Society member #0620, John Cranston, was gifted membership of our elite group for Christmas last year. This, he found, was a life-changing present. Now, John is a regular correspondent to these pages and has as recently as 10 months ago sent me these pictures and the accompanying text. It is late on a Wednesday night and I feel I may be quicker to the pub if I just post John’s words here almost verbatim. Besides, I couldn’t explain what this is all about any better than he.
Dear Telegrafenmastdirektor (as they might say in Germany but probably don’t *1),
This appears to be an old label from a distribution pole. I’ve only seen one other like this, on a pole dating from 1909. Later poles seemed to have metal numbers hammered into them so, what do you reckon, pre-WW1?
Then what’s it doing on a wall up St Clement’s alley in the middle of Norwich with no pole in sight – especially as it’s on a building dating from 1938?
Well, it’s next to a piece of metal ducting which clearly once carried a telephone cable (there’s a BT inspection chamber near its base).
And, hey, old photos show a distribution pole once stood nearby. This picture shows it in 1933.. to the right of the streetlamp.. poking up above the rooftops.
I like to think that when it was removed – possibly in the late 30s – the engineers simply nicked the label off the pole and bashed it into the wall to mark the replacement distribution point.
It’s amazing how being given a membership to the TPAS for Christmas suddenly makes you so much more observant.
And just to let you know my TPAS mug is breaking in nicely. A few more hundred cups of Lidl Knightsbridge Red (the FINEST builders’ tea on the market) and it’ll have just the patina I want.
Feel free to ignore this email in its entirety. *2
Humbly,
Hash 0620 (I don’t know where to find the hash key).
Brilliant sleuthing J. C. #0620. Keep up the good work.
*1 They do actually.
*2 We managed for a full 10 months.