3 Oct 2026

Calendar Photo Competition – Winner

posted in: Appreciating, fabled poles, Gorgeousness, Photos |

We were pleased to receive so many entrants to our little competition. Some cracking photos. Some only let down by the fact that they were a bit blurry, or the wrong shape or some other non-discernible arbitrary criteria of the selection panel – me. You’ll hopefully see why this one was chosen so without further ado. Step forward Matthew Pilkington for this fabulous picture from atop DP252 in Portree on the Isle of Skye, looking out South-West towards the rest of the island. One can’t help but feel that as a pole climber, Matthew has better access to such beautiful scenes than the rest of us. Argument won. Matthew wins a TPAS mug, our undying appreciation as well as a place on the TPAS Calendar 2027. What an honour. But then what a cracking photo!

The view from atop Telegraph Pole DP252 at Portree, Isle of Skye, looking SW across to the rest of the island. Credit: Matthew Pilkington — The view from atop Telegraph Pole DP252 at Portree, Isle of Skye. Photographicus Magnifiencis by Matthew Pilkington

Now, we were so enamoured with this next two photos that we gave then joint second place. No TPAS mug prize I’m afraid – we run on fumes as it is – but they are on the list for calendar 2028 and so would earn their photographers a freebie calendar as and when that one is produced. Subject to us finding enough poles for another year. It’s getting difficult I’ll have you know. That on the left is Conor Cook’s photo of a power/phone dual use pole outside his house in Barr, Vermont, USA. I love the geometric proliferation of wires. And on the right is a main road called No. 5 Road, Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. The photographer, Heather Allen has named this photo “Strong and proud”. Coincidentally, visit the google street view of this exact location and turn 180 degrees to look the other way and you’ll wonder just what do Canadians do with all this electricity they’re lugging around the countryside?

And finally, in no particular order herewith a selection of other photos submitted. I’m eternally grateful to all our contributors whether you won or didn’t. Please keep your eyes out for poles. Especially those that are calendar worthy. All photographers credited in the alt.text – which is an internet way of saying “trust me, your name is there”. Click on image to enlarge.

24 Sep 2026

The Tall Wooden Sticky-uppy Thing Conundrum

posted in: Appreciating, Country poles, Foreign ones, Found Poles, Oddities |

What fresh madness is this? Neil Pollard from Perth in Tasmania sent us these photos by way of testing our criteria for defining a telegraph pole:

Although the wires have now gone. This tree which I believe to be on William Street, could once have been classed as a telegraph pole. Further, Neil confirmed that he very much ticks the “Appreciated” box for this one. Anyway, what’s with all that blue stuff in the sky?

19 Sep 2026

Telegraph Pole Appreciation Day 2026

posted in: Appreciating, Appreciation Day, Submissions |

Grand Photography Competition

Yes, this year (21^st Sep) to celebrate these wonderful silent sentinels that are tall, wooden, sticky-uppy and got wires coming out of the top all at the same time, we’re running a grand telegraph pole photograph competition.

Some might say this is just a ruse to get enough photos to finish off the 2027 calendar, but also to try to acquire enough for the 2028 one. Nonsense we say. So the rules are:

Must be landscape mode (I know, daft isn’t it)
Be of a telegraph pole or power pole.
Have some interesting background scenery.
Be of high enough resolution to be used in a calendar
Come with your permission to use on either this website or said calendar. Or a postcard even. You get a freebie whatever if we use it.
Tell us a bit about it – eg where is it etc.
We’ll think of a 7th rule as soon as the first person tries it on to slip past the first 6.

So, the prize is a wonderful TPAS Mug. Scientifically proven that tea tastes better in one of these. And also a copy of the new calendar – when they come out – with your wonderful picture on, probably. A 2027 calendar anyway whether yours is in it or not.

Just look at what you could win: (That’s only a draft front cover of the new calendar by the way.)

