| Slough | |
The Slough Trading Estate |
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Slough
Slough shown within Berkshire |
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| Population borough | 119,070 (2001) |
|---|---|
| Urban sub-area | 128,400 (2009) |
| OS grid reference | SU978797 |
| - London | 22 mi (35 km) E |
| Unitary authority | Slough |
| Ceremonial county | Berkshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SLOUGH |
| Postcode district | SL1-SL3 |
| Dialling code | 01753 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Royal Berkshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Slough |
| Website | www.slough.gov.uk |
| List of places: UK • England • Berkshire | |
Slough i/ˈslaʊ/ is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road (it becomes the Great West Road closer to London) and the Great Western Main Line, 22 miles (35 km) west of central London. At the 2001 census, the population of Slough was 119,070 (est. 122,000 in 2006) and the borough area was the most ethnically diverse local authority area outside London in the United Kingdom.[1] Slough has the highest proportion of religious adherents in England.[2]
Historically, the larger part of the present-day Slough area was formerly in Buckinghamshire with a small part of the borough originally in Middlesex. Slough is home to the Slough Trading Estate, which, coupled with extensive transport links, makes it an important business centre in South East England. It is the largest industrial estate in single private ownership in Europe.[3] Slough was previously home to a campus of Thames Valley University.
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Slough is at grid reference SU978797, just west of Greater London. Nearby towns are Windsor to the south, Maidenhead to the west, Uxbridge to the northeast and Beaconsfield to the north.
Most of the area that now makes up Slough was traditionally part of Buckinghamshire.[4] The town developed by the expansion and amalgamation of villages along the Great West Road. Over the years Slough has expanded greatly, incorporating a number of different villages. Original villages that are now suburbs of Slough include Chalvey, Cippenham, Colnbrook, Langley, Poyle, Upton, and Wexham.
Other areas of the town include Brands Hill, Britwell, Huntercombe, Manor Park, Salt Hill, Upton Lea, and Windsor Meadows. The urban area (but not the borough council area) merges into the neighbouring parishes of Burnham, Datchet, Farnham Royal, and Stoke Poges.
The nearest Met Office weather observing station to Slough is London Heathrow Airport, about 5 miles east of Slough town centre. This part of the Thames Valley is notable for generally having the warmest daytime summer temperatures on average in the British Isles. Typically, according to 1971–2000 normals, the warmest day of the year will reach 30.8 °C (87.4 °F),[5] and 23.4 days[6] will reach at least 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above. The record high of 37.9 °C (100.2 °F) was recorded on the 10th August 2003.[7] Before this, the record, set in August 1990, stood at 36.5 °C (97.7 °F).[8] 34.3 nights will record an air frost (minimum of −0.1 °C (31.8 °F) or below) according to the 1971–2000 period. Heathrow's record minimum temperature of −13.2 °C (8.2 °F)) was set in January 1963.[9] More recently, the temperature fell to −9.4 °C (15.1 °F) in December 2010.[10]
The Slough area also appears to be one of the sunniest inland areas of the United Kingdom, with sunshine quotients steadily increasing over the latter part of the 20th century and early 21st century. The 1961–1990 period averaged 1516 hours,[11] the 1971–2000 period 1572 hours,[12] and estimates of the 1981–2010 period suggest annual sunshine will average around 1626 hours.[13] 2003 was the sunniest year on record when, coincidentally, just over 2003 hours[14] of sunshine were recorded.
