Wyken Slough

While talking of the 'slough', one year we had an exceptional summer - the 'slough' was drying up fast, the brooks feeding it down to a drizzle. The temperature of the water rose, the fish were gasping. My uncles dug a pit where what there was water came in, then made a chain with buckets to pass the cool water into the corner of the pool, then dug a small channel through the bank. It saved the day and the fish and wildlife. I can't remember all of it, a long time ago. but they did save the 'slough' that year.

Kaga. I often have a wander down there (before this lockdown) even in winter. It's a tranquil place when there is no one else around. Just me and my thoughts. I can only go back to the 1960's, but still happy childhood memories. December 2017.

Thank you for those. You did put a picture on of 1927 'Slough' long time ago, on there is a little boy, my cousin. In later years, he never came back from Bomber Command over Germany, I missed him badly for a number of years.

Kaga. Was it this photograph from 1927.

Manor House, This is about 1932, shows the second hut that a second uncle lived in, the wives were my dad's sisters. The first small gap in between the buildings in the background, above the corner of the pool, was Jackers Road, you can just see the beginning of the reed beds on the far side my uncle planted. He also planted those saplings on the right of the huts. The photographer is standing on the fishing arm, in the other photo he was about a further dozen yards back, and a different year. This was the time when the Hippodrome artistes found it a peaceful place to relax. The snow photos, where was that iron bridge of today? If it's the far end then they must have got rid of the weir.

Sorry Kaga, that is the only picture I remember posting before, but I will keep looking. The bridge is at the other end of pool to where the buildings were and there is a little weir off to the left of it.

Manor House, I left the Green in 1944, only visited my granny a couple of times. Believe my ancestors first came to there in early 19th century, maybe earlier. Your photos of 'slough' make me wonder if they're family photos. If your family came from the area, there were few houses then, they would have known one another, no doubt. That pathway over the iron bridge was made by the miners and the workers from the 'main' buildings, and leads up to the railway bank. On the other side is the coal basin, and all those fields that side of the 'slough' were Main Farm. Not sure if you're interested or not?

When was the steel footbridge over the Slough put in? When I was a kid in the 1950/1960s it was a wooden bridge and the footpath led to the Clod Banks along the smouldering banks.

Hi Kaga. Whilst both of my parents were born in Coventry, it was not in the Alderman's Green area and were only there 1958-1971, before moving over to Ash Green. I was born in 1960 so enjoyed 11yrs growing up in the area and can remember how great it was before the M6 motorway sliced through and ruined it (1968).

johnwright The smouldering banks you called, they were the old railway lines, and on the left was a huge house on the bank that had a weigh machine and conveyor belts that fed the coal down into the boats, and behind that house were four more in a three sided square that you passed just as you reached the banks. When you walked up from the white bridge you passed the 14 acre field on your right and beyond that was Lady's Lane, a line of tall trees through the field, from Bell Green to two brick cottages.

20A Manor House The new highway passed directly over our two houses and the railway line at the side of the houses as it was in the twenties.

The slough c1964. The farmhouse can be seen in the background.

No, sorry, that's not the farmhouse. Too close to the water, and it was half hidden behind the train lines.

It is the farm just up from the slough. Cropped from a larger photograph of the slough so some distortion. When I was at Alderman's Green Infant school, a visit to the farm had been planned (weeks in advance), but when the day came we could not go, due to an outbreak of Foot & Mouth. After the farmer had left and prior to its clearance, we, as kids, played in and around the buildings.

20AManor House, Can you tell me exactly where the photographer is standing, and do I see a building among the trees below the farm? The farm was above and behind the railway lines that covered the bottom half of the building, and a long way past the top corner of the field you see.