Kenton Bar Estate - A Blast from the Past

This for the benefit of our blind reader…….Mensforth. Click on the image for a larger view.

Factoid 1: When Kenton Bar Estate was built each and every house was wired with the latest in TV to the home technology. Each home was served with a Redifusion TV feed which meant that TV sets were connected directly to the wall outlet and the channels were changed by a rotary switch mounted on the wall. This meant that no one on the estate needed (or indeed was allowed) to mount an external aerial. This mean clean roof lines and an all round better look to the buildings. Factoid 2: All the cabling for this system and the telephone cables throughout the estate were made of aluminum, which seemed like a good idea at the time. However as aluminum ages it becomes brittle and this caused the TV and phone cables to be frequently broken or noisy. Nowadays the Redifusion system is no more and I suppose everyone has cellphones, iPhones, VOIP or whatever - Star Trek Communicators?

Dear Baited Hooks, [click on the image for a full sized preview] here she is courtesy of Mr. Jolyon Yates This is another aerial view of Kenton Bar Estate viewed from the South West – I would guess the plane or whatever was used to take the aerial shot was somewhere over Cowgate or Blakelaw. Points to note:- At the top of the estate, near to where the “viewing” area mentioned a few posts ago would be (it is not evident in this photo so maybe this was a later addition?) by my minion Monsieur. Mensforth we can clearly see the shape of the fabled map ( Sudarium of Oviedo ) Very few cars visible throughout the estate – this either dates the pictures to a time when the estate was sparsely populated OR in fact few people had cars – I go for the latter as the estate is clearly occupied – note the gardens and the children in the school playground Dr. Raj’s surgery can be seen peeping from behind the flats near the shopping centre There are 4 – yes 4!! of the pyramid concrete structure...

STOP PRESS!! - Dear Avid Readers, courtesy of Mr Jolyon Yates I have in my hand another picture of the beloved pyramid - another aerial shot and from a different angle. I will "up it" as soon as I can. IN the meantime you must wait with baited hooks.

Not sure if I mentioned this before but the estate offered a number of places to play games and have general fun:- Pyramid bank - slalom skateboarding Pyramid blue tiled area - freestyle skateboarding Ryal Walk -downhill racing on skateboard or bicycle Tarmac area below shops - football and tag Everywhere - hide and seek Everywhere - stunt cycling and speed cycle races The fields around the estate were great for hiding, having fires, cycling and general mayhem. The large school field, before it was turned into stalagluft IV, was used for football, kite flying, dog walking and golf Anyone think of any more?

Peter Yates once began a lecture by saying that a city should be 'for the convenience of its inhabitants and a surprise to its visitors' This was certainly true of our beloved Kenton Bar Estate...

Hello my friends! News from the front: I sent an email to our kind and noble friend at Ryder: 'Dear kind and noble friend, you know how RIBA had plans of the electric houses of Kenton Bar on display at the RIBA 'Reinvigorating the Region'exhibition?-I presume these came from Ryder-do you not have the plans of any of the other types of houses on Kenton Bar we can access? also, The T1a's(split level houses at the top of the estate on Hazeldene Ave) were subsequently modified when they were built on other streets on the estate(they lost the white triangle roof thing accessed via special stairs)My mam told me this was because 'the builders ran out of money and were taken over and another company finished building the estate' but I now presume this was nonsense, so I wonder why the design changed? Please please help us, Mensforth The reply was as follows: Dear Mensforth, We don't have any of the plans, these came from the RIBA Archives at RIBA headquarters at 66 ...

I now know for a FACT photos were taken of the demolition of our beloved pyramid... I now know for a FACT where these photos might be... Suffice to say Mensforth is on the case... Watch this space!

As I said, nothing is impossible...this pholosophy is a good maxim for life, but I digress: Here are some peripheral missions... a)The ark of the Covenant(photo/plans of hidden pump house under the pyry coverted by Shades) not yet unearthed... b)Sudarium of Oviedo(plans of the maps coverted by Mensforth)not yet unearthed... c)Tony Robinson and Time team to be contacted to excavate horrible landscaping which replaced beloved pyry to unearth Rosetta Stone(lumps of conrete with grey or blue 1" tiles attached)-reminants of our beloved pyry cruelly demolished/murdered by myopic fools... d)Identity of mystery man with glasses who Shades met all those years ago who gave him exclusive insights into intricacies of the pyry/design of estate not yet confirmed... e)Mensforth to access T1A before he dies to go up on the roof via the secret stairs... f)Identity of unknown kid to the right of Tony Adcock on the Kenton Bar Football Team 1974-75 to be confirmed... g)Reason why 'Dropsy'(Ian...

Nothing is impossible... I said I would go through the blog with a fine tooth comb and highlight outstanding/unfinished business...this I have done, so here we go: a)Northern Echo Durham edition Jan 1964 needs to be checked to see if the article on Kenton Bar is in that one as it was not in the Darlington edition...the Northern Echo themselves may be able to shed some light on this missing article mystery, so they need to be contacted. Shades also suggested contacting the author of the R&Y book, Rutter Carroll who might point us in the right direction... b)Plans of the electric houses have been upped to the blog from the RIBA exhibition...if there are plans of these then there must be plans of the other types of houses on the estate...I am investigating and will report soon... c)According to Shades the photographer Henk who took official photos for Ryder and Yates has 40,000 photos in his portfolio-shades suggest there may be a strong possibility that a photo of the pyry may be am...