Slough Arm GU

[WJM]

Any one been up the Slough Arm of the GU recently? Does it live up to Betjeman's now famous ode - come friendly bombs and fall on Slough? Thought I might make a trip. Also - what time do BW lock up Hanwell Flight - or do they really lock them up at all?

 

 

any info welcome

[magnetman]

Kids and adults on motorbikes shooting rabbits with air rifles. And untold flytipping.

 

(thats the slougk arm). Hanwell only has bw watermate locks i think.

[WJM]

Thanks for that - I might just go as far as Langley - my map says I can wind just past there - Hanwell is listed as being 'open' only during certain hours, if I am running late I dont mind working through late and in the dark - just dont want to get stuck with padlocked gates

[bramley]

is there canal in slough then? after selling my boat, and moving to bracknell i work in slough, and i would love to find a canal for evening walks etc,

 

anybody know anywhere?

[WJM]

Cowley (near West Drayton) it branches off the GU - runs to the outskirts of Slough

 

last canal to be built in england

[David Schweizer]

Any one been up the Slough Arm of the GU recently? Does it live up to Betjeman's now famous ode - come friendly bombs and fall on Slough? Thought I might make a trip. Also - what time do BW lock up Hanwell Flight - or do they really lock them up at all?

any info welcome

Haven't been down the Slough Armm for nearly forty years so I can't comment on current situartion.

 

I went down the Hanwell Flight a few years ago on the first Sunday in September. I didn't see another boat all afternoon.

[tony collins]

I went down the Hanwell Flight a few years ago on the first Sunday in September. I didn't see another boat all afternoon.

 

It gets like that on the BCN. On a Thursday in June we went from Windmill End to Symphony Court and the only other boat we saw was one the trip boat which runs from the ICC.

 

Tony

Edited May 25, 2007 by tony collins

[WJM]

Well I have checked it out - what can I say - it is a canal! - no towns, no waterside pubs, really not much other than two banks with water in between! It is not 'bad', just utterly featureless.

 

Strange thing though - it is five miles long, yet there were no boats moored anywhere, not even one, except for a half mile stretch in the middle which was packed 3 deep in places, piled on top of each other, really horrible horizontal high rise, - and the other four and a half miles totally empty!

[magnetman]

Adults and kids on motorbikes shooting rabbits and flytipping thats why there ain't any boats apart from highline. its a major league dump.

 

Adults and kids on motorbikes shooting rabbits and flytipping thats why there ain't any boats apart from highline. its a major league dump.

 

Adults and kids on motorbikes shooting rabbits and flytipping thats why there ain't any boats apart from highline. its a major league dump.

[NB Willawaw]

 

The Slough Arm in its finest glory - big terrapins though !!!

 

 

Highline Yachting at Iver - Source of fuel and water in a wilderness -

Edited May 29, 2007 by NB Willawaw

[Hairy-Neil]

last canal to be built in england

 

Last narrow canal........The New Junction Canal in Yorkshire was built in 1905.....if you ignore the Ribble Link....

[Hairy-Neil]

It is not 'bad', just utterly featureless.

 

What about the three aquaducts in the first mile.....

[NB Willawaw]

What about the three aquaducts in the first mile.....

 

 

Sorry couldn't get far enough away !!!

[Machpoint005]

Our new (to us) boat over-wintered at High Line, and in early April this year we winded just above Langley (10-15 minutes west of High Line) and then cruised (!) back to Cowley Peachey junction and north on the GU.

 

The locals had been having a litter festival all the way along the arm, and those famous aqueducts were grotty. Good service at High Line, though.

 

We've been right through the middle of several towns on our way back north this spring (Rugby, Nuneaton, Tamworth, Stoke on Trent) and nothing compares with the Slough Arm for general squalor and neglect. Betjeman was spot-on IMHO.

 

Ian

[ChrisPy]

Adults and kids on motorbikes shooting rabbits and flytipping thats why there ain't any boats apart from highline. its a major league dump.

 

Adults and kids on motorbikes shooting rabbits and flytipping thats why there ain't any boats apart from highline. its a major league dump.

 

Adults and kids on motorbikes shooting rabbits and flytipping thats why there ain't any boats apart from highline. its a major league dump.

sorry, would you say that again please?

[Hairy-Neil]

Betjeman was spot-on IMHO.

 

Ian

 

Slough

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!

It isn't fit for humans now,

There isn't grass to graze a cow.

Swarm over, Death!

 

Come, bombs and blow to smithereens

Those air -conditioned, bright canteens,

Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans,

Tinned minds, tinned breath.

 

Mess up the mess they call a town-

A house for ninety-seven down

And once a week a half a crown

For twenty years.

