Kenton Bar Estate - A Blast from the Past

Please call the anti-luddite squad and have him flayed.

Farewell Mien Friend

A kind and noble friend sent me this old photo of the south facing 'cylindrical shaped storage unit' I was wittering on about in the 'games to play at Kenton Bar School circa 1976' post...(Please read it for the details) Well that is me done oh my brothers and only friends in this cruel and wicked world... 'yes yes yes...there it was... youth must go, ah yes...' And westward on that final voyage I must now go... the baton has passed to a younger generation.... so off I itty never to be heard from again ... farewell... As for you my beloved Kenton Bar Estate... 'Ive never seen a wonder like you'... verily...truly...so be it... Amen... Mensforth

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My brothers, it is with the heavy hand on mein heart that I tell you that this post, post 224 of the blog will be my penultimate post , for now it is nearly time for Mensforth to stop... Why?... It seems to me that the blog has moved over to facebook, and people have not the desire nor inclination to contribute to the original blog here...it has become a lonely vigil watching tumbleweed blow past the rampards of Castle Kenton Bar...every day is like sunday...Do not think I am not bitter or twisted about this... I am pleased to see the number of friends of the blog on facebook to be nearly 50...long may it continue...but of that I am not part and like the Mencheviks am consigned to the dustbin of history...so it must end...I hope the new blog on facebook will flourish, but my contribution has finished, must wither and must die... I have one more post coming soon...and then for me mein friends ze vor is over! 'That is what it is going to be brothers, as I come to the like end of thi...

Now this mysterious chap, who lived in Byrness Close, first came to prominance when we realised he was Norman 'Newman' Lough's new mate...I have no idea what his real name was(the fox that is) as he definately did not go to Kenton Bar School nor Kenton comp...he used to follow Newman around all the time, like a shadow, and never spoke, just grinned...he looked like Humphrey Bogart in 'the treasure of the Sierra Madre( a wonderful film based on a wonderful book by B Traven-recommended reading ) As to why he was called'Charlie Fox wears dirty socks' I am not sure...maybe he was really called Charlie Fox...maybe he wore dirty socks...I dont know, but what I do know is Mensforth deems him worthy of the 'Lesser Mortal award!... Arise Sir Fox(wears dirty socks!)... Anyone remember him or can give more details about this creature?

Mein goot friends... I remember back in those days of long ago in 1980 the tyneside metro opened...and did it go to Kenton Bar?...NO! and did the residents of Kenton Bar have to pay for it?...YES! I remember being most aggrieved at this fact, and more, having to trail down to bloody Kenton Bankfoot(initially the metro terminated there-now it has been extended to Newcastle Airport), Kingston Park or North Fawdon to get on it..nevertheless for some reason which I cannot explain we did use it for a while, rather than the mental 10(See post '8,9 and the mental 10'...) Ruffians and bounders from down the bottom and Kenton used to behave most dreadfully on the journey home,for example using the standing hanging hand rails to turn summersaults betwixt them in the aisle... I meinself, being a sensible cub scout type, hoping to get his trainspotting badge, was to busy trainspotting in the very front seats, writing down the numbers of passing metros and the time of their passing in mein ...

At Kenton Bar School lads used to play 4 games: a)Football b)Pile on(jump on a unsuspecting poor sod and force him to the ground shouting "Pile on!...Pile on!"...this would bring a mongol horde of other idiots running who would then jump on top of the fool who had jumped on the poor unsuspecting sod who would 'pile on' them both shouting 'Pile on!...Pile !"(Or was it 'pile on ch-cha-cha?...')This formed a 'pile' of bodies though alive... The object of this 'game' was to crush the poor sod at the botttom of the pile... c)Have a 'barny'...now this 'game'appealed to ruffians and bounders from down the bottom like Pea Mullen(See post'Lesser mortals 6 'Pea') a 'barny' was a fight usually handbags at 40 paces...as soon as it started everyone crowded round shouting''Barny!...Barny!' until it was broken up by teckas... Now sometimes proper naughty nadsats like Pea would attempt to start up a bar...

I said: '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...' I now know for a FACT that a calamity has befallen... Once upon a time a kind and noble man took some photos of the demolition of the pyry... but some swine lit a fire where they were stored which burned the photos and worse, other photos from those days of long ago of our beloved estate... no-one lived happily ever after...but in the dying embers there was a light...a sliver of hope...noble Mensforth saw this and the light of hope still burns...

