Kenton Bar Estate - A Blast from the Past

WHOOOOOOOOH!... WHOOOOOOOOH!... enough of that... hello mortals...Ghost of Mensforth here, endlessly patrolling the rampards of Castle Kenton Bar, maintaining his lonely vigil... Now on this night of halloween I have been giving thought to those days of long ago when we celebrated halloween, not this horrible usurper from the USA, trick or treat...in those days it just involved: a)making a lantern out of a pumpkin( or was it a turnip as there were no pumpkins?... ) complete with a lit candle in the middle of the face ...then you could knock on a door and say: the sky is blue, the grass is green, have you got a penny for halloween? if you got a penny then that was fantastic:a trip to the cinema for 2, fish and chip supper and still have change for 20 woodbines... the only thing to watch out for was horrible ruffians and bounders from down the bottom end who came out zombie like on this night with the soul purpose of blowing out the candle in the turnip/pumpkin and spoiling the fun...

Look what the poor sod had to endure... As for 'march of the mods' I cant believe this insipid piece of pure dung has owt to do with mods... bloody aweful...cudnt find no footage of dancing for this one, but the tune conjours up the most horrific of dancing nightmares...poor Shades... I now realise we got away lightly with 'the Gay Gordon'...

I have already alluded to 'the mental 10' and the antics of shameful ruffians in the post'8,9 and the mental 10' Sept 2009, but I remember another dreadful incident which still gives me nightmares to this day...if you recall the winter was the 'worst' for many years-but to the kids its was wonderful: snow, snow and more snow! Now I( Mr Kipling type voice here ) of course, being a cubscout( I've already told you bout that )seized the opportunity to go animal tracking for badgers, foxes and other creatures or build harmless snowmen complete with a carrot for a nose, coals for buttons and a nice big smiley face topped off with an old hat and scarf and pipe donated by pa-pa...( stop Mr Kipling type voice now )however ruffians and bounders from down the bottom relished the opportunity to do the bad things with the snow, which I cant bare to mention here as it upsets me too much...suffice to say you can find out about them if you read other posts on the blog...an...

Another great game we used to play was 'arrows'...all you needed was some chalk or a soft stone...you(or your team)were given a certain amount of time 'off'...(maybe 5 minutes...) Anyway to get to the bloody point you nashed off drawing arrows every so often, so that the catchers could hunt you down...arrows could be drawn on the path or up walls, on garage roofs, up the pyry etc as long as you climbed up on them(your arrow mark proved this) and the hunter(s) had to follow and catch you within a certain time timit to win...otherwise you won!...a great game, perfectly suited to the architecture of the wonderfully designed estate!-could be played 1v1 or 10 v 10...the rain washed the chalk arrows away... anyone remember this?...I wanna play NOW!!!

As I think more - I recollect more. Dippy Dave AKA Italian Stallion is coming soon.........

I found it! YEEEEEEEEEEESS!!!! It took me 2 days and 4 hours but I found the article! Let me tell you oh mein brothers I was in seventh heaven and full of the joys of, punching the air in triumph when this came up after hours of tireless research... It was in the Evening Chronicle Friday 28th August 1971 edition... Now we hope to be able to get a better scan, but for now this will have to do...make do and mend! I cut the article into 3 bits. the top bit explains Josie's motivation for the painting, but I obviously disagree with her sentiments..(hope you can read the text by clicking on it).interestingly at first I thought the photo showed Ryal Walk but it cannot be, as they did not face east...could it be Fawlee Green or Beal Green?...and...could that be... a concrete map of the estate behind the car?...oh my God!...a double find!?...butI dont recall no map at Fawlee or Beal?...the middle picture shows a radiant looking Josie aged 29...thank you so much for painting this wonderful ...

I remember at Kenton Comp in the 70's at xmas in the 1st & 2nd year in PE we joined up with the girls (PE was taught seperately) to do...The Gay Gordon Dance... Now I hated this, me a) not being a good dancer and b) being an ugly chap(zits,blackheads,stys and warts)...why? because the teckas ordered us (boys sitting on one side of the girls gym) to go across (to the other side where the girls were sitting) and ask them(girls) to be your partner... they never made them come and ask us! -apparently according to Mr Morton this was 'traditional'...Needless to say the girls usually refused when you asked them(will you danth with me?...URRGH! No way! or accepted with abject horror(as they were the last one's picked and like you had no choice) resulting in total humiliation for us poor ugly types who had had to ask them to dance, forced by brutal teckas. only too keen to belt you if you wouldnt play... how I hated having to do this horrible bloody dance...the torture la...

Here Is a photo I took many moons back looking west...Here is 'the plateau' which Lawrence and Bell made us run up and down for hours on end......wonder what the angle of the slope was?...about 33 degrees?...note the new metal fence...I dont know if the plateau is still there after the new build... If it is and anyone one confirms this it will unlock a key to a true story...a tale about a notable alumni (from the post August 2009)...and a humorous incident that occurred on Sports Day at Kenton Comp on the plateau...!

