Victorian Kingsclere street lamp lit for first time in decades

A historic street lamp in Kingsclere was lit for the first time in decades over the jubilee weekend.

The lamp on the corner of Swan Street and George Street was installed in 1897 for the celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and has remained there ever since.

It has not worked since the 1960s, until the Thursday evening of the long weekend when it burst into life courtesy of an LED bulb.

A small crowd gathered for the big moment, with attendees also able to witness the Royal Cypher being projected on to St Mary’s Church.

Former council chairman John Sawyer, who gave a short speech at the event, said the lighting of the lamp was “a bit like the Olympic flame – it happened for the duration of Kingsclere’s celebrations”.

The lamp belongs to the parish council.

It has an inscription of 'Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee 1897' on one side, and Mr Sawyer said the council might consider having a Queen Elizabeth II memento inscribed on the other.

He continued: “Now we’ve seen it lit up, perhaps we could find some way we could get it lit up permanently.

“Whether that’s connecting it to the mains, which is a very expensive option as it would mean a lot of digging of trenches and closing of roads, or whether we could go for some solar-powered solution – I don’t know.

“That’s something for the council to think about, and in the current financial climate it might not be at the top of the list.”