Stuff from El Patron's first blog

Master, I hope thou mindeth not but I hath posteth up comments from thine first blog re she, our beloved pyramid...verily these words of wisdom are worthy of this, the true blog ...


Shades said:

I can remember it being switched on- for about four months. It never worked properly and had to be considerably overfilled to get a wall of water fountain effect that only lasted a few days before evaporation made the waterfall go all straggly. We moved there in late 1968 and away in early '71, it must have been the Summer of 1969.

Marie Anderson(was Lorraine)
said...

I remember it well, my family was the first onto kenton bar est. I dont ever remember seeing the water work but I do remember the big stones at the bottom, a friend fell into them and cut all his feet, that is going back some years, I was 4 when we moved in and now 46,they were the good days when everyone used to hang around there

Anonymous said...

Been looking for a site like this! I lived on kenton bar estate for the first 24 years of my life. I remember the fun us kids had with the pyramid, drawing tar ladders on it so we cud climb up it. My friend climbed it right to the top one day and then fell off it (not gud!) tho she survived to tell the tale. My mam moved onto the estate wen it was new. She said that the water fall was workin then and that the estate was initially ment for pilots(from the airport) and well off people but then they brought in 'us' and apparently people smashed glass bottles onto the blue bit, so they turned the whole thing into a pyramid...I remember all the flat roofs well and always said the only 'point' in kenton bar is the pyramid literally!! us kids really were the children of the sun, like in the cities of gold! (cartoon) Those were the daze.. Got a gr8t photo of the pyramid but dont know how to put it on here.

G.O.M(aside): then there is an 11th photo of the pyramid to be unearthed...also I wonder if there is any truth in the 'estate was initially ment for pilots' bit?...tally ho! bandits at 12 O'clock chaps!

Anonymous said... Used to write my name all over it, Then we used to pinch some treacle from the V.G and pour it down the pyramid then you could walk all over it. We use to go under it to, spooookkkkyyyy

G.O.M(aside):the comment about using treacle is nonsense...that would just have made the sides slippy...only the solid roof tar worked...

mensforth said:
With regards anonymous's comment: 'people smashed glass bottles on the blue bit so they turned it into a pyramid' NO!!! It was always a pyramid + blue bit+ concrete lake part below the blue bit. Yes indeed, they stopped the water due to hooligans smashing glass on the blue bit/concrete lake bit as kids liked to paddle on the two bits, and yes, they smashed glass spoilt all that...but there were always 3 parts:pyry/blue bit/concrete lake bit. Now I remember all, the water flowing from under the pyry, across the blue marble bit and down into the concrete lakes(there were seemingly 2, but it was just 1 as it went under the ramp)I also recal tiny fish in there after a few years...as far as stealing treacle from the VG I recall the name of the old bloke who for years ran the VG, Mr Grey! ...I remember someone put washing up liquid/bubble bath in the concrete bit so as all the water cascaded down off the blue bit into the rectangular concrete lake it made a massive white frothy...well, bubble bath!!! Wish there was a photo of that!...
G.O.M(aside):How did the tiddler tiny fish get in the water?...good god!...I've just had a flashback of goldfish in there too!...am I right or is this just nonsensical wishful embellishment?...now I'm seeing tadpoles!...

Menforth on Duffs:
you could also do the duff in the opposite direction, running hell for leather across the blue bit to reach the required take off velocity, leaping over the ramp or stairs and hoping to god to be able to get a finger hold on the top of the high concrete wall on the other side, then haul oneself up and then stand on the thin concrete ledge triumphantly like a greek adonis...this was easier to do than the other way round(ledge to blue bit) Incidently there was a dangerous metal thing sticking up across this part of the blue bit which made the duff more precarious-it is visible on photo 2 of this blog-the one with the kid climing up the pyry :)

Mark said...

Hi anonymous and all, I live on the estate during the 70s and 80s, remember the pyramid trickling water over the edge, remember climbing up it and scaring the life out of myself more than once, remember hanging of the edge and dropping into the pool below, but don't really remember the glass, maybe cos it was hidden by the bricks. I lived in carlsdale road back in the 60s and remember exploring the buildings when they were still shells and we used to jump out of the second floor of the square blocks of flats on to the piles of sand, I'm amazed i didn't break my neck. A lot of my family still live there.
Not so anonymous
Mark

Anonymous:
On the subject of the stone boulders:
We used to amuse ourselves by rolling the big buggers miles away, and I remember spending all night rolling one all the way down to Kingston Park via the path next to Hillsview school(now demolished). I wonder how many there were and were they all ended up?I remember about 6-8. I also remember delighting in rolling one to a new place in the location of the pyry in the lovely snowy winters we used to have and then make it into a snowman in the hope some dumb idiot would come and be tempted to kick it down and so hopefully break their foot! ha ha!

G.O.M(aside):How shocking and dreadful :(