Generally snowfall, occurring most years, owing to Slough's sheltered southerly location and low altitude. Rainfall is also low compared to most of the British Isles with under 600 mm (23.62 in) annually, and 105 days[15] reporting over 1 mm of rain.
| Climate data for Heathrow Airport, elevation 25 m, 1971–2000, extremes 1948– | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 16.0 (60.8) |
18.6 (65.5) |
22.3 (72.1) |
27.4 (81.3) |
31.8 (89.2) |
34.8 (94.6) |
35.5 (95.9) |
37.9 (100.2) |
31.3 (88.3) |
27.0 (80.6) |
18.6 (65.5) |
16.6 (61.9) |
37.9 (100.2) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 7.8 (46.0) |
8.0 (46.4) |
10.9 (51.6) |
13.4 (56.1) |
17.4 (63.3) |
20.4 (68.7) |
23.1 (73.6) |
22.9 (73.2) |
19.5 (67.1) |
15.2 (59.4) |
10.8 (51.4) |
8.6 (47.5) |
14.9 (58.8) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 2.0 (35.6) |
1.8 (35.2) |
3.5 (38.3) |
5.0 (41.0) |
8.2 (46.8) |
11.1 (52.0) |
13.5 (56.3) |
13.3 (55.9) |
11.0 (51.8) |
7.9 (46.2) |
4.4 (39.9) |
2.9 (37.2) |
7.1 (44.8) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −13.2 (8.2) |
−9.6 (14.7) |
−5.1 (22.8) |
−2.6 (27.3) |
−0.9 (30.4) |
1.5 (34.7) |
5.6 (42.1) |
5.9 (42.6) |
1.8 (35.2) |
−3.3 (26.1) |
−7 (19) |
−11.8 (10.8) |
−13.2 (8.2) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 53.9 (2.122) |
35.6 (1.402) |
43.2 (1.701) |
43.8 (1.724) |
49.7 (1.957) |
49.8 (1.961) |
38.4 (1.512) |
47.2 (1.858) |
54.5 (2.146) |
64.5 (2.539) |
51.9 (2.043) |
56.1 (2.209) |
588.6 (23.173) |
| Sunshine hours | 55.1 | 71.0 | 109.9 | 154.4 | 198.0 | 194.2 | 206.4 | 202.4 | 145.5 | 114.0 | 71.7 | 49.2 | 1,571.8 |
| Source no. 1: Met Office[16] | |||||||||||||
| Source no. 2: KNMI[17] | |||||||||||||
The first recorded uses of the name occur as Slo in 1196, Sloo in 1336, and Le Slowe, Slowe or Slow in 1437. It first seems to have applied to a hamlet between Upton to the east and Chalvey to the west, roughly around the "Crown Crossroads" where the road to Windsor (now the A332) met the Great West Road.[18] The Domesday Survey of 1086 refers to Upton, and a wood for 200 pigs, worth £15. During the 13th century, King Henry III had a palace at Cippenham. Parts of Upton Court were built in 1325, while St Mary the Virgin Church[19] in Langley was probably built in the late 11th or early 12th century, though it has been rebuilt and enlarged several times.
From the mid-17th century, stagecoaches began to pass through Slough and Salt Hill, which became locations for the second stage to change horses on the journey out from London. By 1838 and the opening of the Great Western Railway, Upton-cum-Chalvey's parish population had reached 1,502. In 1849, a branch line was completed from Slough station to Windsor and Eton Central railway station, opposite Windsor Castle, for the Queen's convenience.
Slough has 96 listed buildings.[20] There are
1918 saw a large area of agricultural land to the west of Slough developed as an army motor repair depot, used to store and repair huge numbers of motor vehicles coming back from the battlefields of the First World War in Flanders. In April 1920, the Government sold the site and its contents to the Slough Trading Co. Ltd. Repair of ex-army vehicles continued until 1925, when the Slough Trading Company Act was passed allowing the company (renamed Slough Estates Ltd) to establish an Industrial Estate.[21] Spectacular growth and employment ensued, with Slough attracting workers from many parts of the UK and abroad.
After the Second World War, several further large housing developments arose to take large numbers of people migrating from war-damaged London.
