EARLIER readers' recollections on this page about the old lamplighters of long, long ago, have inspired Sutton memory man Joe Jones, of Irwin Road, to pen his own thoughts on this flickering theme.

In it, he 'humanises' the once familiar street-corner gas-lamp.

The old gas-lamp was like a friend,

To the children an arm he would lend

To secure a rope to form a swing

Or dance around him in a ring.

When daylight fades and yields to night

He turns the darkness into light,

The lamp-lighter's pole with flame a-top

Would light the mantle with a 'plop!'

So forming a pool, a soft golden glow,

On to the pavement down below.

Sights and sounds were familiar, too,

To that lone sentinel as he saw the night through.

With cane in hand comes the knocker-up

To rouse his clients and get them up.

Then a clatter of clogs as they pass by,

Long before a new blue sky

The lone local bobby with cloak outspread

Looked a figure for all to dread,

The lamp was a post for the idle to lean

Who within their pockets had not a bean.

The lamp frowned upon the canine kind

Because of what they left behind,

But with time he was made redundant

Because of electricity in abundance.

Gone and now forgotten, we know,

Is the old gas-lamp of long ago.

WONDER how many other of our old-timers have a memory or two to share about those glimmering times?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.