Wyken Slough

There is a few photos on this link link too. Also surrounding areas.

Primrose, does she remember the first world war tank, just through the Navigation Bridge? Back to the slough, and I'm thanking all you people for taking me back to my roots. Now bombs and the slough. If you turn back to P 27 look at the last map the little dot above Greyhound, draw a line from there to Lentons Lane T junction. This was the target, the first bomb 'demolished' the second house in A-Green Road, what, 20 yards or so from the junction. Two more straddled the canal, the fourth smack bang on the canal embankment and lock, the water gushed out as far back as Tusses Bridge, the water carrying all the rubbish before it down to the slough, killing all the sick fish etc. Now is this a child's imagination about the pollution. Welcome comments please. Sometime there were two boats on the canal, gave rides to pensioners, believe they were called Pearl Hyde boats.

I remember the tank, it stood on a large concrete slab just a yard or so from the footpath on common land next to the canal. The Slough was/is very shallow. At some time a weir or small dam was constructed a short distance downstream from the footbridge, it must still be there. Even so I suppose the average depth is less than 24 inches. Toward the boathouse end of the pool the bottom is covered with a nasty black slimy substance, could this be a legacy of the influx of debris that Kaga mentions? The other end of the pool has a far more pleasant bottom as the image on this thread of children paddling shows. I fished the pool infrequently from about the age of eight up to my mid twenties but never caught any fish worth mentioning. As I recall the pool was populated largely by stunted silver fish mostly roach infected with black spot. Why should it be named Wyken Slough when Wyken is some distance away? Would Aldermans Slough be more appropriate? My grandmother, born around 1870 used to sing a little ditty. It started with.... Higham on the Hill, Stoke in the dale, Wyken for butter milk, Hinckley for ale. I am unable to recall any more.

Started something now kaga, hope you have fun dad

yes mark having fun

I was also intrigued as to why it was called Wyken Slough as I'd always thought of Wyken to be further south. Having looked at old maps online it is clear that Wyken is or was a much larger district encompassing the area around Alderman's Green, Wood End and Henley Rd and much more. Old maps don't delineate actual boundaries so there is scope for some confusion. There was a Wyken Colliery/Pit, Wyken brickworks and Wyken Pottery very nearby. There is also an arm of the cut possibly originally to serve the colliery called the Wyken arm. The older maps refer to the Slough as Wyken Pool. I used to accompany my pal fishing during the late 50s/early 60s and the Slough was pretty clean. There were gudgeon, bream, perch, roach and pike. I remember the area to the east of the pool was barren with sulphurous smoke coming out of the ground and large areas of grey ash. We called it the burning path.

I believe the house mentioned in A.G Rd adjacent to the junction of Lentons Lane was actually between the houses now numbered 456/458 and 464. On moving into the property in 1984 I decided to cultivate the garden. Back from the Rd were foundations for what been a house that had been bombed. The only remaining part been the shell of an outhouse. I gave up the thought of cultivation, instead built a rockery. On unearthing a well at the rear of 456 I found where the hardcore from the house was dumped. Down the well! Being much younger then I decided to remove this debris with means of a ladder and a bucket. More for the rockery. It has left us with a supply of water which we use for the garden and also as a drain off for the roof rainwater.

Bang on Tekmelf, there was a huge house on corner, covered in ivy, small path down side to house sideways on to AGR, the house that was demolished. At that time I had relatives in both houses, a gateway in to the field just behind you then the little school I attended from 32-35, the small brook in Lentons Lane meandered down to the Slough. I have no idea when water mains began, but in 32 we still had a little black hand pump on the side of our house, fed from a well, we also had a chimney sweeps shed on the other side of the road that was still being used, then fields over to Grange Road. If you look at the photo kindly put on by Morgana, of Trusses Bridge, you can imagine the first cars using it, plus no warning signs, no white lines, nothing, we kids used it every day to go to school. The bottom right corner not quite in the picture was the entrance to the farm, the bottom left, big stables for boats horses. Damn, how can I remember this and not know what I had for dinner yesterday, or where my glasses have disappeared. Only knew one person in Hall Green Road, Eddie Branson, Foxford teacher, halfway along.

Whilst digging out ground on side of 458, possibly the house that you lived in, I found another well, but it was me this time that filled it in, Could this have been the source of the water for your hand pump?Incidentally we still have Simpsons living in "The Lane". On the corner of the lane was the local shop, no more, then a house and then the two aforementioned cottages with the gap leading to the bombed house. nobby

If you know where to look, there are still signs of the mineral railway but mainly at Sutton Stop. Do you remember the old wooden bridge across the canal at SS? This was (conveniently) burned down many years ago, allowing large vehicle access to the houses and pub. A new footbridge follows the same line over the canal and the path follows the old trackbed. When we moved to Aldermans Green the M6 was just starting to be built and a neighbour of ours was displaced from a house being demolished. He told me that this house was so close to the railway that they could lean out of the window and touch the trains. Regarding the Slough, I was told that Courtaulds bought an old tip to the north of the power station and dumped hazardous chemicals which seeped into one of the brooks feeding the pool.

Do you mean this bridge, Greg?

Greg, second day of my father returning from world war one, he planted a tree in his fathers garden, remembrance tree, the tree grew, the years went by, council said the tree had to go, and the garden, to widen the road, build a new bridge, granddad was livid, threatened, begged and so on. Well they built the bridge, widened the road, took the garden but relented about the tree, they left it smack bang in the middle of the pavement. It was still there in 1944 when I left the area. Don't want to offend anyone. But a workman died on the new bridge, a lorry driver died on the brook bridge and a guy drowned in the slough by the little bridge. There where two attached houses between Deedmore Road and the clodbanks. Occupants woke up one morning, found a hole about ten feet across and bottomless in their front garden, the hole about a foot away from the corner of the building. Greg, the power station had an entrance, almost bottom of bridge, next to was a large boundary fence of power station a small path that led over to Grange Road, the railway ran alongside the path, then the row of houses leading down to brook bridge. Has the path and railway disappeared? thanks. Kaga.

The path is still there (I walked it recently to Sutton Stop). The railway disappeared under the motorway bank. As I said, my old next door neighbour lived where the motorway bridge is now and their daffodils still come up every spring. The entrance to the power station is still there as is the gatehouse. Fairly recently, the felt roof was replaced so I`m wondering if it a listed building. On a different subject I`ve just found this link for Sutton Stop archive pictures. Do you remember the Brook Chapel and the ford (with ducks on it I`m told) on Aldermans Green Road near Canberra Road?

Thanks for that Greg. Just type 'Coventry' into the search.