Martin Tapsell sent us this photograph of a favoured telephone pole in a quiet corner of Water Street in Deal, Kent. Whilst not bristling with ceramics, like many favourite poles, these Maypole-esque highly strung affairs are always a handsome find in suburbia. And they are usually popular among the dove and pigeon fraternity too (for some reason).
Deal, of course, is famous for its Timeball tower and is hence synonymous with telegraph poles and the transmission of the Greenwich Time Signal – mostly to passing ships (and Radio 4). The naval yard at Deal was once at the end of a long chain of telegraph stations stretching all the way from the Admiralty in London. To celebrate this history, Deal has a street called Telegraph Road. Perhaps we should think about moving there.
Like Martin tells us in his email, everywhere now, Telecom engineers seem to be busy burying wires, cables and fibre-optics. So take the chance now to get out there and photograph these poles while they’re still part of our urban street furniture.
Timeball photo courtesy of Dave Patten