Dinas Powys: stink pipes

When I first noticed them, I wasn't sure what these pipes were but the proximity of one of them to a present day utility cover in the pavement was a clue.

These are stink pipes, also known as stench pipes, once used to allow gases and noxious smells to escape safely from the sewer pipes below the ground. From what I've been reading, pipes like these were first introduced during the Victorian era. An article on the Designing Buildings website explains

The summer of 1858 was known as 'the Great Stink' in London as there was a strong smell of untreated waste throughout the city, affecting those at work in the House of Commons. Joseph Bazalgetter, the chief engineer of London's Metropolitan Board of Works, proposed channelling waste through street sewers, into main intercepting sewers. These would transport waste towards the tidal part of the Thames so that it would be swept out to sea.
The network of wide sewer tunnels required venting, which is why stink pipes were incorporated into the system. Based on the concept of a blastpipe – an idea allegedly invented by a Victorian-era surgeon, chemist and engineer named Sir Goldsworthy Gurney – stink pipes were made out of cast iron and placed along main sewer routes.

Many stink pipes were much taller than those I've found, the better to catch any breeze and dissipate the noxious smells away from people at ground level. The Historic England website reports on one, in the town of Shifnal in Shropshire, that has been grade II listed due its height.

I imagine those much taller structures were the types built to release the city smells emanating from London's large sewer system, whereas the shorter pipes were more appropriate in a suburban or small town setting like Dinas Powys. Also, these local pipes are most probably Edwardian rather than Victorian, as the road and houses where they're located were built some time between 1901 and 1910, according to old maps of the area.

Lamp post : Cheltenham

This is one of the most practical, yet also one of the most unusual pieces of street furniture I've ever seen and, despite extensive internet searching, I've neither been able to find records or images of any others like it, nor any information about it, except the bare bones of its description on the British Listed Buildings (BLB) website. The entry reads:

Grade II listed
Lamp post. Late C19. Adapted for electricity. Cast-iron post with wrought-iron enrichment and overthrow, wrought-iron leaves at 3m and 0.75m. Glazed brick plinth. Drum with 4 bracketed buttresses alternating with quadrants.

 

Though the listing makes no mention of the use of the 'glazed brick plinth', my fertile imagination sees a Victorian gentleman or two, each seated on a corner of the plinth, reading their newspapers by the light of the gas lamp and engaging in earnest conversation about the state of the world around them.

 

In my enthusiasm for the ceramics of this amazing piece of street furniture - in particular, the gaping jaws of the ferocious lions, I completely forget to take an image of the whole lamp post but you can see one on the BLB website.

Another day, another bench

Ever get the feeling you're being watched?  But by a bench? I think this design is very clever.

A splendid bench

It's well past time I was active again on this blog so I've decided to post interesting things I notice on my wanders. These will mostly be phone photos so not the best quality but I hope my few remaining followers enjoy these snippets. 

Today's offering is the magnificent ironwork from a bench in a local park.