Samples:

So here are a few that were either in previous calendars, or postcards or that we just liked. The pic can just be a close-up of the gubbins at the top. It can also be power poles. Send your entries attached to an email to: martin@telegraphpoleappreciationsociety.org Good luck. Oh, closing date… 30th Sept just after the Archers has finished on Radio Four. T&Cs. I’m sure there should be some. We accept no responsibility for anything at all.

21 Dec 2025

Goodbye Charlie Warmington

posted in: Appreciating, The Media, The Telegraph Pole Appreciation Society |

We knew something was wrong when Charlie never got in touch after we sent him his 2026 Telegraph Pole Appreciation calendar. And despite several emails and online searches I only found out today that Charlie had, in fact, died in hospital.

Charlie Warmington is a long-standing friend of this society. He totally understood what we are about and often used his weekly “Roamer” column in the Belfast Newsletter to extoll our virtuous appreciation of all things tall wooden, sticky-uppy with wires coming out of the top.

He had a writer’s nose for the quirkier side of life, and off-beat human stories were a staple of his missives from the Belfast front. But his own career is long and varied having started out studying architecture he moved into journalism working through the BBC TV & radio and his keen sense of humour saw him write successful satirical shows for theatre, TV and radio.

It was as Roamer that I knew him and we often exchanged phone calls, his mellifluous Fermanagh accent could melt chocolate in my own pantry over here in Wales. He was charming, funny, warm and fascinating. My stories paled in comparison to his own and his back story is worthy of some research. I remain ever grateful to Charlie for the many plugs about our obscure and whimsical selves to the good readers of Ulster. I’m further grateful that, only last year, Charlie published my own article about the Welsh new year tradition of Mari Lwyd to this same audience.

Carry on Roaming Charlie

Charlie Warmington at the Lagan Legacy Barge in Belfast in 2011 — Pic: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

29 Aug 2025

Ships in the Knight

posted in: Appreciating, Art, Country poles |

For 25 years Gill Knight, artist, and this sage society have been searching for one another. 25 years of us looking for someone who gets poles like we do. And for Gill it was exactly the same. She’d slump into her sofa every night kicking off her shoes, defeated, another fruitless day’s searching for a society which truly reflected her love of all things “tall, wooden, sticky-uppy and with wires coming out of the top”.

We came close once or twice. There was that time when I was heading north up the M6 to a Dull Men’s Symposium in Preston, and Gill whizzed south from her home in Scotland and we passed with a combined terminal velocity of 140mph around junction 28 – the turn off for Clayton-le-Woods. Then there was that time in Venice. Our gondola had just turned into the Rio dei Tolentini canal when Gill’s gondolier steered her boat sharply into Rio del Malcanton just as we were about to come into view. Life’s like that sometimes. It was to be another 9 years of painstaking and abortive searches before Gill found us properly in an article online somewhere and when her heavily laden email clunked through my metaphorical letter box last week, I knew our search was over. Welcome to our sage and aged society Gill.

Below is a selection of some of Gill’s excellent paintings. Now you can see why we like them. And why Gill likes us. Have a look at her recent solo show on Robertson Fine Arts website. Or have a look at Gill’s website right here: https://www.gillknightart.co.uk/

6 Jul 2025

Visiting old friends

posted in: Appreciating, Big Poles, Country poles, dropwires, Electricity Poles, New Poles |

And a new one.

There was a wasps’ nest in our local letterbox. So apologies to those folk who felt we’d dallied a little in getting your book and membership orders out to you. I know this sounds a little like “the dog ate my homework” kind of excuse, but truth was our postie refused to collect from it until some young lady exterminator from Aberystwyth had sorted things with a big stick. I did, at one point, poke my endoscope camera down there to see them sitting there. The parcels that is not the wasps – they were too busy asking me if I’d mind awfully going away. Anyway, wasps relocated now and the packages have been delivered.

In an effort to sort my work-life balance so that it weighs almost completely on the side of life, my feet have barely touched the ground this summer. Jollys here, trips away there, pub crawls everywhere. And whilst I was out and about I took the opportunity to visit a few old friends. I don’t have many friends so what I really mean is telegraph poles. And it’s arguably my relationship with telegraph poles that leads to me having no friends in the first place. And the damned “e” key is sticking again on this laptop. And the “a” key.

