Talk:Slough

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Contents

[edit] Pre-2005 comments

Slough (pronounced "slew") is a swamp, marsh, or shallow lake system in eastern and southeastern United States. In western U.S., a slough is a secondary channel of a river delta. In Southern California, a slough is a narrow, shallow salt-water marsh that may or may not be flushed by the tides.

The above seems like a dictionary def to me - what's its purpose exactly? Martin 15:44, 21 Sep 2003 (UTC

Disambiguation I guess? Probably since the UK Slough isn't the only slough in the world, there should be some "see also" type of indication of that. And it could serve as a stub for a possible future article on the ecology of sloughs. Marj 18:05, 21 Sep 2003 (UTC)
I think the above could grow into something more encyclopedic, along the lines of what is at wetland and swamp. It's a dictionary def for now, but it has potential. Angela 19:40, Sep 21, 2003 (UTC)

Why start with the temporary bureaucratic notion of the "unitary authority"? The town predates and will outlast it, and is what everyone but local councillors think of when they hear 'Slough'. -- Hotlorp 10:36, 8 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Some of the articles linking here do so in the sense of Slough UA rather than Slough the town. Maybe we need two articles? Martin 11:35, 8 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I find the article somewhat POV in presenting the town as unpleasant. It's really no worse that many other towns. -- Daran 13:50, 22 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I agree. It needs to be NPOVed. It's the best town in the world! anon (who'd want to admit to thinking that about Slough)

[edit] Mars factory

I reverted the claim that the Slough Mars factory was the original (opened by Forest Mars in the 1930s) - there was an earlier one opened by Frank Mars (Forest's father) in N. Oak Park Avenue, Chicago in 1929. Ian Cairns 13:46, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] ROBERT WATSON WATT

Robert_Watson-Watt lived in the town, as the inventor of Radar may deserver a mention here.

[edit] Citroën

The French car manufacturer Citroën had an important factory in Slough for many years, building Tractions Avant and the ID (DS) models. I don't have any more details, but Citroën lovers remember Slough for the UK spec cars that were produced there, so it would be worth a mention if anyone has more info.

[edit] POV removed

The following addition of the first para has been removed: "...generally regarded as the most depressing town known to humanity. Slough is also considered the ugliest place in the world. In 2006 a government enquiry was launched to investigate the possibilty of razing the town to the ground along with all its inhabitants. A government spokesman said "Slough is a blight on England's green and pleasant land, and the sooner we get rid of it the better." It was just vandalism. Dieter Simon 00:54, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] NPOV Problem

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Slough&diff=42332961&oldid=42185967

It might be an idea to make a more neutral revision of that edit ...

Fyver528 12:21, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

I've removed the first 2 paragraphs relating to possible reasons for the negative attitude to Slough. Hope this improves the neutrality of my post.

(Kwikblade 20:50, 6 March 2006 (UTC))


[edit] Changes made and direction of the article

Checking the History, you'll see that I've made numerous additions and have also reworked parts of the article.

Famous people associated with Slough has been changed to a chronological list from an alphabetical one. The History section has been greatly expanded and split into Pre-Trading Estate and Post-Trading Estate for ease of read, and also because I felt that it's creation was such an important event for the town.

Added the In Praise of Slough section to highlight positive points within the town, to counterbalance the Criticism section.

Vastly updated the Transport section.

Updated the introductary text and reordered it.

Updated and organised the External Links section.

Added the Twinned Towns section.

Added the Heart of Slough Project section, and I will be writing the article for that soon.

Added the Geography section and organised the suburbs into a list.

Kwikblade 22:09, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Criticism of Slough

In a letter to The Times published on Aug 31, 2006, a Matthew Dick writes 'Lest we forget, Betjeman retracted his less than favourable critique of [Slough] fairly shortly after making it.'

Can anyone properly source this and work it into the article?

[edit] how to pronounce Slough

Should the pronunciation be slow, not slau? I thought it was pronounced like "slaw"? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Flydaddyfred (talk • contribs) 03:46, 12 December 2006 (UTC).

No idea of the phonetic spelling, but it most definitely rhymes with plough, and not 'through', 'though', 'cough' or 'enough' !!!
And anyone who pronounces it 'sluff' as a joke is to be pitied (it is not a very funny joke).
EdJogg 13:19, 12 December 2006 (UTC) (former Slough resident!)


Which reminds me of the limerick read by Humphrey Lyttleton during a broadcast of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue:
There was a young lady from Slough
Who developed a very bad cough
She wasn’t to know
It would last until now
Let’s hope the poor girl will pull through
This should be added to the Cultural, artistic and literary references section when we can ascribe a broadcast date to it. (Need to double-check the text, too. This was pulled off another website.
EdJogg 13:19, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Slough as a suburb

Somebody has just commented that Slough is "a suburb of London", and that this began during industrialisation. I have never considered nor been aware of Slough being so. Would the author like to comment, and other people please have their say regarding this statement? Maramotus 11:35, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

- maybe I need to review my wording. I was trying to put across that for a while after the coming of the railway, Slough was seen as a pleasant but accessible retreat from London. I thought that 'suburb' was the right term in this context but I do take your point - one can hardly claim that mid 19th century London stretched seamlessly to Slough!

Please feel free to amend, or leave it with me for a few hours.Grblundell 13:13, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Charles Dickens

What is the connection between Charles Dickens and Slough? I cannot find any reference to Slough in the article on Dickens.

