Pylon of the Month - April 2024
April 04, 2024
April's Pylon of the Month is one of those in the picture above. It's not like the old newspaper Spot the Ball game where I've chosen one secretly and you've got to guess which one it is and win a prize1. Rather, you can choose your own favourite using whatever metrics you want. I'm going for the one on the right of the two reflected in the puddle. If you've found this page via X/Twitter, feel free to let me know if you chose a different one!
The picture was sent to me by a colleague and fellow physics teacher and is located north of Kennington near Oxford. Eagle-eyed pylon fans will already have spotted the fact there are two different transmission lines in the photo. One at 400 kV and the other in the foreground with the less substantial pylons, at a mere 132 kV. The lower rated line heads to the West Oxford substation near Osney whilst the 400 kV Cowley-Seven Springs marches west to Gloucester and beyond. The picture also caught my eye as I sat writing this post with the rain coming down outside, because of the standing water. It's been a very wet year so far, but in this field, there were stripes of flooding that caught the eye of my colleague. A bit of research led to the conclusion that is an archeological remnant of a ridge and furrow ploughing:
Ridge and furrow is an archaeological pattern of ridges (Medieval Latin: sliones) and troughs created by a system of ploughing used in Europe during the Middle Ages, typical of the open-field system.
The stripes caused by the ridges and furrows can clearly be seen on the LIDAR image of the area below courtesy of https://www.lidarfinder.com/.
That's all for this month. See you in May when the weather will hopefully have improved!
1. According to this Guardian article from 2014, a jackpot hadn't been paid out for over 10 years in the Spot the Ball competition because so few people were entering the competition. As far as I'm aware, it isn't in any newspaper nowadays but there are, inevitably, online versions. This is one of them. https://playstb.com/
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