In the 21st century, Slough has seen major redevelopment of the town centre. Old buildings are being replaced with new offices and shopping complexes. Tesco has replaced an existing superstore with a larger Tesco Extra. The Heart of Slough Project is a plan for the large-scale redevelopment of the town centre as a focus and cultural quarter for the creative media, information and communications industries. It will create a mixed-use complex, multi-functional buildings, visual landmarks and a public space in the Thames Valley. Recommendations for the £400 million project have been approved,[22] and planning approval was given by Slough Borough Council's planning committee on 9 July 2009.[23] Work began in 2010 for completion in 2018.[24]
In December 2009, two key components of the project were signed: the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) signed its agreement to provide £11m of funding for infrastructure, and Thames Valley University (TVU) courses which are due to remain in the town have found a new home at The Centre in Farnham Road, Slough.[25] In parallel to the town centre redevelopment plan, SEGRO (owner of the Slough Trading Estate) plans to spend £600 million over the next 20 years on the trading estate. This is intended to create environmentally sustainable buildings, open green spaces, two hotels, a conference centre, cafés, restaurants, and better transport facilities to improve links to Slough town centre and the surrounding residential areas. It is claimed that the plan will create more than 4,100 new jobs and contribute around £100m a year to Slough's economy.[26] If both plans go ahead in their current forms, nearly £1 billion will be spent on redeveloping Slough over the next 20 years.
Herschel Park (known as Upton Park until 1949) is currently being relandscaped in a multi-million pound effort to bring it back to its former Victorian era glory.[27] The park was featured in an episode of the documentary programme Who Do You Think You Are? focusing on the TV presenter Davina McCall.[28]
£2 million has been set aside to improve disabled access to Slough railway station in preparation for an expected increase in use during the 2012 London Olympics.[29] Final preparations are under way for the regeneration of the Britwell suburb of Slough. The multi-million pound upgrade will involve tearing down a dilapidated block of flats in Wentworth Avenue and replacing them with new homes, as well as relocating the shopping parade in the street to nearby Kennedy Park.[30] As part of the Heart of Slough project, construction work on a new bus station began in March 2010 following weeks of demolition work to half of the existing bus station and the removal of Compair House near the railway station; it is expected to be completed by January 2011.[31][32]
Redevelopment on this scale has been strongly criticised by conservation groups. The Twentieth Century Society has stated that "[A] tragically high quantity of good buildings have been demolished in Slough in recent years, including grand Art-Deco-styled factories by the likes of Wallis Gilbert and high-quality post-war offices. More are to come down as the town tries to erase its past and reinvent itself from scratch. Despite famously heckling Slough, John Betjeman's praise for the Town Hall's architecture as 'a striving for unity out of chaos' in 1948 has never been so relevant as today. C20 believes that the redevelopment of the Town Hall would be an act of vandalism to the civic centre and is supporting the Campaign to Save Slough's Heritage in their request for a review of the decision."[33]
| Borough of Slough | |
|---|---|
| Geography | |
| Status: | Unitary, Borough |
| Region: | South East England |
| Ceremonial County: | Berkshire |
| Area: - Total |
Ranked 334th 32.54 km² |
| Admin. HQ: | |
| ONS code: | 00MD |
| Demographics | |
| Population: - Total (2010 est.) - Density |
Ranked 156th 131,100 4028 / km² |
| Ethnicity: | 62.1% White British 20.7% South Asian 8.2% Black British 0.5% Chinese 3.5% Mixed Race 4.8% Other. |
| Politics | |
http://www.slough.gov.uk/ |
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| Leadership: | Leader & Cabinet |
| Executive: | Labour (council Labour) |
| Mayor of Slough | Councillor Sukhjit Dhaliwal [34] |
In 1863, Slough became a local government area for the first time, when a Slough Local Board of Health was elected to represent what is now the central part of the modern Borough. This part of Upton-cum-Chalvey Parish became Slough Urban Sanitary District in 1875 which was succeeded by Slough Urban District in 1894. In 1930, there was a major extension westward of the Urban District, and the area was divided into wards for the first time (the new areas of Burnham, Farnham and Stoke as well as the divisions of the old district Central, Chalvey, Langley and Upton). In 1938, the town received its first Royal Charter and became a Municipal Borough.