Shall I ?...should Mensforth go to: RIBA Archives at RIBA headquarters at 66 Portland Place, London.... Shall we sort this out once and for all...? Shall we solve all missions impossible if possible?... Its a long way down...

Well well well... look what I found... graffiti from 30 years ago... Anyone know what this says?(a rather pathetic attempt has been made to paint over it...) Anyone know what this means? Anyone know why this is a very significant piece of flotsam?...

I was on a flight overnight from UK to Hong Kong where I now live and happened to watch “Get Carter” the hit 70’s movie. There was a scene with a club singer and the credits said her name was “Denea Wilde”……well she happened to live opposite me on Kenton Bar for some years with a lady called Kim who was an exotic dancer and VERY VERY pretty (not sure if they were related or not.) More as I recollect…………Kim had a son called Simon who I was mates with for a while even though he was younger than me and I used to go and buy tabs and stuff , messages, for Denea at the offy……and get a 10 pence tip into the bargain! She was a larger than life character and made the estate what it was/is – a great place to live. She walked with the aid of a walking stick and was renowned fro her liberal use of the FUCK word – no matter who she was talking to or where she was. Everyone knew her simply as “Dene” and not as Denea though. Maybe this was her stage name. Technorati Tags: denea wilde , get carter ,...

Went back to Kenton Bar today to check the 'ha-ha' fence(see post and new comment)...took these photos of these rectangular things on the north wall which still stands opposite the shops...seem to recall they were blue like lights for aesthetic purpose on a dark night...am I right?

Mein goot friends... I remember back in those days of glorious youth I used to walk every day across the fields up by the step pyramid on Hartburn Walk round the back of Madge's flats up by the hedge path to Kenton Comprehensive...back and forth went I, and those fields were often waterlogged...I recall a time when both my shoes had holes in them on the outsole and this meant that if I walked across the field the water seeped into them, a most unpleasant sensation that had to be endured all day at school... So why did you not get your parents to buy you new ones I hear you ask?...Shall I tell you why?...because I was not from the top end of the estate and was not posh and such extravagance could not be entertained...'make do and mend' was the stern finger wagging repost from my M&P...(mater and pater-mam and dad)...what was your humble narrator to do?... Suddenly it came to me:cut off some hoof heels from an old pair of shoes and glue them on the outsole of the holed...

In the previous post to this I asked Sherrif Shades to explain what a ha-ha fence is, as it was he who first used the term to describe the wooden fence that used to border the school to the north and east...Here is a more detailed explanation to go with the diagram above diagram: 'The Ha-ha is an expression in garden design that refers to a trench, the one side of which is vertical and faced with stone, the other face sloped and turfed, making the trench, in effect, a sunken fence or retaining wall. The ha-ha is designed not to interrupt the view from a garden, pleasure-ground, or park, while maintaining a physical barrier at least in one direction.' As I just said, the Kenton Bar School one was wooden not stone...the purpose of it as a barrier in this case was obvious:(to stop the kids from escaping and keep dogs out) As for the view?...from Hartburn Walk bungalows adjoining the school the lovely spacious Kenton Comprehensive School fields and plateau were visible due to this ...

Goot evening tumbleweed town... Do you know... When we used to play football at Kenton Bar Primary School(which we did every playtime and dinnertime) we never used to play on the actual pitch, but rather on the grass bit to the left side of the yard, that is to say the bit which ran north south bordered by the ha ha ditch on Hartburn(what the hell does that mean Shades...'ha ha ditch?)to the north,the fence to the east leading to the flats where Madge the wonderfull Sherry drinker lived, leading to the open bit south to the plateau('right lads, up and down the plateau...'(Mr Lawrence) Why was this I wonder?...in those glorious distant days of halcyon youth there was no fence blocking off the pitch nor indeed access to the whole Kenton School field...so why did we play on that bit of unlevelled ground and not on the actual school football pitch?...I recall not...but I would like to(know)...

