhill Lane. This building was also part of the factory in the past.
When this area was pictured for Google Street View in June 2023, the panelling was missing from the right-hand side of the building (older images, when it was still intact, suggest that it was corrugated asbestos). This allowed the internally-mounted lamp control gear box for the lantern to be observed, along with the associated conduit network, which apparently, did not link directly into the bracket.
A small notch has had to be cut in the top fascia section of the panelling to allow the bracket to fit through. This implies that the bracket is still required, and that the lantern could remain in use.
This example's bowl has become slightly more translucent, but appeared to be undamaged.
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