Kenton Bar Estate - A Blast from the Past

  You cannot escape the truth – people do read this blog. There has been a hidden visitor counter on this blog since the very beginning. See these pics I took from the counter stats pages…..quite a few visitors for an obscure blog and from a lot of different countries too – on the maps each red baloon shows a location and each location can have several visitors... I personally think Mensforth should keep up the work and post – just a little less often. Kenton Bar Pyramid Appreciation Society

My brothers, it is with the heavy hand on mein heart that I tell you that this post, post 99 of the blog will be my last post I think, for now it is time for me to stop, leaving the last post hopefully, post 100 for that day, that glorious day when a new photo of our beautiful and glorious pyry is unearthed... 'That is what it is going to be brothers, as I come to the like end of this tale...you have been everywhere with your little droog Mensforth, and all it was was that we were young. But now as I end this story we are not young, not no longer oh no. We like groweth up, oh yes. ' Special thanks to the master, El Patron for creating this piece of history for all who wish to can viddy and to Shades for contributing much fascinating and interesting stuff I never knew... 'But where I itty now, oh my brothers, is all on my oddy knocky where you cannot go... And so farewell from your little droog...but remember sometime thy little Mensforth that was. Amen...'

Here is the new school as seen from the field, looking east. Unbeknown to me I captured the other smashed goal post in the photo, in front of the fence, no doubt smashed by by peasants and bounders from the bottom(the other one can be seen in the 'view from plateau' post...)how dreadful...note the old footpath that leads from kenton bar estate up to the 4 cottages at the top of kenton lane...they've had to leave access to the footpath, so there are gates through the fences from the school to the field... 99% of us from Kenton Bar went to Kenton, the normals, the peasants and even the posh...1% went to Blakelaw(gone),John Marley(gone)Slatyford(gone)or possiblyRutherford(gone)...so now 100% go to Kenton I presume!Blakelaw is 'the springfield centre', a teckas resource centre, John Marley has been demolished and is now Etal Lane Police Station+ army housing,dunno about Slatyford, but know it is no more, Rutherford became West Gate Community College(secondary school s...

I happened to notice this tree whist on top of the plateau...by the way, I've got to say a sense of melancholy and pensiveness swept over me as I stood there for the first time in 24 years... I used to love going up there and sitting, admiring the view...but I digress: From left to right then, the tree marked by black arrow 1 ...where exactly is it do you think?...what type of tree is it?...Is it the tallest?...I seem to remember a massive(oak?) tree down the bottom in front of the cube flats to the east of Gunnerstone Grove...? Black arrow 2 shows the roof of the flats which I climbed up on, one of very few people to do so, mentioned in blog post 'Types of homes'...fond memories of slim youth... Kenton Bar Pyramid Appreciation Society

Here is a view from the old plateau today looking north...dead centre in the background of the photo you can see the site of where the glorious pyry was , alas now horrible greenery betwixt the flats (with the shops below) and Kenton Bar school :( In the foreground there is a smashed goalpost, no doubt smashed by ghastly peasants from the bottom of the estate(if things are like what they were 30 years ago...)

Here is a front view of the old original plateau now. This is what Lawrence, Bell and co made us run up and down for years and years...HoweverI remember one time a gang of about 100 nadsats from the estate to the west who I have already mentioned Kenton Bar was 'at war' with 'conquered' the plateau and sat on it waiting to see what the nadsats from Kenton Bar would do about it...word spread like wildfire on the estate, and everyone climbed up on the flat roofs to see what would happen(I have previously mentioned people would climb up on the flat roofs to sunbath, throw snowballs and watch concord (once)) I recall being amazed at the sight of a)100 nadsat invaders sitting up on the plateau on our manor and b) hundreds of people, not just nadsats but adults also being up on the roof staring at them!(I lived in a bungalow at the time) I cant recall what happened next...probably the invader nadsats just slunk away in fear at the appearance of the 'Kenton Bar Boys'...

