Wyken Slough

I was reading a book the other day and it reminded me of an incident about 1942 time. One morning I went to work at the farm just above the slough, and my boss told me that there had been a knock on his door last night about 10pm. He wondered if he had a chink of light showing, or if he had forgotten to sign the fire-watching register. He opened the door and it was a soldier, he was very upset, he said he had run into a cow in his army lorry and hurt it badly. It was pitch dark outside, my boss grabbed a torch and they walked through the field to the lane that led past the slough. Sure enough it looked as if the animal had its front legs broken, there was nothing they could do. My boss went back to the farmhouse to phone the vet, told the soldier to come back with him - looked as if the soldier could do with a cup of tea. My boss phoned the vet who said he would come straight away. My boss asked the soldier about his name and unit for the Ministry of Agriculture, forms would have to be filled in. I think the vet may have lived in the Bell Green area for he turned in down the slough lane, looked at the animal that was not a dairy cow but one of the prime beef herd we were fattening up up for the Ministry of Ag., put the gun to its forehead and put it down out of its pain. So we did the milking, and I prepared things for my milk round. My boss then phoned a friend of his, who had a farm up Bulkington straight, farmer, a huntsman with a number of dogs, knackersman and a lorry that had a winch. As I drove my pony and trap out one entrance I could see the knackersman turn down the slough lane. As I returned to the farm at lunchtime four or five soldiers came from the gun-site, said to my boss they were sorry about the accident, they were off duty for a couple of hours, was there any little thing they could do to help solve relations. My boss said they could pick some apples for him, but not to throw them in the basket and bruise them. An hour later they had completed the job, he gave them a basket full for their cook to make something and relations were better. Two days later the knackersman showed up with a number of bundles of prime beef for my boss, and his bill. My boss gave me a bundle for mother, another bundle went to the vet, lasted us for about a fortnight. The vet sent his bill, stating the animal had been damaged in such a way that it was not fit for human consumption, my boss reported it was a prime animal ready for market, sent the whole lot of to the Ministry of Ag. or wherever. Everyone got paid, the huntsman had a lot of meat for his dogs, the soldiers got a pie, everyone had meat at a time when meat rationing had been cut again. The Ministry of Ag. would charge the MOD.

Kaga, I have been doing a bit of research about one of your stories - look in your email for my update. We can tell everyone else if and when we can confirm a few things. Regards. Roger

Going back to wartime and beyond, just above the Slough and just before the Oxford Canal it was known as The Main, this included Main Pit Farm and Main Cottages. There were five cottages - one stood alone on the railway embankment, the other four stood in a three-sided square. Each house had once held an official with particular duties to the working of the railway and canal basin. This was about a mile from A.G. Road. There was a carriageway to the buildings from A.G. Road and a field pathway that led down the other side. If the people wanted Longford area they used the carriageway, if they wanted Bell Green area they used the pathway. They had an arrangement with the postman to leave mail at Jackers Road Post Office, sometimes I would pick up their mail and deliver it when I delivered the milk. I also did errands for them. The carriageway led through a normal five-barred gate but on the right hand side was a small pond, with irises and drumstick plants, willows and aspens, a couple of moorhens - a small oak tree shaded the pool. But the square they lived in, the first thing you noticed was a big water pump in the corner, their main water supply, this had a beautiful wrought iron handle with a flowered pattern down the handle. It was kept in a highly polished state, as was the wooden box that surrounded the pump workings. The house opposite the entrance to the square had a large wooden door like a castle door with more iron work. Beyond the door was a large wide hall. Each house had a large well kept garden, the fragrance drifting into the square from the gardens, a pathway of embedded flint stones ran in front of the doorways. To me there was a sense of delight simply by being in the square.