 

And get that man with double chin

Who'll always cheat and always win,

Who washes his repulsive skin

In women's tears:

 

And smash his desk of polished oak

And smash his hands so used to stroke

And stop his boring dirty joke

And make him yell.

 

But spare the bald young clerks who add

The profits of the stinking cad;

It's not their fault that they are mad,

They've tasted Hell.

 

It's not their fault they do not know

The birdsong from the radio,

It's not their fault they often go

To Maidenhead

 

And talk of sport and makes of cars

In various bogus-Tudor bars

And daren't look up and see the stars

But belch instead.

 

In labour-saving homes, with care

Their wives frizz out peroxide hair

And dry it in synthetic air

And paint their nails.

 

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough

To get it ready for the plough.

The cabbages are coming now;

The earth exhales.

[Hairy-Neil]

......and nothing compares with the Slough Arm for general squalor and neglect.

 

Ian

 

You've not been up the Ridgeacre Branch lately I can see......

 

In defence of the Slough Arm, (I was born within sight of the basin.... ) if you think it is bad now you really should have seen it thirty years ago when it was bordered for the first 3 miles by gravel extraction quarries, later mostly used as refuse tips. The landscaped grounds of Langley's golf course being built on one such parcel of reclaimed land. Further in, the cut is bordered by brick pits, most of which were landscaped and built upon in the first half of the 20th century.

 

The canal actually only makes an approach to the eastern fringes of the town who's name it bears. Being a 'late' canal (1882?) it was built using 'cut and fill' technology, though there are no stunning earthworks there is nonetheless a cutting of some note. Also it was quite a feat of engineering to build a 5 mile cut with I think, only three gentle bends in the entire length. The lattice girder parapets of the original overbridges and aquaducts are an interesting change from normal furniture of older canals ....

[bramley]

does the slough arm run under the m25 at all, near junc 15,

[WJM]

"does the slough arm run under the m25 at all, near junc 15"

 

 

It certainly does!

 

 

 

 

Despite the negative recollections, I would say it is now very pleasant - not at all ugly or rough - a little shallow and a bit overgrown but very quiet and green - buy that basin for a good price and you would have the makings of a great boat hire base.

Edited May 30, 2007 by WJM

[Machpoint005]

Notwithstanding my cruel remarks, I did derive a certain pleasure by navigating at 3mph eastwards under the M25 at 5 o'clock on a Thursday, whilst Joe Public was averaging 3mph northwards and his mate 3mph southwards over the top. I wasn't following a BMW, either.

[bramley]

"does the slough arm run under the m25 at all, near junc 15"

It certainly does!

 

 

ah, now i understand, i used to pass over this bridge twice a day and always looked down, only once have i seen a boat on that stretch, but if you pass on the bridge now, the whole canal just looks neglected overgrown and to me looks like its closed..

 

Ross

[MartinClark]

You've not been up the Ridgeacre Branch lately I can see......

Nobody has been up the Ridgeacre Branch lately! Its junction with the Wednesbury Old Canal at Swan Bridge has been obliterated by the Black Country New Road crossing at towpath level.

 

See Local Live aerial view image of the area or see close-up bird's-eye view of Swan Bridge Junction area from an angle.

[Hairy-Neil]

Nobody has been up the Ridgeacre Branch lately! Its junction with the Wednesbury Old Canal at Swan Bridge has been obliterated by the Black Country New Road crossing at towpath level.

 

It wasn't totally truncated by the road builders. There's still enough rubbish strewn cut left to well and truly foul up your blades a time or two if you're brave enough to venture down from Ryders Green Jct.

[MartinClark]

It wasn't totally truncated by the road builders. There's still enough rubbish strewn cut left to well and truly foul up your blades a time or two if you're brave enough to venture down from Ryders Green Jct.

Sorry to be a pedant, but the rubbish strewn cut that goes off to the right at the top of Ryder Green Locks is actually a continuation of the Wednesbury Old Canal, which starts at Pudding Green Junction. Nicholsons incorrectly labels it as the Ridgeacre Branch. The Ridgacre Branch (and the Balls Hill Branch) started at Swan Bridge Junction, which was a few yards further on from the present end of navigation, where the Wednesbury Old Canal is truncated by the Black Country New Road.

 

References to back this up include Jim Shead's website and even Waterscrape.

 

Swan Bridge Junction was immediately north of the roundabout seen here. The Balls Hill Branch went off north-east, then north west before snaking around, with a railway interchange basin (still in water) going westwards. The Ridgacre Branch, which is still mostly in water, went off eastwards, then north-eastwards. It had its own branches - the Dartmouth branch to the north and the Halford & Jesson branches to the south, of which no trace exists.

 

So, as I said, nobody has been up the Ridgacre Branch lately! (unless in a canoe!)

 

(Nicholsons also mis-spells Ridgacre as Ridgeacre, which is my excuse for doing so earlier!)