I discovered today that the reason they have shrouded many drainpipes with the metal case is not to' prevent kids climbing up on garage roof' as I suggested in the 'garages'post...I happened to notice that some of the electric type houses also had their drainpipe, the one fixed to the wall outside the courtyard bit covered with the metal case...apparently it is all connected with the mudslinging I've already mentioned in the 'drainpipes' post...hooligans were ripping them off the walls of the electric houses(them having no private fenced off front area) to use as drainpipe guns after it rains... so apparently after 3 years of this torture all the council tenants have been able to get metal shrouds fitted by the council to stop them doing it...however those who bought the council houses were not offered this provision and either have an unprotected drainpipe or none as it has been taken by hooligans...

As aformentioned on the blog in the article 'lurking', the 'normals' would lurk at the wall, half way down studdon walk. Here it is today, a shadow of it's former self, and not a place I would choose for lurking today. They have knocked down the row of garages opposite those you can viddy(see), and landscaped it...why?...probably to stop hooligans up to no good down behind unseen, but now there is no wind break for a lurker...We just used them to play 'garages' football, but I've already told you about that...the brick'wall' itself has gone, replaced by the green rail...there used to be up to 20 'normal' nadsats lurking there on a night...

Here is a photo I found during more extensive research in a library... I remember the football team played for the 'Bagnall Cup' and played 'derbys' v St Cuthbert’s and also v Mountfield, North Fawdon, Wyndham, Montague and Snow Street (we and everyone else always thrashed Snow Street at least 12-0-their home pitch was at an angle of 45 degrees...) Note the' flag pennants' which were inspired by the Leeds United strip from the 1973-74 season on the socks of some of the kids in the front row...these had the numbers of the players on. the 10 first team players are all wearing the blue top with yellow hoop:the' subs' are wearing... whatever! It looks like they must have won the Bagnall cup that year! Anyone recognise themselves or any of the players?... (The tecka is Mr Brownlaw, a true gentleman...) PS:Photo not taken at Kenton bar school-note the basketball net-maybe taken at Kenton school?...) Kenton Bar Pyramid Appreciation Society

The blog received an email from someone proporting to be the horrible hooligan climbing the pyry in the second photo of the only 3 photos of the beautiful pyry...Here is synopsis of the email: 'I am very proud of my photo showing me climbing the pyry on your blog. However the jacket I am wearing I hated .It was bought for me by my mam, and was a reversible one...' The photo is from 1981 so I guess the horrible hooligan will now be in his early 40s...

Why?...why did they build a pyramid on Kenton Bar Estate?...was there machination to the machiavellian mind of the architect?...what was it all about?...does anyone know?...

There are/were I think 5 types of housing on Kenton Bar Estate: 3 bedroom bungalows, 3 bedroom split levels, 3 bedroom(what we called) electric houses, 3 bedroom flats and 4 bedroom houses like those back to back at studdon walk/thirston way.The3 story flats in the middle of Beal Green/ FawleyGreen may be 2 bedroom, but this I know not because only those types of flats have I never viddied inside. However I regret I never viddied the inside of the split levels at the very top of the estate, the special different one's with secret stairs to the lower flat roof at the top of Hazeldene Ave-the one's nearest the kenton bar pub-why did they change the design as they built other split levels further down...? (The reason I never viddied inside the top split levels was because I was not posh and had no posh friends-only the posh types lived up the top as I have said before) However, I wish, how I wish I had lived in the flats above the shops and awoken each morning to throw open the c...

I will always associate chopper bikes with my time as a kid on Kenton Bar Estate...I remember when after one christmas I at last got one... they were brill, like no other bike before... ( Wikipedia ):'The bike featured a 3-speed gear hub, selected using a frame-mounted car-like gear lever — one of its "cool" features. Other features that appealed to the youth market were the unusual frame, long padded seat with backrest, sprung suspension at the back, high-rise handlebars, 'bobbed' mudguards (fenders) and differently sized front (16") and rear (20") wheels. The rear hoop above the seat resembled a motorcycle. Even the kickstand was designed to give the stationary bicycle a lean reminiscent of a parked motorcycle. Tyres were wider than usual for the time, with a chunky tread on the rear wheel, featuring a red line around the sidewall.' Anyone else remember the 'chopper'?

