Our Telephone Pole continued By Mo

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We initially handled the pole rewiring, then with due investment, moved to replacing the poles themselves." says Alan. Both he and his family are from Manchester. He met Joy his wife way back at junior school. It's only Richard who originates locally, from Cottingham.

Richard shows me the 20 pair block he attaches to the top of the pole, carrying up to 40 wires. "The Pole is sunk between 1.2 and 1. 8 metres into the ground, and the digging is done by hand to avoid damage to gas, electricity and other infrastructure in the process" he explains.

Richard's worked with the crew for over a year now after having tried university in Manchester and spending some time out in Salamanca in Spain, where his folks have a holiday flat. Despite speaking fluent Spanish and French, Richard prefers his job with the Pole gang. "It's an outdoor job, where you're learning new skills (I knew nothing about telephone systems on starting) meeting new people every day and getting a great sense of satisfaction not only from a job well done but by the camaraderie of working in a team" he says.

Hull's eavy clay topsoil.

Richard continues, "Most of Hull's topsoil is heavy clay, and when the hole is thin and deep it's crucial to verify that the material used to refill any gaps around the pole is safe for the depth". Richard's even done a course in refilling deep holes during his time with Cumberland Communications Ltd. "You have to roll up the earth, if it rolls into a nice solid pencil shape with no cracks, you're set to go." he says.

"Skipton," Alan interjects, "every hole you dig has a rock in it." He's just got off the mobile with Joy. The good news is that she's off to survey another pole job at Raswell Golf course near York, before sending off for planning prints of gas and electricity schema in the area. This has to be done before the crew arrive onsite. "Ferriby chalk line meant it took two days just to dig the hole" he says. "The funniest incident happened on a graveyard job when someone had just impaled the middle of a grave with the 'Rabbitor spade' as a temporary resting place, when the respective family of the deceased turned the corner to pay their usual respects!".

Alan on the "Shoveola".

Our old pole.

But the people stories are the best. Before starting the job it's necessary to inform the customers of the work in progress as well as politely asking for cars to be moved to get the truck and van in place without obstructing traffic. "The old lady living alone, who's daughter and husband had passed away, may not have spoken to a soul, apart from maybe the postman, in weeks." adds Alan. "You have to tread lightly, going into houses. And when they see the 3 ft long drill, well they have always 'just decorated'!" They all have a laugh. "And if the phone worked fine this morning, it can be quite a selling job to convince them it's an upgrade necessary for the system" says Alan.

The poles themselves weigh about half a ton coming in light, medium and heavy. Ours is a 28ft long medium, the old one is covered in creosote, having been injected and immersed in the stuff, for weathering, although its considered harmful these days and not used any more. The markings are HCT 28 for Hull Council Telephone although we can't figure out what the IF 82 GWE stands for. A chap called Al Thompson is responsible for testing the poles. About one foot under ground he checks for rot and examines the cracks or "shakes" as they are known, which can be an advanced warning of failure. Apart from that, there's always damage from vehicles to look out for.

View from up top.

The "Shoveola" is used to dig out a new hole once the old pole has been removed from its position, "although a complete Deep hole polling kit can set you back a good 5K" says Alan. The poles normally come from Scotland or Europe. It's rumoured that ours comes from Indonesia. Alan can't say for sure. "I've taken one out from the 1890's myself, but Jimmy (from the original BT crew) did one from 1800. He's gone back to college now to do databases and the like, but we'll have him back soon" says Alan.

Left to right, Spike, Alan, Colin, Allan (KC Supervisor) and Jonathan.

From start to finish it takes about a day for the crew to down lines, remove the pole, dig into the original hole and extend for the new replacement to be hauled up and all the phone lines reconnected. That's actually a long working day as the lads were working well into the early evening before I said farewell.

Comments System Prototype Version 1.0 by Mo

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