30 Dec 2020

Finally, Finials from Auld Reekie

posted in: Adornments, Big Poles, dropwires, Engineers, Gorgeousness, Markings, Photos, Telegraph Poles, Vintage |

Neil Bell sent us these photos of a fabulous phlogistonically finialed pole that he can see from his living room window. This has allowed me a few firsts: (i) The use of the term “Auld Reekie” – an affectionate term for the fair city of Edinburgh; (ii) the use of the term “phlogistonically” which at first sight would appear to be an adverb – i.e. turning an adjective into a verb with the suffix “ly”. But then the word phlogiston would be a noun, so here I’ve invented a whole new type of word which I will hereonin call an adnoun. Not only that but phlogiston is itself a made up substance in use before they discovered oxygen; and finally (iii) an extremely elegant and aging finial amid the rooftops of Connaught Place (EH4). You don’t get all this on the Cloud Appreciation website.

Anyway, I wanted to know how old this pole was – I see it has six notches for long-removed crossarms – these arranged four facing, and a further pair at 90 degrees. Neil couldn’t find any information in the vicinity of the doby mark other than those seen here – which I will now identify for his and posterity’s benefit. 61 is the pole number (plastic tags and also an iron 61 lower down) – a DP judging by all the subscriber dropwires radiating from near the crown. It was inspected in Feb 2017 by D.E.K. on a 6 yr periodic; but then again on 3rd October 2019 by the engineer with the evocative ID # 612026689. This visit we know from the new annotation method of hammering in a small white plastic tag at the foot of the pole. This particular pole tester thought it was still Monday and their appalling error of chronology is recorded forever not only at the base of the pole but also now on this website.

If anyone can tell us what the little gate hook is for in picture #5 then we’re all ears.

11 Nov 2020

Pole of the Month – November 2020

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

Veteran pole-climber, long time member of this society and favoured communicant John Brunsden (#0469H) drove past November’s Pole of the Month on his way to another job. His drives to other jobs are often featured on these pages – John’s venerated “View of Cornwall Through the hole in the top of a Telegraph Pole” can be found on p73 of our own “Telegraph Pole Appreciation for Beginners (Key Stages 1-4) (and elsewhere on this site if you have an eternity available in which to scroll back through a million posts)

Anyway, this sumptious, right-angled double stack of three-crossarms pole, I would hazard a guess, is on the road between Bideford and Elmscott – just off the road from Hartland. Not far from Edistone. Devon. Probably.

“Just a quick stop to take the photo so no more details other than I noticed it had a ‘D’ placard so probably not long for this world 🙁 Don’t forget the arms always point to London…allegedly 😉 ” John reminded us.

Not only did John provide this nourishing feast for our dear TPAS members’ eyes, he also gave us another opportunity to perpetuate a myth that we’re keen to see converted to absolute truth through repetition and eventually into Wikipedia. This semi-made-up notion that the crossarms are always on the side of the pole nearest to London first began in an Ealing Comedy in 1942 and has been championed by our good selves at this most revered, august, senior and wise society of telegraph pole aficionados ever since.

Anyway, John concluded ” …reminds me of the old Westcountry joke – I stopped a local in North Devon and asked “How do you get to London from here?” “My brother takes me !“

Pole of the Month, November 2020
27 Aug 2020

Pole of the Month – August 2020

posted in: Appreciating, Honorary Technical Advisor, Pole of the Month, Vintage |

Venerable and esteemed Honorary Technical Adviser*1 to our most sage of societies, Sir Keith S**** has a penchant for telegraph pole butts. This, a result of his entire adult career spent touring the vast vertical forests of the Baltic states and Soviet east Europe inspecting and selecting swathes of trees for a future role as British telegraph poles. Once cut down, they would have their base (butt) stamped with his initials (K.S) and stacked awaiting shipment. To this day, Sir Keith, spends his retirement days wandering the fields and byways of Cheshire and Greater Manchester searching for just one example of his initials on a butt somewhere. Meanwhile, he found this amazing 32ft National Telephone Co.*2 pole lying in a park in Cheadle.

“…Goodness knows how long it has lain there, I could not find any scribing on it as that area was completely rotted away.It has, near the butt, marks made with a scribe knife XXII , which would have been put on in the forest, a bit odd as this would indicate a length of 22 ft. But the butt stamps indicate 32 ft.”