I dont know if Ive mentioned this before but somewhere on the face of this godforsaken earth there exists a painting of the 8th wonder of the world painted from the bottom of the ramp looking west up toward the Pyry...it won a competition I seem to recall...I was only a kid at the time, but can remember it was painted by Jocie Burke(Suzanne and Russell Burkes' mam-they lived in Reestones Place) This needs to join the list of 'mission impossibles'-someone to try to find Suzanne or Russell and see if they've got it!-maybe we could get a photo of it and up it on the blog?(Friends Reuinted?...facebook?...)

Well?...are you?...is there?...seems only noble mensforth is manning the fort this bank holiday weekend...no master...no comments...no nothing... only tumbleweed...sigh...)(mensforth resumes his lonely vigil on sentry duty on the parapet wall walk of Kenton Bar Estate 'A blast from the Past'...)

Pea has been discussed in the 'Kenton Bar Football Team 1974-75 post, and you can find his photo there... having ruminated upon him I deem him worthy of the accolade of 'Lesser Mortal 6'...arise Sir Pea! Pea used to come up to you at playtime and adopt a most aggressive stance(head slightly cocked to one side, feet planted firmly apart, fists clenched to the side staring right into your eyes and say(in a menacing half tongued geordie tone)'Sultan?...Sultan?... Now what he meant by this was'Are you insulting me?...Are you insulting me? He would wait a few seconds then suddenly shout 'KEEEEEEEEMON!!!!!(Meaning 'COME ON!) and lean forward so his torso was horizontal and attack you with his flaying whirling fists...Pea never tired of this 'sport', but we did... Why he was called'Pea' I dont know...was he addicted to eating peas?...did he have a bladder problem?...did he know all his alphabet except the letter'p'when singing the alphabet s...

Ironsy lived up the top posh end and looked like a cross between Boris Karloff and Jean Jacques Burnel, (the bassist from 'the stranglers')...more, he possessed a set of keyboards which at that time no one else on the estate did to my knowledge...more, he could play'golden brown' by the stranglers perfectly...now one time we(me and a group of 20+ nadsats) for some reason went to his house to listen to him play 'golden brown'...this horde was not allowed in his house, so we all stood outside(he lived in an electric type house and the keyboards were set up by the window in the front room)... he opened the windows and curtains so we could see and hear him and began playing the song perfectly...swaying slightly he became as if mesmerized and possessed by the hypnotic rhythm and played on and on and on...after listening to this and watching him swaying hypnotized like for an age eventually we slowly withdrew, tip toeing away away backwards and out out out into the ...

Now this guy WAS a character. A visionary - greener than green before it became trendy. Bollocks to all this modern day recycling - Seppy was there 20 years before these tree hugging liberal hippy fuckers even thought of recycling their old Daily Telepgraphs. He used to pull a handcart, yes a fucking handcart, in between the yokes like an oxen, around Kenton Bar Estate collecting old clothing, old appliances - basically anything that people wanted to get rid of. He used to blow a teachers whistle to make people take notice he was in the area. Kids would rush out with bags of old clothing that parents had saved up and give it to Seppy in return for something......... I guess his real name must have been Septimus - what a great name eh? Factoids about Seppy: No matter how much stuff you gave him the reward was either 5p or a balloon - usually a balloon. I personally NEVER got a 5p and always got a balloon. To get more than 5p you had to donate at least one live family member My Mam sai...

One more for the list: Seppy - the rag & bone man. I will tell more later of this character.

Coming soon...7:00pm tonight to be precise...will it be YOW?!!! (Mensforthinblack)

Ahhh, Kenton Bar!...Ahhh the flat roofs!...wonderful things!... (play the song and read on...) useful for: a)Sunbathing on(no wasps or bees to bother you) b)Plodging in pools on(the garage ones when the drains were blocked) c)Making snowmen on/hurling snowballs from(crisp clean virgin snow(no dog urine to fear getting on rookers(hands) d) Watching Concord land at Newcastle Airport for the first time ever(in the 80's?)-hundreds of people up on the roofs that day... e)Secretly sneaking into your mates room in the T1's... g)Playing duffs on(garage leap) h) Escaping the wrath of your mother (by leaping from the binshed wall to bungalow one in my case... i) Never getting caught in fox and hounds(though this was a dirty illegal tactic and there was the danger of being spotted doing this via Ryal Walk-woa betide you if you did this, as you would be hunted down by the angry furious foxes and beaten to a pulp and deservidly so-no roofs and no going across Hazeldene Ave Road nor onto Ken...