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Old 28th May 2017, 12:50 pm   #1
Colourstar
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Default 1960s/70s Garden lighting

Since I was a youngster, garden illuminations have always been something that have rather captivated me. I guess domestic outdoor lighting sets appeared on the UK market some time in the 1960s. I recall those sets of 3 or 4 lights which looked rather like a sealed beam car headlight in a moulded pale blue plastic hood. They were generally coloured so that you could light up your pond or rockery in lurid green, blue and orange. The hood had a vaguely triangular look to it and the lamp unit was on a spike for pushing in to the ground. I guess they would have used low voltage bulbs powered through a transformer. I've been unable to locate any photos of this type of set and wondered which firm might have made them. It sounds like the sort of thing Pifco might have been into but as far as I know they didn't venture into outdoor lighting, unless you count bikes! I'd love to track a set of these lights down, if indeed any have survived.

Steve
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Old 28th May 2017, 4:53 pm   #2
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

The first company I thought of was Hozelock (the garden watering company), who certainly made (and from what I can see still make) garden lights (now LED types), fountain pumps, etc. But I can't find what you describe on Google.
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Old 28th May 2017, 4:58 pm   #3
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

Apparently you need be "part P" approved to install wired garden lights even if they are a mere 12V. I thought this was a bit harsh until I realised that some people would merrily use 240V units, ordinary twin and earth wire, and just plug it in. "It's only a garden light, how hard can that be?". I don't know how one stands if it is run off an old car battery.
 
Old 28th May 2017, 5:29 pm   #4
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

I certainly recall garden lighting that used 12 volt sealed beam lamps, smaller than car headlights and of lower wattage.
IIRC, 9 watts was common. Don't recall the lamps actually being coloured but they did come with interchangeable coloured filters.

I think that the lamps were PAR 36 size with screw terminals on the back, and/or push on tabs. Similar lamps are still made.

IME, allegedly sealed or weather proof light fittings often get wet inside or filled with algae or dead insects. The use of sealed beam lamps is therefore a step forward.
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Old 28th May 2017, 5:51 pm   #5
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

Quote:
Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell View Post
..... some people would merrily use 240V units, ordinary twin and earth wire, and just plug it in. "It's only a garden light, how hard can that be?". I don't know how one stands if it is run off an old car battery.
I have a string of old garden lights using coloured golf ball bulbs, each 240V 25W. Definitely built for the job, each holder has a rubber seal that is supposedly watertight. They are terminated in a normal 13A plug. They came from a jumble sale at least ten years ago, and were presumably fairly old even then.
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Old 28th May 2017, 6:52 pm   #6
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

Ten years, before Part P came out.
 
Old 28th May 2017, 7:42 pm   #7
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

Some years ago a friend wired his garden for nocturnal illumination using several of the 110V festoon-strings that are used for safety-illumination on scaffolding where it intrudes onto a footpath.

These sort of things: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/SDFH22ES.html - he got his strings out of a skip!

The bulbholders are "Insulation displacement" types with two V-shaped forks that stab through the insulation of a length of T&E.

Similar light-strings are traditionally found on large christmas-trees in town centes etc: they take coloured ES bulbs, usually 25-Watt.
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Old 28th May 2017, 9:03 pm   #8
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

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Originally Posted by broadgage View Post
I certainly recall garden lighting that used 12 volt sealed beam lamps, smaller than car headlights and of lower wattage.
IIRC, 9 watts was common. Don't recall the lamps actually being coloured but they did come with interchangeable coloured filters.
Those were the ones! And yes I think they were clear lamps with clip-on plastic filters in various colours.

Steve
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Old 28th May 2017, 11:56 pm   #9
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

This is the type of lamp to which I refer, still available.

https://www.interlight.biz/light-bulb/H7514
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Old 29th May 2017, 12:08 am   #10
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

I suspect that few of the external lights that appear every Christmas in people's gardens are installed by Part P approved installers. Our low voltage sets, circa 15 years old and consisting of multiple series-connected strings of ten 2.5V bulbs powered by 24V transformers, are not!
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Old 29th May 2017, 9:39 am   #11
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

This discussion is about 1960's and 1970's lighting. This pre-dates Part P regulations by at least 25 years, so there's no need to discuss Part P.
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Old 29th May 2017, 10:19 am   #12
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

Mine replicate 'pub garden' lighting of that sort of era, and are mains powered, 20 ES sockets in parallel with rubber gaiters which hug the base of the lamp. Needless to say they are designed to hang rather then ground based accent lighting. The only change i made was getting replicas of GLS filament lamps, which have a pylon of white LED's inside and a painted glass envelope. They are Crompton lamps, quite impressed. The yellow painted ones have now started to fade, but it's to be expected 3 or 4 years on. The colours they all emit are very good. Total dissipation for the set- 30 watts! The only reason you can tell they are LED is the blues are too blue.

