The Ramp
The ramp, which is just visible on photo 1 of the pyry was obviously designed to allow prams etc from the bottom and middle areas of the estate to be pushed to the shops.(The posh types from the top end therefore had no need for this ramp) Shades, in his most excellent and interesting description of the pyramid and its intricacies in his blog 'Shades of Grey:Valley of the Kenton Bar Kings' points out that the tiles on the ramp were originally electrically heated in winter to stop it freezing over. This was something I had no recollection of.
However, the ramp was not just used for prams. Kids on chopper and chipper bikes loved riding down it, as did the skateboarding hoards who also used the blue bit visible to the right of the pyry in photo 2 to practice their techniques and jumps on the sloping sides. Once the underfloor electric heating stopped working (or was switched off due to cost who knows?) the ramp was a perfect place to make a slide on in the icy winter...plus a place to enjoy the spectacle of some poor sod forlornly trying to push a pram up the sheet of sheer ice, or some shumbling old near death desperately trying not to slip and fall and break their neck.
Ruffians from down the bottom end of the estate also used the ramps sloping sides to hide behind after lobbing snowballs at the windows of the lower flats, again visible in photo 2, peeping over the side in the hope of seeing anguish and pain on the litso(face that is) of the unfortunate victim staring out from the window into the darkmans(night) As soon as the victim gave up looking, the ruffians would repeat the ghastly deed(KASHTOOOMPH!(snowball off window) ad infinitum...If by any chance eventually a powerful bruiseboy man type was to come lurching out of the flat shaking an angry rooker(fist) bawling and shouting the odds, they would escape via the gaps in the small concrete wall which was perpendicular to the school, and out out out into the darkness and safety of the kenton school fields...How do I know this? Because me, being a kind and noble cub scout type at the time would be shovelling the snow off the ramp and gritting it with sand to help the poor and needy, and saw what these bounders were up to...
However, the ramp was not just used for prams. Kids on chopper and chipper bikes loved riding down it, as did the skateboarding hoards who also used the blue bit visible to the right of the pyry in photo 2 to practice their techniques and jumps on the sloping sides. Once the underfloor electric heating stopped working (or was switched off due to cost who knows?) the ramp was a perfect place to make a slide on in the icy winter...plus a place to enjoy the spectacle of some poor sod forlornly trying to push a pram up the sheet of sheer ice, or some shumbling old near death desperately trying not to slip and fall and break their neck.
Ruffians from down the bottom end of the estate also used the ramps sloping sides to hide behind after lobbing snowballs at the windows of the lower flats, again visible in photo 2, peeping over the side in the hope of seeing anguish and pain on the litso(face that is) of the unfortunate victim staring out from the window into the darkmans(night) As soon as the victim gave up looking, the ruffians would repeat the ghastly deed(KASHTOOOMPH!(snowball off window) ad infinitum...If by any chance eventually a powerful bruiseboy man type was to come lurching out of the flat shaking an angry rooker(fist) bawling and shouting the odds, they would escape via the gaps in the small concrete wall which was perpendicular to the school, and out out out into the darkness and safety of the kenton school fields...How do I know this? Because me, being a kind and noble cub scout type at the time would be shovelling the snow off the ramp and gritting it with sand to help the poor and needy, and saw what these bounders were up to...
The heating in the ramp never worked properly, only about two thirds of it would actually melt snow and it wasn't viable to fix it without rebuilding the ramp as the heating wire was laid in the cement under the tiles.
ReplyDeleteThe cold weather sensor was inlaid into the ramp close to where the blue bit started. It had small recessed rectangular strip lights near ground level either side, matched by bigger ones set into the wall on the lower level and high ones fixed below the upper windows of the flats (you can see two of them on both photos to the right.
I think last time I visited the new "improved" pyramid area I found one of the ramp lights was still in-situ.
One other piece of trivia- the blue and grey glazed mosaic tiles cost and old penny each and they came lightly glued to a sort of sacking material so that they could be cemented into place and the cloth peeled off once the cement had set. The builders gave me one (a blue one) but it is long lost.
The concrete boulders were not an original design feature but were very rapidly added once the water feature was activated. They were cast based on a huge boulder they found near the Doctor's Surgery land. They were supposedly very firmly fixed onto metal plates bolted onto the upper waterway and artistically arranged in a curve as they would have looked un-natural in a regimented row. (Yeah right, like a number of identical concrete boulders with casting seams looked even vaguely natural).
another fascinating and informative contribution Shades, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge on the blog :)
ReplyDeleteShades - got any suggestions as to where we might look for more Pyramid pics? - you do seem well informed - you an architect?
ReplyDeleteMy works office in Bradford was built circa 1967. Recently, I parked on the black ice and precariously tiptoed through the crunchy icy snow up towards the entrance, passing the garage under the foyer. It then occurred to me that the ramp down to the garage was free of ice- and I then noticed the rectangular metal plate with the two circular things either side which I recognised as being similar to what the ramp had.
ReplyDeleteUnder-ramp heating that is more than 40 years old- and still works!
I'll take a photo and send it in. A very minor, trivial thing, but another piece in the jigsaw.
The heating in the ramp never worked properly, only about two thirds of it would actually melt snow and it wasn't viable to fix it without rebuilding the ramp as the heating wire was laid in the cement under the tiles.
ReplyDeleteThe cold weather sensor was inlaid into the ramp close to where the blue bit started. It had small recessed rectangular strip lights near ground level either side, matched by bigger ones set into the wall on the lower level and high ones fixed below the upper windows of the flats (you can see two of them on both photos to the right.
I think last time I visited the new "improved" pyramid area I found one of the ramp lights was still in-situ.
One other piece of trivia- the blue and grey glazed mosaic tiles cost and old penny each and they came lightly glued to a sort of sacking material so that they could be cemented into place and the cloth peeled off once the cement had set. The builders gave me one (a blue one) but it is long lost.
The concrete boulders were not an original design feature but were very rapidly added once the water feature was activated. They were cast based on a huge boulder they found near the Doctor's Surgery land. They were supposedly very firmly fixed onto metal plates bolted onto the upper waterway and artistically arranged in a curve as they would have looked un-natural in a regimented row. (Yeah right, like a number of identical concrete boulders with casting seams looked even vaguely natural).