IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Maryside, SLOUGH, SL3 7ET

St Mary's Road, Langley, Slough, SL3 7EL close to the Slough Arm of the Grand Union Canal

Seen from the churchyard. I don't know who manages these almshouses these days, but they seem to be in use as sheltered accommodation for active old folk - not so very different from their original purpose. This is the porch at the middle of the row - I can see a red umbrella, and it looks as if somebody likes a bit of gardening. My only reservation is this: when you get old, would you choose to wake up each morning looking out at the churchyard ?

A westbound First Great Western express approaches the distant twin-arched structure of St Mary's Road bridge. This view was taken from the footbridge to the north of Alderbury Road, west of Langley railway station.

These little 17th century cottages (they date from about 1680) still serve much their original purpose - as accommodation for old people. Architecturally, the red-brick parts are vernacular in style, much as they would have been if built a century earlier. The chimney stacks are set diagonally, as they would have been in Tudor times. But the doorways and the two-storey porch are a bit more 'architectural' - there is some Classical influence. Those down-pipes seem a bit out of character - mightn't it be better to paint them black ? In earlier days there may have been chutes projecting from the eaves to throw rainwater clear - as at Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordshire: Image For a view from the road see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2309314

A new ramp up to the railway bridge is being built.

North of the Church of St Mary the Virgin, and on the east side of St Mary's Road, are the almshouses founded by Henry Seymour in 1679. The four central tenements are built in the same style as the earlier Kedermister almshouses to the south of the church, but the tenements at either end were probably added after 1687. Both ranges have chimney stacks of brick with shafts set diagonally.

These almshouses stand on the north side of the churchyard, while the somewhat older Kederminster almshouses stand on its south side http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2309292. The two sets of buildings are generally similar - redbrick cottages, with gabled dormers. An inscription on the Kederminster buildings dates them to 1617, while these are said to date from the 1670's and 80's http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-38733-12-14-16-18-20-22-slough. For a view from the churchyard see: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2310827

Deseronto Wharf is now an industrial estate shunning the canal. Bridge 8 is in the distance.

New footbridge's descending ramp crossing over railway, and old Victorian bridge, now a footbridge over canal.