DW Windsor Windsor Lantern Installations

DW Windsor Windsors are a post-top heritage lantern based off the original four-sided gas lantern. 35W-150W SON and MH, and Cosmo White versions were available in the past. Nowadays the Windsor is still in production, with a range of LED versions available. Their seamless design makes them blend very well into heritage streets.

Tamworth Town Centre

The DW Windsor Windsor lantern is arguably the most common lantern in Tamworth Town centre. It exists in 50W, 70W and 100W SON forms, on original DW Windsor columns. Designed based on the original gas street light lantern, this lantern is extremely favourable for historic towns. Tamworth, being one of these, uses this lantern in the pedestrianized areas of the town centre along with the DW Windsor Warwick.

This Windsor lantern can be seen in the town centre, opposite the entrance to Ankerside. The sunset behind the camera gives the illusion that the lantern is day-burning, when, in fact, it is not.

A closer view reveals some rust at the base of the lantern's body. This area is a major weak spot for these lanterns, and they often snap off at the lantern's base if a column gets hit or vandalized.

This is evident by looking at the lantern next to this one. It's completely missing! It was hit by some-kind of blue vehicle and knocked off. The column was bent through the soil, but rather than remove it, it was straightened out to support the Christmas lights. The lantern, however, still remains missing. Whether it was picked up when the column was "fixed" or whether someone took it is unknown. If you look closely at the base, you can see the concrete used to help secure the straightened pole, and you can see in the background two day-burners. About 20% (estimated) of SON lanterns in the town centre day-burn, as you can see, these lights aren't very well maintained.

A closer look at one of these day-burners (the one on the left).

I returned a few weeks later to find it still going strong! If you look very closely in the background of the first image, you can see the lantern still missing off the previously documented column. A new lantern was installed to replace the missing one on the 20/01/2024.

The columns down at the bottom of the flower gardens were in slightly better condition.

Another column across the park:

Remember how I mentioned that the Town Centre lampposts aren't very well maintained? Well, this next DW Windsor Windsor has been wonky for months now! It's on column number T36R, and most of the metal supports have snapped. Consequently, the post-top spigot has come loose. It is now teetering on the edge of falling off completely. I reported this installation several months ago but nothing has come of it yet.

The lantern is bent out of shape quite significantly. This is likely due to youths hurling a brick at the lantern, as the bowl on one side is shattered.

I re-reported the lantern on the 22/03/2024, and an emergency crew was dispatched. I found out that these lanterns were not very well maintained as they aren't PFI, so they aren't fed directly off the mains like the adjacent road, Ankerdrive. Somewhere around there will be a feeder pillar with a high amp fuse inside for all of the lanterns on the footpath. The lantern was straightened out by the next time I visited it.

The lantern on column 35 was also suffering at the hands of vandalism. This does, however, mean that we can see the 100W SON-T lamp inside.

A day-burning Windsor lantern was spotted further down the path.

And don't think that the day-burners stop there! If we head the opposite way down the footpath (back past the wonky Windsor) we see yet another... This one has a vertical lamp and a refractor, rather than a horizontal lamp with a reflector.

Long Eaton

All Saint's Church, Long Eaton has a stretch of four DW Windsor Windsor lanterns, mounted on 3m columns, running CDM-T lamps. Rather astonishingly, they all warmed up just seconds after I arrived. They turned on quite early, though this confirms they are likely operated on a timer from within the church. The timer was likely set during the winter months, when it would have gotten dark at this time. The lamp sprung into life right as I pointed my camera at the first example.

The second of the four lampposts was located just down the path. It too was shining brightly, despite the daylight.

The third example is positioned just slightly down the path from the second, but the fourth example is the one of interest down here!

That's a dead lamp if I've ever seen one! The blacked-out lamp is visible just next to the lantern's closest pillar.