Welcome to DoubleGroove, a photographic record of antique telegraph poles in service. The aim of this site is to preserve forever the once common sight of telegraph poles laden with insulators that once stood beside our roads and railways. Such poles are becoming rarer by the day as contractors are constantly replacing them, not to mention insulator collectors like myself who are always picking the poles of anything interesting. At the moment there are around 700 pictures of poles from Europe and North America. I am always adding more as and when I take pictures of poles I come across.

Also on this site are pictures of my collection and various hunts I've carried out. If you are taking a holiday in the UK why not contact me and I will happily take you on some insulator hunts. There are still tons of insulators up on poles waiting to be taken. Even if you're not into porcelain you'll be surprised by the variety available. You might even find some Hemingray glass like I did in Scotland recently.

My Display - my collection on shelves, now includes a video tour of the shelves

High Resolution Galleries - photo tours of poles containing insulators

Video clips of hunts - watch a genius at work removing the insulators

Old site - this is my old webpage containing low resolution pictures of general poles and insulators

The author up a pole attempting to remove some insulators. My method of removing them is to try and turn the insulators by hand. If that fails I have no option other than to saw through the crossarm, at least I get the spindle as well. I'm wearing the hat and flourescent jacket to avoid any unwanted attention and it works too - police cars and telephone company vans go past without taking any notice

Another day, another pole. Here I am taking down some spools. Click on this picture for a larger one Both pictures taken by Fredrik Höjefält

If there's any questions you want to ask then feel free to contact me

For more information on British insulators you may like to visit Teleramics which goes into detail about insulator types and markings. Luke Birch, a fellow British collector also has a website.