In article ,
"Rick Hughes" writes:

One other fundamental addition to the poles is the metal 'cap' which
prevents water penetrating the end grain.

The ones around my parents, which are at least 55 years old and still
look fine, used to have rather ornate giant onion-shaped caps. About
20 years ago, BT came round and took all the caps off. My guess is that
one had fallen off somewhere and they decided the liability was too
high. I imagine they were a very heavy lump of cast iron.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]