The Slough Canal Arm - Walking or Cycling along the Slough Arm's Towpath with Photos.

About the Slough Arm of the Grand Union Canal.

As building increased rapidly in London there was an insatiable requirement for bricks so a new brick works was built in Slough and the Arm was used to get these bricks onto the Grand Union Canal Main line and then on into London. The canal was also used to carry sand and gravel until these supplies were exhausted in the early 1940s.
Construction of the Slough Arm started in 1880 and was completed right at the end of 1882 - the Arm then enjoyed continued commerical operation right up to 1960 when British Waterways took it over. They considered the canal not to be worth saving and of course along came Slough Council who wanted to do what they and so many of our councils do best - shove concrete everywhere and destroy a bit more of our English Heritage. Fortunately The Slough Canal Group was created and they fought a vigorous campaign along with the help of the Slough Observer Newspaper to keep the canal alive - this campaign was successful and the canal was re-opened in 1975.
It is interesting that the big thing these days in England is to get people out and about for some healthy exercise etc. - canals are ideal for this be it walking or cycling. You only have to see how many families and people are out on the canals on a nice Sunday afternoon to see that if the enviornment is safe, clean and accessible then areas get used. However in the case of canals the amount of money to upkeep them is in effect being reduced with the result that canal banks and towpaths are often not kept in good condition and the canal starts leaking - paths and towpaths get more and more unpassable - therefore the canals stop being used. The whole situation is quite pathetic- our old canal systems should have more money spent on them not less. Anyway - the Slough Arm towpath is fortunately in really good condition for both cyclists and walkers. There are several bridges over the canal and three very interesting aqueducts which are used to cross Fray's River, the River Colne and Colne Brook. There are no locks on the Slough Arm apart from the barely visible sight of the original stop lock at the Grand Union Canal end of the arm at Cowley Peachey Junction. (see the bottom left of the first picture shown below).