*1 Adviser vs Advisor. I get hung up on things like this. Ever conscious of creeping Americanisms into our everyday (the word Movie is banned in TPAS Towers and a bum is never a butt) I had to look up to see if there was a more Britishy way of spelling this. In the end though I got confused and went with Adviser.

*2 National Telephone Co. was a British telephone company from 1881 until 1911.

*3. I know, I know… Our motto is “Tall, wooden, sticky-uppy with wires coming out the top” and a pole that is lying down can hardly be tall can it? It’s long, not tall. BUT. This is Keith S**** H.T.A. T.P.A.S. who sent us this and on his new-fangled 21st century telephone and all. Who’d have thought that one day we’ll all be sending photographs through the ether via a fax machine that we keep in our pocket?

5 Aug 2020

Something for the weekend, Sir?

posted in: GPO, Literature, Maintenance, Photos, Telegraph Poles, Vintage |

Pop into the stores department at an Openreach depot down there in Somerset (precise location redacted), ask for Andy the storeman and give him the coded phrase “I’d like something for the weekend please”.  Said storeman might then reach under his counter and pull out a pile of well thumbed glossy magazines.  And if you’re especially lucky, like regular correspondent and top TPAS agent #0469 John Brunsden, one of those greasy mags – slipped your way – might just be a copy of The Post Office Electrical Engineers Journal from January 1939.

Using a camera cunningly concealed in his mobile phone, agent #0469 hastily snapped off a few of the pages and emailed them to us.  I present you now delectable, collectible selection of eclectic photos from this amazing tome. It was with particular mirth that agent #0469 and storeman Andy pored over the man with trilby up pole on p5.  Rightly so.  Thank you John & Andy

28 Apr 2020

The Cycle of Life

posted in: Country poles, GPO, Vintage |

Duncan Collett has been busy dismantling his old barn down in Somerset.  Judging by the photos he sent us it caused him to think seriously about the cycle of things.  Herewith the barn itself and also the old GPO poles used in its original construction. Then he includes a photo of a brand new 8 metre "M"edium pole along the lane by his house.  He also assures us that the old poles will be recycled again into a new smaller barn.  This all sort of gives me a warm glow inside.  That could also just be the Weetabix Vindaloo I had for breakast.

16 Feb 2020

Olde Pole along the Cuckoo Line

posted in: Found Poles, GPO, Vintage |
Matt Brown has found a great old telegraph pole alongside the disused “Cuckoo line” in East Sussex.  Most of the poles have long gone he tells us, but this short one, sans all-but-one insulator, stands silently sentinel over the ghosts of pre-Beeching rail services.
As I regularly give in to pressure from Wikipedia and actually donate to their cause, I feel justified in paraphrasing this bit of text from there:  The Cuckoo Line is the nickname given to the defunct railway service between Polegate and Eridge in the aforementioned coutny.  It was in operation from 1880 until 1968.  Apparently, a tradition observed at the annual April fair at Heathfield – a station on the line – would see a lady release a cuckoo from a basket and it being supposedly the ‘first cuckoo of spring’.  Well bloody hell!
An old car tax disc for Morris van AMD 438H price £56Anyway,  Matt also reckons he’s heard, off a man who knows a man that BT are thinking of getting rid of all telegraph poles by 2030.  Is this true?  He asks.  Over my putrefying, maggot riddled corpse I say.  So, yes, probably Matt.
Finally, Matt, who renovates classic cars for a living – under the name Precision Panel Craft – tells us is GPO Minor van is slowly coming back from the dead.  He enclosed the 2nd photo here by way of proof.  So you’ve restored the tax disc then Matt?
8 Dec 2019

Ffestiniog railway poles

posted in: Appreciating, Gorgeousness, Railway poles, Vintage |

When I told Mrs TPAS that we were going away to Penrhyndeudraeth, or more specifically Minffordd in Gwynedd, for her birthday - she put two and two together and exciteldy assumed we were going to the charming and beautiful Italianate resort at Portmeirion.  This folly village, now a global visitor attraction, was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975. It is, of course, also the filming location for 1960's cult series The Prisoner.  There is a shop dedicated to the series, and images and busts of the series star Patrick McGoohan everywhere.  There are also plenty of Prisoner enthusiasts to be seen wandering the village in the series attire - ie the white-trimmed blazers, the rainbow capes and brollies etc.  Portmeirion, in the opinion of the executive operations office of this society, is a gorgeous place to visit and should be on everybody's bucket list.

