I arrived early morning at Salthouse Fields open the big coach gate at the end of the park to give access to the pole delivery lorry. The extra long light coloured untreated pole at the top of the stack stood out against  its usual cargo of traditionally creosoted and smaller standard telegraph poles.

It was offloaded at our pre-arranged storage and working area for the next weeks. An area of tarmac next to the engine shed that used to house the now out-of-service miniature railway engine that took people around the park.

It was great to see it offloaded and positioned in place with the hiab arm as I wasn’t sure whether it would be possible to manoeuvre it in to the space.

Not so good though, was the realisation that the bottom 3m of the pole was bent in a way that meant it wouldn’t be able to rotate in the steel ground tube as designed. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be an issue if the pole was only being used as a static pole but for a pole that needed to rotate in the ground, it is a massive problem.

There is no chance of getting it replaced as it had a several week long lead time as well as there being major global supply issues for poles of this size, in part, due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Even in better circumstances, it wouldn’t have been possible to inspect the pole before delivery as they are always imported. Timber this size and straightness won’t grow in the UK climate.