Little gallery below for you to peruse. You might recognise the first picture – it featured as January in our 2024 calendar. I go this way to walk into the wilderness beyond “Soar y Mynydd” chapel. I keep hoping to be handed some stone tablets with words of wisdom carved on to them whilst I’m up there but so far, nothing. Next up was my favourite, and arguably the world’s best “B” road – the B5105. The lovely little run of vintage poles between Ruthin and Clawddnewydd are largely still there. Some hiding in trees to avoid the poling gangs who would brutally yank them up and replace with a tarry vanilla job. Not unlike that which you see in the next picture. A brand new pole. 9 metre Medium pole preserved in 2025 and, according to the Openreach rule book nailed next to it, was planted just 3 weeks before my visit. This one is at the beautifully named Burlingjobb in Powys. Finally, more wilderness walks – high up into the Radnor Hills, over the delightful but windy “Whimble” and on up to Black Mixen. The Radnors seem to have a monopoly on great names for their hills. Anyway this power pole is the last of the run before the cable to Black Mixen telecom tower goes underground. So windy here it requires 5 stay wires (only 4 visible in this pic). This path, incidentally, borders the Harley Dingle explosive and ammunition testing ground which makes for some interesting flashes and bangs some days as they test out the very latest in Royal Mail Postbox Wasp clearing ordnance.

5 Jan 2025

Seasons Greetings

posted in: Appreciating, dropwires, Things on poles |

Yes, I know that it’s almost Twelfth Night and all that, but I can still issue forth seasonal salutations if I want to, can’t I? In any case, I live in West Wales, and we celebrate some peculiar things around here: Mari Lwyd*, Calennig, and the “Hen Galan”—which is sort of Christmas, only a week or so later. We never had a problem with the old Julian Calendar, you see. Then those blasted Gregorians came along and took away ten of our days, and this has played havoc with us for centuries, particularly when it comes to remembering when Christmas is, and, for me, my wife’s birthday.

Anyway, by way of Gregorian seasonal greetings, great friend of this society and arch-appreciator of telegraph poles, Charlie Warmington, sent us the photo you see below. Charlie has a famous nom-de-plume in larger and realler life and I’m not sure if I’m allowed to reveal it. So I’d probably best not.

Charlie’s photo says Happy Christmas in many ways: There’s the gracefully dressed carrier bag that flaps and waves delicately from the top of this handsome DP in Newtonabbey, Co. Antrim. And what a delightful spread of dropwires taking internet cat video joy into every home in the cul-de-sac. And, that rainbow just makes you want to reach for a large one doesn’t it. Charlie tells us that even the hanging baskets on the fence are ‘celebrational’ – they’re made out of wood from an IRA Anti-Internment rally bonfire! I think this has all the makings of a Christmas card.

Speaking of calendars – and I promised myself that I’d lay off it – I still have just two left. Two final chances to get yourself a piece of telegraph pole history. See our shoppe page.

*Mari Lwyd. This is an olde Welshe traditione whereby we come around your house at night with a horse’s skull on a broom handle and scare the bejesus out of you as we try to steal your mince pies. And sherry.

Mari Lwyd, a welsh tradition in which a horse's skull is mounted upon a hobby horse handle and goes door to door singing to extract food and drinks from villagers — By Mickwidder – CC BY-SA 4.0,

Photo of a garden telegraph pole in suburban Newtownabbey, northern ireland. Garden fences, hedges, and a rainbow as well as the roofs of houses

20 Sep 2024

Telegraph Pole Appreciation Day

posted in: Appreciating, Appreciation Day, History, Telegraph Poles, Things on poles, Vintage |

21st September is the day to celebrate the glorious everyday mundanitude of these simple silent sentinels the world over. So why not get out there and really appreciate something tall, wooden, sticky-uppy with wires all coming out the top.

