Just to prove that we’re not limited to poles in the UK & Ireland. Here are three make do and mend jobs from Cherkasy in Ukraine courtesy of Bruce Burrow. Looks a bit parky for my liking. What Bruce is doing out there is anyone’s guess. Anyway, titchy pictures I know – must be to do with the cold.
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.
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.
And because it’s such a special day here’s a very recent photo of the Fabled Lost Pole of Bala Leisure Centre.
“Being late is the sincerest form of rudeness” – Martin Evans, Founder, T.P.A.S.
You can quote me on that. I have been known to be a whole day early for appointments. I’ve been at the railway station so “in good time” that I caught the train 3 trains before the one I was meant to go on. And I’m always at the turnstiles at Park Avenue just as the yawning caretaker arrives to let the football club staff in.
This is how we ended up cruising the R173 just north of Dundalk. On our way south to catch the good ship Stena Adventurer and Mrs TPAS refused to spend four hours waiting in the car for Dublin terminal 3 check-in to open.
We were ostensibly going to look out for curlews and oyster catchers on the mudflats near Bellurgan point. I have photographed these poles before. But 3 years have passed and I did find another one further up the same road. At least one of these should be pole of the month, but I can’t choose which.
Now, we weren’t 100% sure of the way back to the ferry terminal from here. Luckily, the last pole had the answer. My life hasn’t been the same since.
I bet, that right now, Ben Schwartz is thinking “bloody hell, I sent these photos in yonks ago. I thought they must have gone into their spam folder or something”.
Everything comes to he/she/they who waits Ben. And it just goes to show (a) how long our publication queue is and (b) my extraordinary inefficiency at getting these things on to the site.
Anyway, the answer to the question posed above is Weaver birds, that’s who. Ben has just*1 returned from a trip to Namibia where he took great pleasure in photographing these Sociable Weaver birds and also the giraffe you see in front of the poles. He told us: “This species of bird is endemic to southern Africa and they build enormous community nests on trees and similar tall objects, including telegraph poles.*2 “
“Interestingly, I learned about the Society (TPAS) from the podcast No Such Thing As A Fish, which shared the fact that telegraph poles in the African bush have minimum height restrictions to avoid becoming a danger to giraffes and you can see from the photos that there is plenty of clearance in this case. Sadly, high voltage lines still appear to be a threat in some parts of the continent: “
Look away now if you don’t want to see pictures of dead giraffes that got caught in power lines. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56153746
Anyway, thanks Ben, we appreciators appreciate your appreciation of these fine birds.
*1 Due to items (a) & (b) in para 2, Ben has no longer “just” returned from Namibia, it is now probably best described as long since.
*2 Yes, we know, they’re power poles, not telegraph poles. But remember our mantra? If it’s tall, wooden, sticky-uppy, got wires coming out the top etc….
Agent #1015* spent his entire working life building his company providing bitumen surfacing solutions for vehicle storage yards. But when Aaron Aardvark’s Tarmac Carparks closed in June last year Aaron took to telegraph pole spotting to fill the massive void in his life.
Here is his latest submission. This busy half pole with footpath sign and dual wide angle mirrors and obligatory missing cat poster is somewhere in Gwynedd, Plaid Cymru. Aaron tells us he aims to progress to whole poles very soon and hopes to find one with cross arms too. Good luck with that.
A close up of the aforementioned convex mirror reveals Aaron replete with camera and sidekick Shaaron and Terry Tesco driving a van at breakneck speed behind them.
*I’ve got your tystysgrif Cymraeg here Aaron. I haven’t forgotten.
Alan Brown wrote to us this week from Teignmouth in Devon. Firstly, he congratulated me on a “gripping programme on Radio Wales on Saturday morning”. This raises two questions: what the hell are you doing listening to Radio Wales all the way from Devon? But then I looked and it’s actually not that far – if you’re a crow. And secondly, the use of the word “gripping” to describe my interview with Oliver Hides at 7:15am, which is effectively the middle of the night – the only thing I might grip at that time on a Saturday morning is the top of the cistern to steady my aim as I relieve nocturnal pressure thus facilitating a further hour or so in slumberland.
Anyway, Alan’s felicitations were merely a polite opener to an email extolling the virtues of a telegraph pole he had found in the run down (his words) left-hand side Dawlish road as it approaches Teignmouth.
This pole, he points out:
* carries a large number of phone lines
* carries 3-phase power
* supports a street light
* supports a road sign
* has Welsh included in one of it’s notices.
“What a performer” he rightly concludes and yes, it did indeed brighten our day. Not so much that I may choose to holiday there, or even ever consider a traverse of the A379. But having a bit of God’s own language on its sign puts this pole right up there with some of our favourites. What Alan neglected to mention was that this pole also has sea views. Yes, really, see pic #1
#1 World’s busiest pole… for now? …
Rob Fuller wrote in to correct us on the a/m story: "You will notice the overhead line carries two 3-phase circuits, so when work is being carried out on one of the circuits, the other circuit will usually remain live. The distinctive symbols are there as an extra identification system where the linesman climbing the pole will be issued with a wristlet corresponding to that particular symbol designation, and also you might notice that there is a metal bracket near the triangle/club symbols with an arrangement of pegs, which are both different on each side. These brackets allow a green flag to be fitted to that particular bracket, 'keyed' by the arrangement of holes in the flag, and pegs on the bracket, which will only fit the correct side of the pole on the 'dead' circuit, and this unique flag will be issued with safety documents by the engineer responsible for setting the linesmen to work.
As you can probably tell, this system has been in use for a long time, and is still in use to this very day."
A likely story...
