Wyken Slough

There was a 4 1/2 year old boy drowned in 1964 from Potters Green Philip. His 2 year old brother showed the police where he had gone in. They were looking for fish. A very sad story but I can't help wonder what 2 children of that age were allowed to go by an unfenced dangerous stretch of water. I suppose we are all wise after the event.

Hello, Just be thankful that you are out of reach of my travelling gratitude, because you are absolutely, completely, supadelishiously wonderful. That's what I remember. Thank you so much.

On the issue of safety, I can hear my mum saying to me, keep away from the Sowe & no going to the canal at Red Lane. Did I take a bit of notice!

When I was young I used to go and stay with some friends of my mum and dad's with a daughter my age who lived in Holbrooks. One day mum and dad received a letter from them telling them not to take me again as my friend had got polio. She used to play in the brook near their house. She was always being told not to go there !

I have lived round here all my life (Palm Tree Avenue, Heather Rd & Almond Tree Avenue). I live along Alderman's Green Rd and have done for the past 27 years (am now 62). I am astonished by the knowledge of people on this forum and am so glad I have found it. A lot of the memories have flooded back, particularly about the Slough and the boats, ice skating and the picnics etc. I remember running past 'old May Mittens' house when I was a kid, oh for those days again

Hello, That's a lovely heart warming comment. Thank you so much. It's folk like you, the members, constantly adding info that brings it alive. I'm just recalling a few thoughts for the area & the names that you have mentioned. When I was in the third year of the prep school, I remember the son of the landlord of the Green Man, joining us in that year. That was 1956ish. I can't be sure, but the name Davis or Davies rings a bell.

I was born in 1962 and went to Alderman's Green Junior School and then Foxford. I remember the sweet shop opposite Sandpiper Rd, it may have been owned by the Dodds family at the time (I was in the same class as one of the daughters). Talking of the Green Man, there used to be an area behind it called the 'Scrump', and we spent many a day there. One particular day we decided to build some boats, we then carried them all the way to the Slough to launch and sail all round. Within 5 seconds the two boats sank and that was the end of that!

Hello again, I was a naughty boy once, only once too. I was with chums floating inside a galvanised water tank that sank. Fortunately, it was a warm summer day & I was dry in no time. I don't think that I was very fresh in the smell department.