Meanwhile here is a photo that member #666 Dave Bennett took of pole revellers down at Pelehenge in Ceredigion a couple of years ago. With some cross pollination going on here it’s also mini golf appreciation day.

A cartoon of polehenge - a henge made out of telegraph poles — The scene at Polehenge on Telegraph Pole on Appreciation Day sunrise Dave Bennett

And because it’s such a special day here’s a very recent photo of the Fabled Lost Pole of Bala Leisure Centre.

the fabled lost pole of bala leisure centre. An old road side pole with 5 cross arms and plenty of wiry dead ivy hanging off

19 Aug 2024

Pole of the Month – August 2024

posted in: Appreciating, Country poles, Gorgeousness, Pole of the Month |

This photo landed onto our mailing clerk’s desk back in July. But TPAS Towers is a huge building and, as the world’s premier Telegraph Pole appreciating society, things can get a bit caught up in our bureaucratic processes. Anyway, our adjudicators have selected this fine specimen as the Pole of the Month for August. I shall quote the accompanying letter verbatim:

“This happy fellow can be found strutting around a field next to an obscure lane not far to the south of Truro. I am not sure of the source of his pleasure but I am always greeted with the utmost jollity whenever I happen to pass that way. I call him ‘The Laughing Cavalier’ because of his enduring expression of mirth. Whether he qualifies for ‘pole of the month’ status I know not, but thought you might enjoy him anyway.
Regards,
Peter Burton (member no. 0685)”

Our adjudication team have not the faintest idea what sort of power pole configuration that is – this is not that kind of website – but they completely understand and approve of Peter’s anthropomorphisation of said tall wooden sticky-uppy thing with wires coming out of the top. It was such telegraphular pareidolia that was the basis of pole appreciation from the outset. Given them names is said to be the ultimate in appreciation. The head of the jury for POTM selection said that he once had a pole called Audrey outside his house in North Wales. Congratulations Peter and thanks for sharing with our connoisseurial society.

A power pole in countryside near Truro. This pole is asymmetric. The wires are carried about an open triangular frame.

8 Jul 2024

Aurora Telegraphpolealis

posted in: Appreciating, Gorgeousness, New Poles, Submissions, Telegraph Poles |

The February 2023 Telegraph Pole Appreciation Society Calendar page. Showing the month and a photo of a silhouetted DP taken against a dawn orange sky.

Who could ever forget February 2023? For it was after that last day of a cold dark and windy January that most of us flipped our TPAS Calendar over to a new month revealing Hazel Long’s magnificent dawn pole (above) – bringing renewed joy and hope into the hearts of this telegraph pole appreciating nation. Or something like that.

Well, Hazel has moved house. Not that far from the original Brighouse photo – and still within Yorkshire – where they play cricket, throw rocks at Lancastrians and make tea. To a place called Scapegoat Hill to join the 1,246 other inhabitants who all came out to marvel at the new pole (right). Said pole is so new it hasn’t been wired up to anything yet. Once connected it will doubtless allow residents to add Yorkshire Tea , Terry’s Chocolate Oranges and Henderson’s Relish to their weekly online grocery order.

Hazel tells us she likes a spartan life and to be in bed by 8pm and so missed the aurora borealis northern light show that not so long ago blessed our skies. Luckily, son James was still up and captured the DP of magnificence you see below. I presume this too was in Yorkshire. Actually, it looks like the old place. Anyway, this has all prompted me to do some research on a county I’ve only ever visited once: Puddings of course. Those flat, soggy, slightly burnt things that people have with their sunday dinner. They’re from Yorkshire. The world’s yappiest dog breed comes from Yorkshire too. These handbag sized mutts have yapped their way under the skin of many a quiet-loving neighbour. Seth Armstrong was the county’s most famous beer drinker and supped more than 3,750 pints of ale during his tenure at the bar of the Woolpack Inn, Emmerdale, between 1978 and 2004. Emmerdale, formerly Emmerdale Farm, now regularly competes with Coronation Street for the most train crashes and aviation disasters in a half-hour light drama series.

A DP pole silhouetted in front of a colourful aurora sky.

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