These much ignored pieces of rural and urban furniture finally have a website of their own.
This is not the site to visit for technical information pertaining to telegraph poles. You'll find nothing about 10KVa transformers, digital telephone networking or even so much as a single volt. This is a website celebrating the glorious everyday mundanitude of these simple silent sentinels the world over. We don't care what the wires contain either. They all carry electricity in some way be it the sparky stuff which boils your kettle, or the thinner stuff with your voice in it when you're on the phone.
Sawn-off short poles
Following some stern, repetitive and vociferous advice from Mrs TPAS, I have moved my insulator collection out from under her damn feet. I decided not to put them where the sun don’t shine as was her suggestion. Instead, I now have them on the walls of my shed and of course a select few upon my garden pole out of reach of aforementioned fish-wife.
Anyway, I’m not alone in this pursuit – insulator collecting that is. John Paine (#0512) sent us a picture of his telegraph pole (left, below). “Garden ornament thing” he describes it. And he is worried that his collection is going to soon be covered by his good lady wife’s clematis. A taller pole may be in order there John and some accidental weedkiller spillage onto the clematis if I may make so bold.
Regular correspondent to these pages John Cranston (#0620) wrote in to tell us that he’s found the hash key – the one that does the # thing on his computer. It’s Alt + 3 on a Mac apparently. Thanks for that John. My life, whilst still not quite complete with that fascinating information is now a little closer towards that ideal.
Anyway, he went on to make a sexist assumption that the abbreviated poles you see on the right belong to “some bloke” as he put it. “They enliven an otherwise suicide-inducing crawl through bleakest, flattest Lincolnshire” he told us. The sawn-off poles are in the front garden of a house along the A17 about a mile east of the River Welland. One is a GPO, complete with plastic pigeon, and the other looks like it came from a railway, he reckons.
This photo submission he tells us is his effort to counter balance this society’s Cambrian bias.
Thank you Johns.
Telegraph Pole Towers and the mystery of the dead Telephone
Regular followers of our twitter feed will no doubt be aware that we have experienced some short-comings regarding telephonic and interwebular connectivity of late. It all happened one Thursday evening a fortnight ago when our connection to the outside world – the one other than us just looking out the window – went dead. It pains me to recall too much of what happened next, but I shall do so as some day historians will likely need this kind of information.
BT told me they would fix my fault on the following Monday. Ok, I can live with that – we’ll have to just go outside the door to talk to people. We’ve heard this is what people used to do. How bad can it be?
Monday came. Monday went. Another call to BT. Stuart from Bangalore tells me “Oh yes the fault is in our network and our engineers are busy working on it right at this moment. It’s a terribly difficult problem”.
Tuesday came, my teeth got all gnashed. “Eamonn from the same Bangalore office. Oh yes, they are working right now. It will be fixed by 23:59 tonight”.
Wednesday… Ajay and Suresh, similar stories. Engineers are just fixing the line as we speak. So I braved the great outdoors – as far as my car – and drove into our village following the line of poles all the way to the exchange. Whereupon there was indeed a BT Openreach chap absolutely delighted to see me but alas we were not on his list of fixes.
Back to the phone and speak to Palash who begs me to stop calling but tells me that the other “advisers” had told me lies – there were, he said, insufficient engineers to get my problem fixed before the following Wednesday – a whole 2 weeks, almost, after the line went dead.
So I declared Twitter War on BT with my main thread being the huge amount of money BT spent on securing the TV rights to Premier League football. You can scroll through my digs in the Twitter thingy on the left. Suffice to say, it pays to complain; loudly, often and irritatingly – due to my efforts our fault got fixed fully 20 minutes ahead of schedule. And herewith the photographs of the relevant players in the eventual repair : pole A; pole B; pole B’s aging monikers; Dave Howard BT engineer and wire-splicer par-excellence.
Anyway, Dave, now a hero here at Telegraph Pole Towers enjoyed a beverage of PG Tips brought to him in a TP Society mug by Mrs TPAS in exultant gratitude that I’d finally stopped whingeing, endlessly, on and on and on, about the bloody phone line.
Finally, I have a souvenir of the whole episode by way of a photo of Dave’s moniker which he newly nailed to the foot of pole A.
Telegraph Pole Prints.
R ichard Kaye likes telegraph poles. As do I. Unlike me, though, he has an artist’s eye. And talent. He has produced a series of fine art prints of poles that haunt the skyscape of his locality. It is the telegraph poles that haunt his locality not his prints. His pictures are not at all spooky and don’t do any haunting. At all. I just want to be clear on that. He uses a traditional drypoint intaglio technique. Me, I think they’re stunning and capture the essence of everything about poles that has entranced me since my earliest days. Here’s what Richard has to say about them :
I have become fascinated by telegraph poles recently as I believe they are really powerful, bold and iconic as images. It’s also interesting that they are all around us and yet rarely seem to get noticed. I have tried to capture them as silhouettes in order to make the black and white prints I create more vivid and compelling.