Slough was incorporated into Berkshire in the 1974 local government reorganisation. The old Municipal Borough was abolished and replaced by a Non-metropolitan district authority, which was made a Borough by the town's second Royal Charter. Britwell and Wexham Court became part of Slough at this time, with their own parish councils. On 1 April 1995, the Borough of Slough expanded slightly into Buckinghamshire and Surrey, to take in Colnbrook and Poyle, which received a joint parish council. Slough became a unitary authority on 1 April 1998, with the abolition of Berkshire County Council and the 1973–1998 Borough. The present unitary authority was created a Borough by the town's third Royal charter.
Slough is twinned with:
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Slough became a haven for unemployed Welsh people, who walked up the Great West Road looking for employment.
The town has a white British population of 62.1%. In the post-war years, immigrants from the Commonwealth, notably Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, India and Pakistan were attracted to the town, settling predominantly in Chalvey.
In the early 1950s, there were a number of Polish refugee camps scattered around the Slough area. As returning to Poland (then in the Soviet Bloc) was not considered an option by many of the wartime refugees, many Polish families decided to settle in Slough, an expanding town seeking committed workers and offering a chance to own homes for those prepared to work hard. In time, a Polish-speaking Roman Catholic Parish was established with its own church building. A new wave of Polish migration to Slough has followed since Poland became part of the European Union.
Slough Council made history by electing the country's first black female mayor, Lydia Simmons, in 1984.
Slough has the highest percentage of Sikh residents in the country, according to the latest national census figures (2001). Sikh residents make up 9.1% of Slough’s population, more than any other local authority. Slough also has the highest percentage of Muslim (13.4%) and Hindu residents (4.5%) in the South East region.
Slough's transport links make it a suitable location for those working in London, but looking for more affordable accommodation; as such it attracts a large number of young professionals and families.[36]
Before the 19th century, the main businesses of Slough were brickfields and agriculture. The bricks for the building of Eton College were made in Slough. Later, as the Great West Road traffic increased, inns and pubs sprang up along the road to service the passing trade. Until the town developed as an industrial area, nurseries were prominent in the local economy; the Cox's Orange Pippin apple was first raised in Colnbrook (not then within Slough) around 1825, and the dianthus "Mrs Sinkins Pink" was first raised at some point between 1868[37] and 1883[38] by John Sinkins, the master of the Eton Union Workhouse,[39] which lay in Slough.
In the mid-19th century, the only major employer apart from the brickfields was James Elliman, who started as a draper in Chandos Street. In 1847, he changed business and manufactured his Elliman's Embrocation and Royal Embrocation horse liniment at factories in Wellington Street and Chandos Street. Elliman became a major benefactor to the town, and is remembered today in the names of local roads and schools.
In September 1851, William Thomas Buckland, an auctioneer and surveyor from nearby Wraysbury, began livestock sales in a field near the Great Western Road Railway Station belonging to the North Star Inn. Originally held on the first Tuesday of every month, the Cattle Market's popularity soon saw this increased to every Tuesday. A move to Wexham Street was necessitated by the postwar redevelopment of the town. The Slough Cattle Market was run by Messrs Buckland and Sons until its final closure in 1988.[40]
In 1906, James Horlick, one of the eponymous founders of the malted milk company, opened a purpose-built red-brick factory near Slough Railway Station to manufacture his malted milk product.
Starting in the 1920s, Slough Estates Ltd, the operator of the original Slough Trading Estate, created and operated many more estates in the UK and abroad. The Slough Trading Estate meant that the town was largely insulated from many of the effects of recession. For many years, Slough's economy was mainly manufacturing-based.
In the last 20 or so years, there has been a major shift from a manufacturing to an information-based economy, with the closure of many factories (some of which had been in Slough for many decades). The factories are rapidly being replaced by office buildings. Hundreds of major companies have sited in Slough Trading Estate over the years, with its proximity to London Heathrow Airport and good motorway connections being attractive. In the 1960s, Gerry Anderson's film company was based in Slough, and his Supermarionation series, including Thunderbirds, were filmed there.
