IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Darwin Road, SLOUGH, SL3 8DG

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 ?

Looking away from Trenches Bridge; this is the start of a three kilometre straight stretch. Named footpath trails run on either side here; the Colne Valley Trail on the left, and the Grand Union Canal Walk on the right.

East of bridge 8.

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

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

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

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

Looking across the canal from the towpath on the southern bank. Behind the camera are business units on Waterside Drive.

After working on garbage clearance at the top end of the Slough Arm, British Waterways boat Limehouse returns back down the canal.