I'm sorry to say I dont get it. a)the ruins were a building, most likely a farm house, yes? b) These E's, were 'transformer laminations' (both Shades and the master concur) yes? c) The E's are 'transformer laminations'... what does that mean? d) And if so, and if the ruins are an ancient farmhouse why would they be there in their hundreds . .. in great piles like in this image...?

I have it on good authority from some riff raff that the metal 'E's were much coverted by the 2 rival gangs of nadsats from Kenton Bar and a neighbouring estate that were at 'war' at that time-the 'campaign' started every summer, with a 'lull' in Autumn and Winter(bit like Afghanistan now) The 'theatre of war' was usually in the fields around Leeches Pond and along the old path that still exists next to the ruins. This was the'no man's land' between the two estates(Now it has all gone and is all new housing) Each gang would desperately attempt to annex the ruins in an attempt to gain control of 'E' ammo which could then be hurled at the enemy aka kung fu stars. The beermat thin E's would make a whoomph! whoomph! whoomph! incoming sound as they whirled through the air and could obviously be seen and avoided in the daytime, but as these wars were usually waged on an evening and went on into the nochy in the pitchblack the...

After waiting about a month for an answer to my question'Why is the chair in the foreground bigger than the other three?' I have given up and am now going to tell you why the 'chair' in the foreground of this photo of the 'table and chairs' at Reestones Place is bigger than the other chairs... it is quite simple: the table and chairs was built on a slope with an angle of about 30 degrees so it was necessary to make this chair bigger so the user can sit horizontally like the other three....I do believe the one by the flats at Ryal Walk was built on level ground so all the chairs were identical... I dont know of any other table and chairs on the estate... So NO ONE gets a biscuit...must do better! :(

After weeks of searching I finally have in my sights a picture of the pyramid taken as an aerial photograph in 1999 and 1993. The bloke at the place says he cannot tell if the pyramid is on the shot as the photos have not been “scanned” The trouble is…the price is 125 quid. What to do boys?

Site Centred Aerial Photography You can have an aerial photograph of anywhere in the UK, select from a large archive of photographs from the 1960's to the present. For further information please call the office on 01280 840785 to discuss your requirement.

There were 3 buses in those days that you could use if you lived on the estate and wanted to go to town. The 8 and 9 came up and down Hazeldene Ave and there was a bus terminus at the bottom end of Hazeldene Ave/Eland Close-to the left of the photo on the 'car wash thingies' post upped by the master-the terminus bit of side road is still there and is marked by another weird rockery like the on shown in the 'cows head site' post. There was also the option of getting the number 10, or 'mental 10' as we called it which you could get from the catholic church on the border betwixt Kenton Bar and Kenton. The mental 10 got to town quicker, as the 8 and 9 clarted on going round Blakelaw and stuff. The reason it was called the mental 10 was because it was indeed 'mental' on a Friday and Saturday night on the way back from town after closing time. All the drunken peasant teens from down the bottom+ peasants from Kenton Hillsview area would steam on without pay...

The blog received an email telling us some information about the ruins recently posted up on the blog...here is the email: 'I remember the ruins very well. You could find hundreds of beermat flat metal E's there. The kids called them 'E's' because they were in the shape of a capital E. They were about the size of an adult hand. They were properly called 'spacers' and were used to allow a piece of machinery to have a tollerance on its fitting . ...

I remember in the deep dark distant past when I dwelt upon the estate there was one bungalow along Hartburn Walk that we greatly admired, known to us as'the house that is a pub' Whoever was the tenant/owner had turned the big front room into a lovely pub, with a proper bar complete with stools, optics, jukebox etc. Every night when returning from the Peacock Pub, which was our favourite at the time, we would always ritually peep enviously through the gaps in the fence to see the house that is a pub full of blokes drinking and having a great time, circumnavigating the horrible drinking laws of the time which forbid drinking after 10:30. Then we would return home and turn on the telly, the only choice being to watch some horrible simpering priest give a 10 minute sermon followed by the equally horrible sycophantic national anthem. Then on would come an image of a scary clown playing noughts and crosses with a little kid with a horrible WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!! ...