I found this article 'Mix Up Estate stuck in the Mud'...Evening Chronicle 1971''' it seems to refer to the field shown in the photo from the Kenton Bar facebook blog, from the silver jubilee party which indeed must have been grassed over as the residents requested in the 1971 article by 1977 go here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=445249619553&set=t.110184428999295 ...I wish I had been there to see the fool mentioned in the article floundering about and falling over in the mud...3 days off for a hurt neck...PAH! Aside:recognise the woman at the back in the football photo, the 'manager'?... clue: Oy Oy.!...sweet please!...sweet please! Kenton Bar Pyramid Appreciation Society

I have already alluded to the game of 'Garages' in a previous post(August 2009) that we all used to play down Studdon Walk/Laverock...However I remember one time in those days of long ago (1978) they released a brilliant film called'Zoltan Hound of Dracula' which was about a vampire dog called Zoltan... Anyway, to get to the point, Zoltan's master (the ressurected vampire inkeeper, revived when the hound Zoltan pulls the stake from his heart with its paws) kept saying"Soon Zoltan, soon" in a like creepy eastern european type Dracula voice everytime the hound whined- (It wanted blood you see... ) Now we liked this phrase ( Soon Zoltan, soon ) and adopted it especially after we went round to the garages to play 'garages' and found the like fur skin possibly of a squashed cat on the drain beside one of the garages-which we immediatly declared to be that of Zoltan Hound of Dracula! So we kept saying this stupid bloody phrase( Soon Zoltan, soon ) for m...

Now then you terrible fraud. I hereby ORDER YOU to go and search the archives of the Chronicle (Newcastle Evening Chronicle And Journal to give the full title) and find – yes FIND a painting of The Pyramid that I know exists. It was painted by a local artist called Josie Burke who lived in Reestones Close in the 70’s and 80’s. It was entered into and came in god knows what position in some kind of art competition. Do not come home, do NOT pass go and do not collect 200 pounds until you have found it. Now get going you giant lummox

Hello avid fans of the blog... I have already alluded to Duwana Woods elsewhere on the blog(god knows where...) I recently had to take a taxi that passed round that way and the taxi driver reckoned there is a 'Duwana Hall' in those woods which is why they are called 'Duwana Woods'...however I was not convinced...but what I do recall is that these woods were down from Kingston Park Estate, and the ultra ultra posh types who attended KBP School(eg 'Dropsy') ) and lived on the newly built ultra posh Kingston Park Estate in those days used to spend their spare posh time in the said woods playing ' man eating monkeys '... only those posh types can unlock more details of this game via the comments, though I know all details... As to 'The Red Hills' these lay due north of KB Estate and were clearly visible and intriguing to the eye, especially from the plateau....now they are gone :(

I did promise to up a photo of these flats in the post' Slide at Reestones Place' and here it is... I took it at the crack of dawn, Ghost of Mensforth tirelessly carrying out the behest of the master whilst lesser mortals slept soundly...As noble Shades said, the initial plan was to have more shops underneath, but this never happened...this was a great place for duffs, tuggy on high or football when it rained...but now alas, the youth of today can no longer access underneath due to the red metal fence...why I wonder was this erected?...and what are those weird circle things on the walls?...sky tv dishes? Note the 3 rectangular down lights still in place...wonder if they still work?... The view is horribly spoilt by ghastly greenery but back in those glorious days of long ago, all was lovely grey tarmac...sigh & sob sob...

At the masters behest I translated these geordie comments as ordered: Kenton Bar Ryal walk winter scene: Hear man yu litl daftys a fort yees sed awnly poshees livd it thu top? thu wonz in thu foto wiv oot thu fensis cannit uh been be posh can thu?idi its... Excuse me you little fools but I thought you said only posh types lived at the top(of the estate)...the houses in the photo without the fences cannot have been posh can they, you idiots... Camping out on Kenton Bar hear man mensy, yu little dafty...I rememba wons aboot 100 of us camt oot doon from the plato...wu wo deeing back creep doon the back of ryle walk in the middl of the neet ind sumwon must uh foned the polis...the polis drov doon the paf from the cotajes up the top ind doon ontu the feeld and chased wu...wu wo runin al awa the plays man...thu chast wu al the way doon tu the skool ind wu jumt awa the wall ind ran of yem...it was pyua belta! ha ha ha! Excuse me Menforth(ghost of) you little fool I remember once about 1...

The master(El Patron) has ordered me to translate several comments on the blog written in geordie after complaints from avid fans in Hong Kong and the rest of the world who cant make head nor tale of these comments.. (aside:apparently a fellow from London said to the master that geordies speak/sound like they have 1/2 tongues...) anyway, orders are orders and I will do the masters bidding...

I remember one horrible notchy in those days of long ago...It was a flip dark winter notchy(night) though dry...I was doing a 'bob a job' task for the 9th Gosforth Cub Scouts...that is to say I was washing a dear old gentleman's car at Hartburn garages down from the beautiful step pyramid in the early darkmans(evening) for 10p when commotion and all hell broke loose...loads of kids running past me up to the field by the step pyramid shouting 'Fire!'...Fire!' ..I stopped washing the dear old gentleman's car and went up to the beautiful step pyramid to see what it was all about...to mein horror I saw that the lower school at Kenton was on fire!...tears streamed down mein eyes at this shocking and horrible sight, and I had to support mein shaking torso at the dreadful sight on the said beautiful step pyramid going 'boo hoo hoo' crying mein glazzies out......through tear streamed glazzies(eyes) I could see the flamey fire hungrily licking the old lower...