Dear DMC,
A telegraph pole, thought to be Britain’s oldest working example, has been retired after 119 years.
Dated 1894, it was used to hold telegraph wires before a telephone exchange opened 0n Kirkwall, Orkney, in 1923. It will go to the Orkney Museum.
Steve Reszetniak
London
“We are delighted to have donate such a significant object to Orkney Museum, where it will be protected for future generations of local people to enjoy,” said BT’s Head of Heritage.
The future generations of locals of Orkney local people will certainly have something to look forward to — enjoyment of looking at a 119-year-old telegraph pole.
Enjoying looking at a 119-year-old telegraph us right up our alley. Truly “Celebrating the Ordinary.” Safe excitement indeed.
Orkney Museum is currently closed for renovations.
Read more on BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-22786025
There’s a sentence in BBC’s article we don’t understand: “The only reason we had to take it down was because some of the markings we use to check poles are standing safely had weathered away.”
Perhaps there’s a word missing, the word “whether”? “ They meant to say “ . . . some of the markings we use to check whether poles are standing safely had weathered away”?
Couldn’t they have fixed the markings instead of taking the pole down?