The whole idea started when I was sitting on my front step one night and looked up at the one outside my house.
As a series I am trying to capture the disparity in the poles and also importantly consider the most striking composition.
The prints are for sale via Richard’s own <website> are very reasonably priced and should rightly grace the walls of any telegraph pole connoisseur. Personally I would like to buy the whole set as I feel they belong together. Alas, times are tough at Telegraph Pole Hall here in Mid-Walesshire and just putting quails in aspic on the table is proving quite the challenge these days. Proof of this can be found on proletarian fencing-site, eBay – in the category for Body Parts/Offal where my left kidney, with 2 days to go, has just 3 bids against it and is up to a paltry £39.77. And I forgot to put a reserve on!
Reconductoring pole in Phillack
Ladies and Gentlemen, meine damen und herren. I would like to declare, unashamedly, in this public forum that this is the first time I have ever used the word “reconductoring”. What a beautiful word it is, and I can’t believe I’ve had to wait until now to use it. Special thanks to #0597 Michael Donnithorne for giving me the opportunity when he sent in the photo you see at right with the following description.
A power pole in the village of Phillack, Hayle, Cornwall long overdue for replacement, now waiting to be re-conductored.
I am in your debt, Sir.
Lovely pole – but when was it?
Ok, folks. This photo is from Conway Road, Llandudno Junction, North Wales.
Catherine Penrose has written in saying she hopes we can date it and if we have anything else of interest we might add.
Well for starters, and arguably diametrically opposite from “interesting” is that I have spent many an arduous hour – which incidentally, I will never get back – waiting for the London train at Llandudno Jn, and which has, on occasion, been known to arrive.
But what about the pole? she asks. When do we think this was? I told her I would make up a date if none were forthcoming
A note from Here’s Johnny on facebook reckons 9th April. Thanks for that Here’s but the tree is in leaf, and pre-global warming, unlikely in April. And Nick Barber reckons 1900-1914. And my made-up guess date is 1902. Any advance on that?
OTY Telegraph Pole Appreciators.
Deer Pylons.
B eing pylons, and made of steel, arguably a bit “off-topic” for us…
But, we, as appreciators of fine telegraph poles, are often indebted to Lord Commander of the Northern Poles (with Oak Leaves) Kev Currie for his deliberations on said upright wire-supporting ubiquitary. Well, he’s written to us as follows:
These are the new “Scottish” Telegraph Pylons being trialled up here in Lord Commander of the Northern poles (with oak Leaves) territory. It is thought that these new style poles might blend in better with the scenery. I was passed this photo by a secret agent who does not wish to be named, but my immediate thoughts are that it may (just like the fabled Z Poles ) be a hoax! but in this day and age where anything goes! it may actually be a real photo! Either way your members can keep their eyes peeled and see if they can spot more of the new pylons.
You ever humble servant
Kev”
Pole of the Month – February 2015
F irstly I want to tell you about the hackers that have been bothering me of late, like I didn’t have enough to do already. I heed all the warnings and take all manner of precautions to keep the buggers out; like parcel taping over the air-vents on my computer; leaving a CD always in the drive, taking the phone off the hook whenever I edit something on here. Yet despite all this those Viagra-pushing sods – yes I’m swearing now – still got behind my scenes to peddle their pharmaceutical fake filth from our most august of websites. Luckily, a nice lady came to our door and sold me this amazing device which looks like a portable TV aerial and she said that if I just put it on a table and pointed it at my computer it will keep the hackers and viruses away. £250 seems a small price to pay for such peace of mind. My son Tom, reckons it’s the excessive use of words such as “wood”, “sticky-up” and “pole” on here that might be attracting them. I don’t know what he means!
Anyway, all of that was keeping me from telling the world that our telegraph pole has now been erected here at TPAS HQ in ruralest middest Wales. And it’s a thing of such exquisite beauty that I can barely take myself away from admiring it. This is a telegraph pole that has no function at all other than that of being appreciated.
It’s been lying in our yard for months now just waiting for someone to come along and put the damn thing up. That’s exactly what the Davies brothers*1 from Llanfair Caereinion & Pentre’r-Beirdd did. They wish, though, to remain completely anonymous, so I’ve covered Scott (on the left) and James’s eyes with one of those black bars you see in the papers sometimes.
