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Being a bit sad, I like historical metalwork like this, even more when you can find some history or background on them.
I found these two (Really heavy!) cast iron lighting columns at a place near us and they looked sorry and lonely and at risk of being smashed up and weighed in so I rescued them. They are at work waiting to be gently blasted and painted with a matt black or similar to sympathetically replicate the original finish. Luckily they are in perfect condition with no cracks or bits missing. The ladder rest arms are the bits that are often missing as kids used to put swings on them!
Despite the posts looking identical at first inspection, there are subtle differences between the two. The one on the left looked older than the one on the right, which after plenty of googling is true.
The one on the right is cast by 'Moorwoods Ltd, Sheffield'. The one on the left is cast by 'Clay Cross Co - Makers'. Not a great deal of info on the Clay Cross one other than it was set up by George Stephenson but quite a bit of info on Moorwoods.
This is a photo of the bottom part of the sand mold for the exact same type of Moorwoods post.
I think they were made around the 1930's. I would guess they were originally gas lamps? and then were later converted to electric by the local authorities by the removal of the nice lanterns and the addition of a horrible cranked steel head.
And here's a photo of the men that worked for Moorwoods around that time. Think it is a 1930's picture going by the dress type?
This is a photo of the original head type. If anyone knows where there are two of the original heads i would be eternally grateful! My plan is to put them up at the end of our drive. The area we live in would have had these originally o I don't think they will look out of place. We need a couple of lights down there so these will be functional as well as nice to look at.
Anyone got any more info?
Here's the later modern head added to the same post as I have.
I found these two (Really heavy!) cast iron lighting columns at a place near us and they looked sorry and lonely and at risk of being smashed up and weighed in so I rescued them. They are at work waiting to be gently blasted and painted with a matt black or similar to sympathetically replicate the original finish. Luckily they are in perfect condition with no cracks or bits missing. The ladder rest arms are the bits that are often missing as kids used to put swings on them!
Despite the posts looking identical at first inspection, there are subtle differences between the two. The one on the left looked older than the one on the right, which after plenty of googling is true.
The one on the right is cast by 'Moorwoods Ltd, Sheffield'. The one on the left is cast by 'Clay Cross Co - Makers'. Not a great deal of info on the Clay Cross one other than it was set up by George Stephenson but quite a bit of info on Moorwoods.
This is a photo of the bottom part of the sand mold for the exact same type of Moorwoods post.
I think they were made around the 1930's. I would guess they were originally gas lamps? and then were later converted to electric by the local authorities by the removal of the nice lanterns and the addition of a horrible cranked steel head.
And here's a photo of the men that worked for Moorwoods around that time. Think it is a 1930's picture going by the dress type?
This is a photo of the original head type. If anyone knows where there are two of the original heads i would be eternally grateful! My plan is to put them up at the end of our drive. The area we live in would have had these originally o I don't think they will look out of place. We need a couple of lights down there so these will be functional as well as nice to look at.
Anyone got any more info?
Here's the later modern head added to the same post as I have.
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