Simon Rushton is a pole aficionado after my own heart. He clearly gets the poetry of their silent sentinel lives watching over us as we scud about our business beneath. Here are a selection of Simon’s photos from overlooked poles in Northumberland. Simon’s own beautiful words are best to describe them:
“Ancient beauty shivering on the edge of woodland in the winter snow at Howick, Northumberland. She’s a toothless wonder, poor thing, with just a couple of insulators left in place, but no doubt amazed to have a new lease of life carrying fibre. There she stands, blinking in the fading light, relieved not to be recycled as gate posts in the local fields quite yet.”
And there’s more: “Mystery survivors on the road from Hexham to Alston, Northumberland. The wires are ominously down in places but the remainder are soldiering on regardless. Here and there are fresh faces, newly creosoted – the matchstick brigade, lacking those gorgeous double and triple cross-members with insulators…”