The UK headquarters of Mars, Incorporated is based in Slough, the main factory having been created in 1932 by Forrest Mars Sr. after a quarrel with his father, Frank C. Mars. He proceeded to develop and produce the Mars Bar in Slough over 70 years ago. One of the Mars factories has been demolished and a lot of production has moved to the Czech Republic. The European head offices of major IT companies such as Research In Motion, Network Associates, Computer Associates, PictureTel and Compusys (amongst others) are all in the town. O2 is headquartered in the town across four buildings. The town is also home to the National Foundation for Educational Research, which is housed in The Mere.
Recent new offices include those of Nintendo, Black and Decker, Amazon.co.uk and Abbey Business Centres.[41] Dulux paints are still manufactured in Slough by AkzoNobel, which bought Imperial Chemical Industries in 2008. The registered office of Furniture Village lies in the town.[42] Sara Lee's headquarters for the United Kingdom are also in Slough.
The motor trade has long been represented in Slough. Until 1966, Citroën assembled cars in a Liverpool Road factory (later used by Mars Confectionery), and it retains its UK headquarters in the town. Ford built Transit vans at its factory in Langley (a former Hawker Aircraft site) from 1936 to the 1950s[43]) until the site was redeveloped for housing in the 1990s. Ferrari, Mercedes, Fiat and Maserati now have offices in the town.
Slough is near London, Heathrow Airport and Surrey, and the town is a travel hub. Many people from Slough work in nearby towns and cities such as Windsor, Reading, London and Maidenhead, and there are large passenger movements in the morning and evening rush hours. Road transport in Slough includes:
Slough is served by First Great Western stations at Burnham,[51] Slough[52] and Langley.[53] Slough station is a junction between the Great Western Main Line and the Slough to Windsor & Eton Line for passengers to Windsor.
Slough is planned to be part of the Crossrail Project, a new trans-London rail link now under construction.[54] The Windsor Link Railway is another proposed railway line that would link Slough to Heathrow Terminal 5 via Wraysbury, Datchet, Windsor and Chalvey.
Slough has a senior non-League football team, Slough Town F.C., who currently play in the Southern League Division One Midlands, which is the 8th tier of football in England.
Slough Jets a UK hockey team in the English Premier Ice Hockey League.
Slough Hockey Club - Ladies 1st are currently in the Premier league of the British Hockey League. while the mens 1st are in the 2nd Tier.
Slough Rugby Club are currently in the 5th Tier of the Rugby system.
The town has produced many Olympic class athletes as part of the 'Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow Athletics Club' (see List of people from Slough, Berkshire).
Numerous primary and secondary schools serve Slough. These include:
| Primary Schools | Secondary Schools | Further Education |
|---|---|---|
| Castleview School, Cippenham Infant School Cippenham Primary School Claycots Primary School Colnbrook Primary School Foxborough Primary School Godolphin Infant School Godolphin Primary School Holy Family Catholic Primary School IQRA Slough Islamic School James Elliman Primary School Khalsa Primary School Langley Hall Primary Academy Lynch Hill Primary School Marish Primary School Montem Primary School Our Lady of Peace Catholic Infant School Our Lady of Peace Catholic Primary School Parlaunt Park Primary School Penn Wood Primary School Pippins School Priory School Ryvers Primary School St Anthony's Catholic Primary School St Ethelbert's Catholic Primary School St Mary's Primary School Western House School Wexham Court Primary School Willow Primary School |
Baylis Court School Beechwood School Herschel Grammar School, Langley Academy Langley Grammar School Long Close School St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School St Joseph's Catholic High School Slough and Eton College Slough Grammar School Westgate School Wexham School |
Slough College of Further Education became the Slough campus of Thames Valley University before closure |
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