Coventry had the Sherbourne in the west, then the Radford brook a little more north, then the River Sowe farther north that ran through what is now Longford Park. Then two more brooks, one from Exhall and beyond, the other from Bulkington way, joined together in a small dip just off Aldermans Green Road. They grew into a large reed bed, then trickled out into a larger dip forming a small lake (slough). But coal had been found around the 1600s in the area - it developed into the Wyken Pits. Through the years miners, railway and the farm made a cart track from the pits and railway to AGR through the reed bed and the slough, putting the water through a pipe underground. The slough, now full of fish, surrounded by reeds, flowers, water birds, and fields and hundreds of birds in the hedgerows, larks high above, truly was a beautiful place for miles around. The water trickled out the other end into swamp and a copse. Near the end of WWI a young man started courting my father's sister - wanting to marry, with my grandfather's help he purchased the slough and three of the fields surrounding it, then with the help of the girls, five brothers bought a couple of Army surplus huts, placed them alongside the small dirt track, and lived in the huts, raised a family, made a small weir at the far end of the pool, stocked it with more fish, tench, carp etc., stocked one of the huts with fishing gear. My granddad, now retired, sat and sold tickets. It became my playground. But about 1932 time local industry built a waste heap near Sutton Stop, chemicals leaked into the main brook that fed the slough, increasing the waste and the poison - over the next years the fish began to die, the water fowl began to leave, the flowers and reeds turned black and died, so did the reed bed and the soil around and the birds left the area. By 1935 almost the whole place was dead, and no one was really interested - war was close, my uncle had no choice but to leave, a bitter blow to me and the Coventry people, but the war swamped everything.

A fascinating history indeed, Kaga. My understanding is that the water is still polluted (albeit at low levels) and I have reason to think that there are fish in there. Water quality is certainly good enough to sustain quite a few waterbirds and the park, as it is now, is quite well maintained and used. I note that you mentioned the Post Office in Jackers Road and wondered whereabouts it was?

Greg, The post office was on the left about the length of a football pitch down, quite tallish houses, there was a large sink hole 2/3 houses before it. When I was a kid we could see the shoals of fish swimming yards from the side it was so clear, if you wedge the inside of a match box inside the other part upright, then that was the shape of the house boat, we had a pole rested on brackets along the side to pole us around, Only one pair of swans that chased off others - the swan fights were spectacular, wings whirring the air, legs trailing foaming the water, breakneck speed from one end to the other.

Prof, Yes once again you take me back to my childhood, Wonder if Gillian knows the guy's name? I feel I knew him. The photographer is standing on the little white bridge exactly were I stood looking down at a floater, drowned man just where the little boys are paddling. I lived at the foot of the chimneys at the corner of that football field in the background. The field behind the boat was the first field I ever ploughed with horse and single furrow on my own, and the last time it was ever ploughed by horse (tractors took over). The water that fed the 'slough' came from one stream the other side of the Power Station - that killed the slough, another stream from Lentons Lane joined it in the far corner of the slough and fed through a tunnel under the lane.

The contaminated stream comes under the road by the `Brook Chapel` and was, apparently, being monitored for many years. I am rather surprised that there is quite a bit of birdlife on the lake and a few fishermen nowadays. I have a suspicion that some of the fish are taken away to eat which, given the past pollution, seems a rather dodgy thing to do.

Yes, Greg, the stream came from Exhall way, passed under both canals, but in 1925 Courtaulds built their factory in Little Heath, and dumped their waste at Sutton Stop, so acetate and other chemicals seeped into the stream, and that was curtains for the Slough. New fencing had to be erected to keep the animals from drinking the water they had always used. Where the water travelled under the tunnel, it didn't enter into the Slough until almost level with the first hedgerow on the left. On the right was a strip of land called the Fisherman's Arm - here I saw as many as a score of fishermen casting their lines early April when the season started. From the culvert the water travelled down through reeds, drumsticks, king cup buttercups (marsh marigolds), lady smocks and a host of other wild flowers. Overhead there were skylarks and scores of plover (peewits, lapwings) in the fields next to the Slough.

Well, Mr Memoryman, being a wild flower lover I enjoyed reading the names you mentioned. When you said 'drumsticks' did you mean 'bullrushes'? Pity the children today don't appreciate them enough. I am getting the impression from all your posts so far you had the most memorable childhood in every aspect, and are now into your second one.

Dreamtime, quite correct, bullrushes, used to gather half a dozen, put them in a tall cream coloured pottery jar, little sprays of blue mauve lady smocks to set them off, they kept for a long time.