I remember one time I was up at the top of Ryal Walk observing the stars with my telescope one flip dark chill winter notchy(night) for an astronomy badge from the cubs(If you recall I told you I was a cubscout) In those days, as I have already said we used to have proper winters with proper crunchy snow, inches deep. Ryal Walk and indeed all the paths would be covered with snow 7" thick, and this night I observed a terrible thing that still shocks me to this day: 2 horrible hooligan ruffian types (from the bottom no doubt) came up to the top of Ryal Walk with a sledge. These 2 horrible hooligans then proceeded to make about 20 snowballs and then climbed aboard the sledge. Off they went hurtling down Ryal walk, and as they did the hoooligan on the back(the other hooligan was driving the sledge) threw snowballs at every window on the way down smecking their gullivers off... the poor victims coming out to find... no one in sight, as by now those hooligans were probably at the s...

At one time I lived in a bungalow on the estate. The bungalows had one specific design feature particular to them:A concrete curve 'bin shed' in the communal square, so that meant 4 of them per square. They are still there to this day, and here is a photo of one. This one is still much like ours was, but as I walked around the estate looking at them many have been made most beautiful with plants/ivy etc. I remember one other use for them: anyone guess what it was?...

Here is the poster up on the newsagents window as promised by the kind and noble newsagent man. Alas, thus far it has come to naught with not one single slovo of a response to the master... :(

As aformentioned only the peasant, ruffians and bounder type kids from gunnerston,eland and dunnykirk went to Hillsy school as we called it. Interestingly enough all the kids who went there also had nicknames with'y' on the end, for example I remember a 'Taggy, Wiggy and Hedgy' though those particular peasants lived not on Kenton Bar Estate but in Kenton. Apparently the kids could choose when to do specific subjects-they had do do so many lessons but these lessons were offered at different times each day during the week-they chose when to do them when they fancied doing them... it didnt seem to work to well-when I went to Kenton most of them ended up in GN or GS or R unt S,...(cruelly known to the other kids as 'utter dummkopf 'and 'semi dummkopf' classes) The school was shut many moons ago. Here is a photo of the site directly across from Gunnerston Grove today(a desolate wasteland of nothingness...)

I will never ever forget the feeling that I had when I first conquered the pyry and climbed to the very top, the apex, the zenith, the nadir of her being oh my brothers...We who lived on that humble council estate were fortunate in that we, unlike other the other proletariat from nearby council estates could also experience and aspire to those things only the posh types could...sail round the world by yourself at 16?... Float around the world in a hot air balloon?... Climb Mount Everest?... Oh no droogs, that doth pale into insignificance in comparison...I remember reaching the apex, holding on to it mein heart all a tremble...and viewing the world from a different perspective...OH YES!!!

These ruins were possibly directly north of Leeches pond in front of the hedge of the footpath that ran betwixt Kenton Bar estate and Newbiggin. I often wondered what they were...maybe a farmhouse?...anyway, I went to revisit them a couple of years ago and took some photos. Anyone remember them?...

Definition of Pyramid A pyramid is a polyhedron with a polygonal base and triangles for sides. Examples of Pyramid A pyramid is named for the shape of its base. Some of the polygonal pyramids are shown below. So it would seem OUR pyramid could have been a lot more interesting in shape…………

Did it? as anonymous said, one face was not visible:the square face underneath. But I'm not sure whether it had the square face. I remember once we got access underneath via the metal trapdoor as someone managed to cut/break the metal padlock. Underneath was all the mechanism and machinery for the water/heated ramp part of the initial design. But whether it had a square face above I cant recall, as I was too excited and scared....so maybe the wonder had 5 vertices, 8 edges and only 4 faces...(my cat could have told you...it used to follow me up to the shops and always hide under the pyry until I came out of the shops, then follow me back home...)