When first it went up, I tried to gauge Mrs TPAS’s opinion. She shook her head and slammed the door on me. I had to make my own dinner that night too. But the next day, once I’d got the proper head fitted her heart melted and I was allowed to sleep in the house once more and she told me she loved me almost as much as she loves my telegraph pole. All is well with the world. And yes Tom, it’s called “Croc-face”.
Poles-next-the-Sea
B eing given the gift of membership to our most august society can be so life-enhancing. This was the case for John Cranston (#0620) from Norfolk. The photos that accompany this post are his and his own words, which follow, succinctly tell his story…
Dear Number One,
I was going to send you some old shots of Mull*1, but they can wait because today, in my very first outing as an ambassador for the TPAS (ooh, I’m so excited) I came across this beauty (though sadly without the cross arms I assume it used to have) in Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk.
“Can I help you?” asked a bloke in a bobble hat who was looking at me looking at the pole. “I’m a BT engineer.”
“Actually, I’m a member of the Telegraph Pole Appreciation Society. I’m looking for the date.”
“They don’t have dates,” says BT man.
“I think you’ll find they do,” I replied in my best anorak, train-spotter tone.
And there was one. It was round the back. And it seems to be from the National Telephone Company, 1909.
(But this is the odd thing: there was no record of a telephone service in Wells till about 1914. And the National Telephone Company never reached anywhere near that part of Norfolk. Perhaps the GPO simply inherited it from the NTC’s stores when it took over in 1912?)
And I love the old label still attached to the front. It must be original. It looks and feels like lead.
In case anyone’s ever arranging a Stunning Telegraph Poles of the Norfolk Coast Sightseeing Tour, it’s in The Buttlands in Wells, next to the Crown Hotel. Click the link for the Google Street view:
Lots of love,
John
Number 0620
A few things I like about this letter: Being addressed as “Number One” for a start – I could get used to that – though this amply describes my membership number within TPAS, my actual number, because I am not a free man at all is 76,735,969,742. Please see sister website www.hiraethog.com for confirmation of this.
Secondly, he went out on our behalf to the wider community and performed admirably his telegraph pole appreciation duties, unstintingly and reported back here.
Thirdly, he finished his letter with some love. And there’s just not enough of that stuff going around.
*1 We have his shots from Mull btw – what a treat.
The view from the Top (of a pole)
When this video plopped onto my metaphorical email doormat, in plain brown-paper packaging, I nearly embarrassed myself with excitement.
Thanks very especially to John Brunsden, professional ascender of telegraph poles for this. It was taken last year on a sunny but windy day in the wildlands of the Devon/Somerset border. Enjoy.
Calling all insulator collectors
Now here’s a subject close to my heart – tricuspid valves. No, not those… Telegraph poles, that’s it. I’m always getting those two things mixed up.
Heritage railway telegraph poles them’s what I meant.
Stuart Duddy from Isle of Wight Steam Railway has written to us relating their project to reinstate the telegraph pole route alongside five miles of their standard gauge line between Wootton and Smallbrook Junction.
You can see their early progress via this link.
Now, erecting “proper” telegraph poles is a noble enough cause as it is. But they’re running into a bit of a problem – sourcing 780 Cordeau pin insulators – 130 poles x 2 arms (4 wires top & 2 on bottom) = more insulators than they can get their hands on. Stuart tells us that although insulators are technically unnecessary as they won’t be running open wires, the installation just wouldn’t look right without them. Quite right too.
Mantec Technical Ceramics, who acquired Bullers, are unable to help as their focus is now on high voltage insulators, and so a source for new insulators would otherwise have to be in India or China. So that’s where we come in.
Many of the people that frequent this site are avid collectors and appreciators of fine porcelain lumps called insulators. Do you have a decent sized stash in your garage, bedroom or mantlepiece that you could help IW Steam Railway out? You may not have quite so many as they’re looking for, but a few smaller stashes = one big stash = problem sorted.
Here’s what Stuart tells me they’re looking for.
As you can see it has a double groove, but whether they have one or two grooves is probably not too important. It is approximately 98 mm tall x 63 mm diameter at the base. Inside, of course, is the threaded hole which receives the fixing bolt.
I am aware that the glazed porcelain insulators came in various colours including rusty brown and red. We also have a few in a very dark grey, matt finish. Ideally, however, we would like to adopt a uniform colour and go with the glazed white/cream finish.
So, think Blue Peter appeal, and if you think you can help in some way do get in touch with us here at Britain’s premier telegraph pole appreciating society, or email IW Railway direct.
Finally, here is an update on their Project Telegraph Pole.