Gas Columns, Tamworth Town Centre

These beautiful installations are located in Tamworth Castle grounds. 3m cast-iron columns made by Lion Foundry which would have originally supported gas lanterns. These lanterns can be seen HERE in the Town's historical imagery, and these likely would have dated back to the late 1880s OR EARLY 1890s. These took a while for me to notice properly, as they blend in with the scenery and are generally easy to walk right by.

The first example can be located just after crossing the bridge (over the ruins) that connects to Market Street. The modern electric lantern's feeder pillar can be seen to the right.

If you follow the path to the right, the next column can be spotted positioned next to a bench. Unfortunately people seem to feel the need to stick things all over these columns, each time I go past I do my best to remove any stickers, although there's always new ones appearing. Today there only seemed to be one of them on this column. On the first column it looks as if someone has already tried to remove a sticker, but hasn't done a brilliant job. This example is also the one closest to the camera in THIS image taken in 1955.

The column's manufacturer logo can be sighted right at the base of every one of them. It reads

"Lion Foundry LTD", "KIRKINTILLOCH".

Kirkintilloch was the town in which the iron foundry was founded on the north bank of the Fourth and Clyde Canal.

A third example is positioned just as the 3 paths meet each other. The previous column can just-about be seen in the background to the right. This one has had one of it's ladder bars removed, as opposed to the two previous installations.