Kenton Bar Estate - A Blast from the Past

when one went up to kenton comp from kenton bar school one had to buy a reversible rugby type top, which could either be 2 black hoops and a white hoop inbetween, or, if you turned it round, one black hoop I believe...this was so you could quickly have 2 teams, say for a game of football...however, by the time one was in say year 4, age 15/16 these tops barely fitted...what did the peasants from the bottom of the estate do, buy new ones? NO!!! they just cut the arms off and wore then as sleeveless tee-shirts, coming down to their belly buttons ...they looked menacing...I remember they became quite a fashion statement then, during the punk era and the ruffians from down the bottom would wear them outside of school even when they were 18/19/20. lurking about in big gangs at the shops...how frightening...I myself always had a new top every year, raising the money by doing 'bob a job' type things which I learned in the cubs(god bless you Badon Powell...)

Apart from the kenton bar green bridge there was also the 'kenton school green bridge' which connected the lower school with the main school site... it was green and was made of some stuff they made boats of in the DT department at the time-fibre glass?...anyway, I remember horrid rough types, probably from the bottom end of kenton bar or maybe rough kenton smashed a hole in the bridge which gave them access to the inner door on the south side of the bridge(there was a slope at that end outside, so you could touch the outer bridge wall at that point)These bounders were then able to reach through the hole with their horrible rookers(hands)... The ghastly hooligans would spend every 'playtime' waiting AKA a spider waiting for a fly for some poor sod(s) to come rushing across the bridge from the main block to the lower school, to get to the tuck shop before the massive queue... The hunter hooligan would see their silhouettes through the translucent green fibre glass, and a...

  I received the following information courtesy of “The Bosnian” with regards the alleged Oak tree. “Dear El Patron that oaf Mensforth purports to be a man of learning – piffle!. The tree photographed by him on Kenton bar estate has now been identified positively from the scanned leaf specimen posted by Mensforth. The tree is almost certainly a Sycamore. We can be 100% sure once the oaf Mensforth has taken the time to gather a seed sample. The seeds should be about ready to fall now as it is autumn in the northern hemisphere. I read briefly in one of my arboreal jazz-mags and would like to impart the following information on the noble Acer pseudoplatanus :-   A tree of contradictory perceptions; once loved as a shade tree it now bears the scorn of some countryside organisations that see it as a 'weed' which needs to be removed. What other names does it have? Can also be known as Great maple Plane (Scotland) Generic name Sycamore Latin name Ace...

Bosnian, you asked me to get a leaf from the 'oak tree' at Eland Close and scan it...this I have done(at dawn this very morning!)...so now do your work and clarify whether the tree is an oak or not!

shades-as a matter of interest, can you shed light on the origin of the first photo of she, the eighth wonder of the world, the pyramid:who took the photo...when...?

It is with the heavy hand on my heart that I recall another ghastly deed the ruffians, bounders and cads from down the bottom used to do during the glorious snowy winters we used to have back then, with crisp crunchy proper snow...At that time in those days on that winter notchyI was examining snow prints up on the little hill along from the step pyramid byHartburn Walk bungalows for an 'animal tracking' badge from the cub scouts(by the way I was in 9th Gosforth Cubs, based behind the Duke Of Wellington Pub...there was no cubscout pack on Kenton Bar Estate, so now do you believe me...? )Anyway, this dark snowly evening I had already spotted tracks of humans, a seagull and a dog but I digress...I suddenly noticed 2 ruffian types from down the bottom rolling 2 massive snowballs on the top of the hill...I hid behind the step pyramid and adopted the pose of a section of step pyramid, one arm vertical and one leg horizontal so they would not notice me(I had learned SAS type camouf...

Well I went back... I took 2 photos, one of the oak? tree atEland, and one of the tallest tree on the estate which I now know is undoubtably the one in the photo in the 'tallest tree on the estate?' post, and it is this tree at the back of the studdon walk flats, in the 'normal' part of the estate...I am no horticulturalist, so I dont know what type of tree it is...anyone confirm? Note the external binsheds for the cube flats visible in the photo of the Eland oak tree with the wooden door...I dont recall there being a door on them as is the case here...the only external binsheds with doors I recall were the one's for the shop flats unfinished below the beautiful pyramid...they were white slat doors maybe to keep the bins cool and reduce decomposition of rubbish...

My good friends, The blog received an email... It reads as follows: I have had info back from the author of the Ryder and Yates book, Rutter Carroll. We are not sure if Gorden Ryder and Peter Yates designed the pyramid(their both dead now) but they did design the estate. Rutter says that the pyramid was a water sculpture built at the central area of the Kenton development,adjacent to the shops. Apparently the water was disconected after complaints of noise from residents and he understands the sculpture was demolished sometime after. Rutter doesn't have any images of it. There are other photos of the Kenton estate in the R&Y book and the estate will also feature in the RIBA exhibition of post war architecture in the north east, next month in Sstephenson Quarter in Newcastle' So now we know for certain who designed the estate, but alas these noble creatures have died, and we are not sure if they designed the 8th wonder of the world... We have a suggestion of ' complai...

Brothers, It was with a trembling hand and a beating heart I went to St Cuthbert's Green in response to noble Saelaenx's post comment (see'A sliver of hope') and walked round the corner to viddy...the weirdest thing I ever saw! a microcosm of much of kenton bar estate built round a triangular green! Alas, there was no pyramid, but there was bungalows complete with the unique binsheds(see post 'bungalow binsheds'), electric type houses AKA Reestones place,electric houses AKA those betwixt Byrness Close split levels and Ryal Walk(think they are still Ryal Walk) and an odd hybrid of the split level and housing on posh leeches estate(alas, no photo upped as the natives didnt seem to friendly by the time I took photo 3...)...the one weird, totally weird thing was the roofs on the houses! it looked so odd, and I can see why Saelaenix described this as 'vandalism' in his comment...Do you think then the roofs were added later on and initially the houses were id...

Master, there is hope, a new dawn, a chink of light... Saelaenx has posted a comment in reply to the'Kenton Bar Architect' post. Here it is: 'I believe the architects were Ryder and Yates. I think the practice still exists, as 'Ryders'. They are based near Manors Metro station.' There is a book'Ryder and Yates' published by Rutter Carroll which apparently is 'Excellent and well illustrated ' available for £15.49...we might strike gold... More, I will endevour to investigate this link post haste...a thousand thanks to Saelaenx...

well well well... I said it was the end, but apparently not, due to: 1. comments from our readers which have machinated mein machievellian mind...and also that: 2. the master did post 100 and spoilt the plan... NB:I will not be spending all my life doing the master's bidding for the blog...as the master himself suggests, I needed to calm down, as it was taking over my life... (thank you wise master. ..) however anyone who follows this blog, we would appreciate it if you do comment on posts, or even click a reaction as we need to know if there is a demand for MORE...! We aim to please and bring back fond memories of slim youth and more importantly find the holy grail: the elusive 4th photo of she herself, our beloved pyramid... anyway, here is a post in reply to a comment by 'anonymous' on 'choppers...' ahhhh, the 1/2 pence coin! I remember it well!...how bloody stupid! bet only us, the stupid english came up with this idiocity when we decimalised in 1971...decima...