Funny how I could have missed this story on News at Ten…
A group of railway restorers clearing a disused line in Lancashire dug up a rather thin telegraph pole from the undergrowth. To said pole were attached a pair of iron foot rests and also the conical metal finial you see in the picture below. The discovery was made at the disused station of Burn Naze – currently undergoing some restorative work by way of opening the old line to Fleetwood by the Poulton and Wyre Railway Society. It was their member, John Davies-Allen, who contacted the Telegraph Pole Appreciation Society to ask about finials but also to broadcast news of this discovery to the wider world. I will now stand to face the general direction of Poulton-le-Fylde and applaud the efforts of these fine people in putting right some of Mr Beeching’s (and his successors) wrongs.
That Reuters or ITN didn’t pick up on all this, though, is a mystery to me. Seems there’s one rule for buried Viking gold treasure and another for rusting LNWR telegraph pole finials.
Anyway, whilst the Victorians are often credited with the idea of topping their poles with finials – they had more money in those days after all – wooden finials were fitted well into the 1930s and metal ones are reported to have been in use later still.
Finally this week. We received a lovely email from Lol from Gmail. Lol tells us:
LOL…. I thought you would like to know that I have zero appreciation for telegraph poles.
Thanks for that information Lol. We will keep your letter on file and should a need arise for someone who doesn’t appreciate telegraph poles we’ll be sure to get back to you.