Looking at the 2 lovely pictures of our beloved pyramid I began musing on the mathematics of her radiance... (I hope I am right and would appreciate any corrections to mein mistakes) 1. The pyry was a square based pyramid. 2. Each face was an equilateral triangle, rather than an isocelese or scalene one. 3. Therefore each edge of the 3 triangular faces was the same length(unknown) and the 3 angles of each face was 60 degrees (the total being 180 degrees) 4. It had 5 vertices, 5 faces and 8 edges...

As aforementioned in 'the garages' post by the master,bonfires were very important on the estate. On November 5th there was always at least 4 bonfires on the estate made by kids:the posh bonfire up the top(master, where did they have theirs?), the normals bonfires in the middle part of the estate(There were always at least 2:along at the 'park' at the end ofHartburn Walk and down in the fields next to from Hazeley Way across the Hazeldene Avenue main road) and the bottom bonfire for the ruffians, vagabonds and scoundrels down the bottom part of the estate(maybe by the maypole?). Only the posh and the normals would bother to collect bonfire wood for bonfires-the peasant kids from the bottom would either a)steal your wood if left unguarded in the dead of night on the 4th of Nov or b) Just set the cornfields on the other side of Hazeldene Ave ablaze on the 5th to serve as their bonfire(where the western bypass is now) I used to also enjoy seeing the 5 or 6 bonfires at D...

Hazeldene Avenue was (and still is) the main access road to Kenton Bar Estate. When I lived there the streetlights on this road were of a different design to those lights around the estate. They also cast an orange light rather than the white light cast by the inner lights on the estate. Unfortunatly the orange road lights of Hazeldene Avenue had a design flaw...hooligans and ruffians(probably from Gunnerstone/Dunnykirk/Eland) discovered that if, during the lovely flip dark chill winters we used to have, you made a snowball and threw it at the orange plastic case of these lights and scored a direct hit the plastic case would immediately come off at one end, hanging open and leaving the bulb naked and vunerable to attack from a second snowball, which would smash the bulb rendering the light useless and off not on. Once these horrible scoundrels found this out they proceeded to smash all the orange lights on Hazeldene Avenue with snowballs plunging the road into utter darkness. How ...

At one time after I had left the estate I returned to visit mumsy and was shocked to find the outside of the house wall and windows (and loads of other house walls and windows) each covered with 30-40 tennis ball sized mud circles some with clumps of mud stuck to the wall. Mumsy explained there was a new craze in town: flinging mud balls with a piece of drainpipe. Ruffians (from the bottom of the estate of course)had invented a new 'game' and would pinch the bottom piece of drainpipe sticking out of the house walls(the diagonal downpipe from the downstairs kitchen sink) and would insert it into anyof the many grassed areas on the estate next to paths, twisting it and pressing it down, then pull it out like unt plunger with a 'mud ball' pulled out of the grass(leaving unseemly holes all over in the grass) With the drainpipe gun now primed and loaded it would be 'cast' in the style of a fishing rod over the shoulder causing the mud projectile to be hurled out ...

There were several places where teens would lurk on the estate. The ruffians, bounders and cads from the bottom would lurk in alleys like this one(in those days there may have been no lamp in the alley-if there was the ghastly hooligans would smash it to ensure all was dark-how shocking...) The normals from the middle lurked at what was called 'the wall' half way down Studdon Walk near the electric houses up from Laverock Place. Ruffians, bounders,cads, normals and the odd wayward posh would all congregate under the shops by the pyry. I dont know where the posh lurked up the top as I wasnt posh:maybe they didnt lurk, but sat indoors with mater and pater...at one point they buit a prefab on the field in front of kenton bar school. Here dreadful drunkard ruffian teen types from the bottom end would sit sheltered from the rain and drink cider...also these fell creatures of the night could be found lurking underneath the flats down from the ramp, where the shops they planned to...

Dear master, I beg you to cast your brilliant mind to more blog items on our beloved Kenton bar, your humble servant being unavailable in ancient Egypt researching pyramids. I have 3 new items to post on mien return: turkey carcasses on garage roofs, lurking unt draìnpipes. Please post this on blog dear master, Mensforth xxx Technorati Tags: Mensforth , message , Dear , items , Kenton , Egypt , mien , turkey , carcasses , master , blog