The thread starter was discussing tracking some older lighting sets down in the modern era; which would make discussion of 'Part P or not Part P' relevant...i would have thought..?
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Old 29th May 2017, 11:06 am   #13
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

Quote:
Originally Posted by Colourstar View Post
I'd love to track a set of these lights down, if indeed any have survived.

Steve
One sentence in a long post from the OP relates to tracking down a set of lights, not installing them.

Past experience has been that discussions about Part P turn into rants about The Part P Mafia, unnecessary legislation, incompetent electricians etc. That's why discussion about it is discouraged.
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Old 29th May 2017, 11:36 am   #14
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

I totally agree with not discussing all those petty regulations. They have simply got out of hand and there is little more to be said about them.
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Old 29th May 2017, 8:53 pm   #15
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

With patience, you might be able to find some of these on ebay.
Unfortunately the seller may not know what they are and it will require a lot of searching using slightly different search terms.

Old garden lighting
Vintage garden lighting
Old landscape lighting
Vintage landscape lighting

And despite including "old" or "vintage" in the search, a lot of results will be for new equipment.
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Old 29th May 2017, 11:17 pm   #16
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

Fair enough, if i want to know whether X applies to certain applications i will have a surf.

G, I think it's fair to say that if you love or are captivated by period light shows and manage to buy one...sooner or later you are going to want to switch it on. They don't look very good on a shelf indoors. I don't want to put words into people's mouth/s but- come on- it's not much of a stretch.

Buying wise Colourstar, as you say, i fear almost all of them will have suffered heavily from sun and moisture and been chucked. Doesn't stop you from engineering your own low voltage set and using beefy wire to account for volt drop, i suppose.
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Old 30th May 2017, 11:39 am   #17
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

You could certainly replicate a set, especially with LEDs to minimise the line loss.
West End Promenade at Morecambe had them on the flower beds in the '60s. Simple steel cones on a tubular pole.
The effect was delightful.
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Old 30th May 2017, 5:52 pm   #18
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

If you want to replicate the effect using more modern equipment, I would be inclined to use PAR 36 lamps in 12 volt, 25 watts, perhaps in series pairs from a 25 volt transformer so as to reduce voltage drop.

12 volt, 25 watt PAR lamps are fairly readily available, much more so than 9 watt ones.

You might be able to obtain new equipment from the USA as landscape lighting with 12 volt PAR lamps is still popular in the USA.
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Old 30th May 2017, 7:02 pm   #19
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

Thank you all for the ideas. I will keep an eye out in the usual places using the seach terms suggested above. I would have thought most sets would have been scrapped long before now, but you never know. My initial interest really was in which UK manufacturers were first on the scene and whether anyone else recalled this type of lighting set. Meanwhile I'll have a rummage through my back issues of Practical Householder magazine from the 60s, as they did stray into garden matters on a fairly regular basis.

Steve
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Old 1st Jun 2017, 7:50 pm   #20
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Default Re: 1960s/70s Garden lighting

I suspect that many such garden lighting sets were re-purposed and subsequently scrapped during the mid 1970s power cuts.

The 9 watt sealed beam lamps were very suitable for emergency lighting, and the screw terminals on the back of the lamp were easily connected without needing a possibly obscure type of lamp holder.

During the power cuts, many types of ELV lamp and lamp holder were in short supply. Vehicle bulbs were a bit more available as large numbers are used normally and relatively large stocks therefore held.
Not ideal though as designed for 13.5/14 volts. Obtaining suitable bulb holders was a bit of a problem, scavenging from a scrap vehicle being the most likely source.

How much easier just to use a 9 watt sealed beam lamp with screw terminals !
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