Jump to content

Slough Arm


pearley

Featured Posts

Being one of the few bits we haven't cruised, what's the Slough Arm like. Is it possible to moor along it or too shallow/overgrown. What are the moorings at the end like?

 

 

Uninspiring end. You can google earth and have a look.

 

Beware reports of stoning of boats from certain encampment along the way.

Edited by mark99
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Being one of the few bits we haven't cruised, what's the Slough Arm like. Is it possible to moor along it or too shallow/overgrown. What are the moorings at the end like?

 

The Slough Arm has recently been dredged, know of several people who have been up these since and they have not reported any problems.

 

It's still straight and boring though and Slough does itself no favours when you see what there is (or isn't) at the end.

 

Tim

Edited by Tim Lewis
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did it in September. It's been dredged recently, and there was no weed. Also no incidents of stones being thrown, just waves from workers building smart new houses along one stretch. Admittedly the main reason for going was because we were leaving the boat at Highline Yachting for a few weeks, but even so I wanted to do it for completeness. The 'basin' at the end is a great disappointment -- the canal just kind of peters out at a builders' merchant. Not sure I noticed any moorings, as such, apart from at Highline.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Narrowboat trust takes the motor boat partly loaded to the end once a year ( xxxxs law this year we did not have to ).

 

Its a bit shallow in places ( now dredged ) and can be weedy, never had any problems with anything being thrown at us.

 

The end part will be a non event its just stops at a road bridge,

 

We moor up to do a delivery about 200yds from the end and you cannot get in close but that is with about 3'2" draft at the back.

 

For us it is a days run there and back at this time of the year with the delivery to do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is the one stretch of cut that has beaten me.

I gave up a hundred yards from the festival park after fighting weeds for 2 hours.

The cycle to the basin was not worth the effort.

That's good enough for me. If it defeats you Matty we'll continue to give it a miss. Surely it's time it had an upgrade?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I understood it was originally cut through with anticipation of joining the Thames at Windsor.

An obvious advantage for commercial traffic.

The required act of parliament more or less being the required statute elsewhere, it turned out that nobody had anticipated the power of Eton across whose playing fields the canal would pass.

 

Hence it failed.

 

If you look at it on Giggle Earth you'll see how close they got to success, and how abruptly it failed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...the private school that could afford it's own Olympic Regatta course,

 

 

It self funded its-self via selling off the extracted minerals. A bit of a no brainer really. Oh and it's open to all not just the elite.

 

Funny enough our company was in Eton School today.

Edited by mark99
Link to comment
Share on other sites

While going up the Slough Arm to Highline,where we spent the winter and spring saw a deer, fox and terrapins plus some fowls. Overall some pretty derelict buildings on the way. While there it seemed to be plagued by rubbish being dumped on the tow path from one of the permanent camp site, that councils have to provide. The most upsetting thing was the swans being shot at and the swan rescue centre is kept busy.

 

We never encountered any problems with stone throwing or behaviour likely to worry us, having said that I doubt if I would overnight on the tow path side as there seemed to be some characters drinking and although they caused us no problems I still wouldn't leave the boat unattended.

 

Verdict - it's not somewhere I would go again as it really isn't that interesting. Although the building of it is a bit interesting apparently a lot of spoil from London was used to build the banks and some of the liv-a-boards have unearthed several articles including a man-trap! I think the clay was taken into London to build bricks (not sure on the last point). Oh and some very nice people living on their boats in the Highline Marina.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was fully dredged this year from Highline to the basin and sadly only spot dredged from Highline to the junction due to the money running out.

 

Weve not suffered any of the normal weed this year thanks to the dredging even with the hot weather and the friends of Slough canal continue with their regular litter pick ups a couple of weekends every month.

 

Weve lived here for just over six years and only ever had one thing thrown at us as we were passing a bridge down at the junction end. Never had any problems with persons on the towpath side either.

 

You get the odd CC'er spending a couple of weeks moored by the Langley road bridge end and we've never heard any bad reports from them about any trouble.

 

The canal may be boring to some who expect something at the end of their journey but its teaming with wildlife and has 3 aquaducts and was the last canal to built in England. (not counting the ship canal)

 

The Yard at Highline do most repairs and some steel work and have craning days for blacking and surveys and is the main base for Virginnia Currer Boat Brokerage.

They have a small chandlery Gas, Pumpout, Elsan,Diesel, Coal and operate a loyalty scheme. Closed Mondays

 

All in all its not a bad stretch of 5 miles of water and is a lot safer than many other canals which also suffer from rumour mills.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, we cruised to the end today and are now back moored opposite High Line.

 

I knew the arm had been dredged and a sign at the beginning confirmed this. It was easy going. Some weed around but only at the edges with the odd patch of floating weed. However, it seemed that it was only spot dredged as when we got to the cutting just past the M25 we slowed noticeably. Saltysplash has confirmed this.

 

The end was a big disappointment though. I saw from Google that it wasn't brilliant but even so. Uncut grass, nowhere decent to moor except opposite the winding hole and, if you wanted to visit the town, having to wade through waist high weeds to get to the road.

 

Plenty of people walking the towpath, all friendly.

 

Glad we've done it but not sure I'd do it again.

Edited by pearley
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm moored at High Line - since March 2012. [touching wood] have never had a problem with the locals and since the dredging have had no problems getting down to the basin and back again - I've seen a few boats moored for a couple of weeks as its pretty handy for trains into Paddington. Yes not the prettest of basins but the canal itself is pretty rural even if at the top of the banking is a lot of light industry, you can see it in winter but not in summer. Loads of fish in the water as well, if you like that sort of thing. One really nice mooring location is a couple of hundred yards from the junction, pillings and just the distant hum of the M25 - apart from that its really peaceful and you wouldn't realise you were in Yiewsley (oh the occasional rumple of Heathrow in the distance. Hillingdon narrowboats took their trip boats for the Slough Canal festival and were astounded by how easy it was to get down to the basin now - so £850k well spent by CRT. I understand that he canal was cut to extract materials for making bricks - hence it was one of the deepest on the canal system - the link to the Thames was a afterthought and rejected by the then Slough Council. Plans still get dusted down now and again and given its only 2 miles could well happen if multi millions were found.

 

So if you want to explore the canal system it well worth a look - just don't expect too much at the end (CRT own all the land there and I sure have 'plans'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...at a price far in excess of the National Watersports Centre - which is where the residual infrastructure should have gone after the games.

 

I just looked at some prices- £6.50 for evening sculling at Eton. 1.5 hours.

 

£6/hr for canoe at Holme Pierrepoint.

Edited by mark99
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went down the arm about four years ago so well before any dredging and in places with the reeds ect it was barley wide enough for one boat to get through, I remember praying hope another boat is not coming the other way as it would have been virtually impossible to reverse out with all the reeds and weed. However the clarity of the water and wildlife made it all worthwhile even though as others have said the end is disappointing. May do it again next year now that it has been dredged as it is worth a day visit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please give Salar a wave for me, I must admit I never get bored with a trip down to the junction and back, amazing how the 'scenery' changes as the seasons change, some nice places to moor as well overnight. It won't be long before London boaters realise that it's a pretty handy place to moor and get into London.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.