My mistake then, and arguably that of my wife, is to have put the wrong numbers together to get an even wronger answer.  Which is how I now find myself and all my belongings in my temporary new accommodation which previously was our garden shed.  You see, Minffordd is also a station on the Ffestiniog heritage railway which runs from Porthmadog (connecting with Welsh Highland Railway) up the nursery slopes of Snowdon to Ffestiniog.  And it has one of the finest runs of restored heritage telegraph poles arguably anywhere in the world. Do see for yourself this fine collection of photos that I took before my newly-blackened eyes swelled up too much to see through the viewfinder.  Oh, and treat yourself to one of our lovely books this Christmas, New Year, Easter, Equinox.

1 Dec 2019

On the bonny bonny banks of Loch Lomond

posted in: Country poles, Gorgeousness, Vintage |

Richard Stephen clearly takes the low road tae Scotland and so found this spectacularly fine pole at Balloch afore me.  This was taken back in August when Richard and his wife were heading for a boat trip on Loch Lomond.  And just as these photos made his day then, so they make mine now.

Balloch is at the southern end of Loch Lomond.  I've always been in too much of a rush to get further north into midgie country and so have missed this gorgeous specimen before now. It still would appear to be carrying a single phone line, if not two.  So let us all be grateful to the local pole inspectors for leaving it in situ with all it's redundant crossarms and its array of telenduron screwtops.
15 Nov 2019

Ye Olde Telegraph Apparatusii

posted in: Hardware, History, Submissions, Vintage |

This website is normally dedicated to telegraph poles with the emphasis on *poles* - tall wooden sticky-uppy things with wires all coming out of the top. But you cannot be  obsessive about these things without at least wondering what it's all for:
Mostly used as a support medium for Slimming World notices these days, telegraph poles once bristled with crossarms which carried sparky wires conveying messages charged with electromagnetic pulses in the form of morse code. And with all that went enormously varied hardware and a long and rich history.
A venn diagram of telegraph pole nuts (ahem!) and and telecommunication historians would surely have considerable overlap.
The photos you see below are from the collection of Marcos Raijer from N. Florida, USA. Now retired, he spent 40 years collecting this stuff and I'm told that his is a live telegraphic post that connects two morse stations. His plans are to demonstrate telegraphs to physics students.  This is a wonderful collection of some gorgeous apparatus.  Well worthy of a bus trip.  Thanks for sharing with fellow enthusiasts Marcos.
For a more fuller story about the history of the telegraph I recommend students of Telegraphpoleology consult my favourite tome on the subject "The Victorian Internet" by Tom Standage or they may also like to read the online book "Distant Writing" or our own rather less well informed wonky-table-leveller "Telegraph Pole Appreciation for Beginners".

28 Sep 2019

Telegraphular Treasure Trove

posted in: Engineers, GPO, History, Literature, Maintenance, Telegraph Poles, Things on poles, Vintage |

What a find. 

Openreach  (used to be called BT) works allocator Steve Sheppard - aka Shep*1 - is a collector of various vintage GPO paraphernalia and dug this old booklet out of his garage in Shepton Mallet to show the overhead/poling guys how it was in the good old days - when penny arrows really were a penny, when you could have a night out for under a shilling and when you could drive home with eight pints inside you (and when you could get killed by someone driving home with eight pints inside them).

Anyway, this is gold dust to we telegraph pole anoraks and also to railway and diorama modellers - who are always asking me for dimensions of such things (I always send them the numbers I find on the labels in my wife's underwear drawer).    We are incredibly grateful to Shep and may his work allocation*2 always be fruitful.  Thanks Shep, these are fabulous.  Enjoy.

*1He's known as Shep not, as you might think, because of his surname, or because he's from Shep-ton Mallet, but rather because of his erstwhile obsession with John Noakes' dog.
*2 Whatever the hell that is!

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