- try looking in the section 'From the coming of the railway to the founding of the trading estate' of Slough. Maybe this is a matter of more importance to Slough than it was to Dickens...
It's possible that the information in Slough is wrong. If you know better, then feel free to correct the article - that's the way it gets improved! Grblundell 18:04, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
My Dad's been on at me to change this for months. Apparently the cottage was not in Church Street, but somewhere else (still south of the High Street, but closer to Alpha Street, sort-of 'round the back of the Floral Arms', off the alley-way, maybe?). Can't remember the detail, but it's probably in Maxwell Fraser's book.
EdJogg 18:13, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
Maxwell Fraser (p135) does reference this - but (1) puts the dates as Jan 1866 - Jul 1867 (not as quoted here) (2) puts the cottage (Elizabeth Cottage) on the High Street (3) points out that the link was not proved. I know that Dickens studies have come on since Maxwell Fraser, but in the circumstances, I've removed the section from this article. The evidence isn't really encyclopaedic! Grblundell 19:47, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
Can't argue with that! (I will still ask if my Dad has better proof... ...although his information may well have come from his copy of Maxwell Fraser's book.)
Incidentally, for anyone who doesn't know central Slough, the location I suggested was just off the High Street, which has changed considerably since 1866.
EdJogg 08:37, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New reference

For anyone interested in taking this further, a google for ' "charles dickens" slough ' turned up this web page: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/pva/7.html

This is a report titled "Major Biographies of Dickens -- a Critical Overview", written by Philip V. Allingham, Contributing Editor, Victorian Web; Faculty of Education, Lakehead University.

The report mentions a biography of Dickens, written in 1991 by Peter Ackroyd, which the author regards as a scholarly tome. To quote directly from the report: "Very much a literary detective, Ackroyd also tracks Ellen's residences carefully, noting for example that in Slough Dickens lived near the Ternans under the alias Charles or John Tringham."

The biography in question is: Ackroyd, Peter. Dickens: A Biography. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1990.

Since it would appear that Ackroyd has done the research we are looking for here, it would be worth someone following up this lead.

EdJogg 09:21, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Incidentally, the article on Ellen Ternan does refer to Slough, mentioning that Dickens rented accommodation for her under false names (etc). The Charles Dickens article only mentions this particular period in passing -- probably because most documentary evidence of the affair appears to have been destroyed by the parties involved.

It would be appropriate for the Slough article to refer to Ternan and Dickens, but we need a good reference for it!

EdJogg 09:38, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

How about the fact that we can be sure that The 'Bentley's' publishing firm based in Slough was Charles Dickens' publisher?[1] [2] [3]

  1. ^ http://www.charlesdickenspage.com/family_friends.html
  2. ^ http://www.dickenslive.com/1837.shtml
  3. ^ http://www.thamespilot.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?a=query&p=slough&f=generic_theme.htm&_IXFIRST_=1&_IXMAXHITS_=1&%3Dtheme_record_id=sl-sl-richardbentley

Kwikblade 10:21, 17 June 2007

[edit] Local Government

Does anyone think a 'Government' section should be added after the history section? This would explain the type of local government that operates in the Slough Borough.

Kwikblade 20:20, 17 June 2007

There is an article on Slough Borough Council which is not as well linked from Slough as it might be. My feeling is that the best thing to do would be to move most of the local government content there - which should help reduce the size of the main article. I think it would be worth shipping most of the history into a separate History of Slough article too. Grblundell 17:11, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ceremonial County

I have reverted the revision 159666585 by 217.43.178.248 which put the ceremonial county as Bucks.

There is undoubtedly a lot of feeling in Slough that the town should never have been put out of Bucks. But as a matter of simple accuracy, although there is no longer a Berkshire County Council, for Lord Lieutenancy purposes (which I understand is the test used for ceremonial counties) Slough remains in Berkshire. So whether we like it or not, this is what the article needs to say.

If we're looking for a parallel, it's perhaps worth noting that the Linslade article quotes that as being in Bedfordshire rather than Bucks where it historically lay. So it seems that in general Wikpedia reflects things as they are rather than how we would like them to be.

If there is document to demonstrate the distaste at Slough being listed with Berkshire, maybe that should be referenced in the article? Grblundell 09:10, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Twin towns - Riga

I have reverted the re-introduction of Riga as a twin town of Slough as I asked if anyone could WP:VERIFY this as being true on 8 October. There was no response so I removed the statement on 22 October - a fortnight later.

It's important that everything in wikipedia can be proved - either to be true, or that we have good reason to believe it. So if Slough is twinned with Riga, then a reference needs to be included showing where we got the information from to let other people check it.

I hope this makes sense!

Cheers

Grblundell 08:27, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

This is going to keep coming up while Slough is listed as a 'sister city' on the Riga page and on List of twin towns and sister cities in the United Kingdom, although the parent (List of twin towns and sister cities) does not include Slough as a twin for Riga.
Interestingly, 'Slough' does not appear to be present on the Riga City Council website, nor Riga (or even Montreuil) on the Slough Borough Council site. I did find one non-mirror reference: (http://www.riga-life.com/info/info.php) but further googling required more refinement than I had time for. Also, a certain European site suggested there were 30,000 twinning arrangements between European towns/cities, and another hinted that there was no definitive list!!
EdJogg 00:05, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
I have reverted 87.81.176.119's good faith reintroduction of this - the amendment note refers us to the Slough BC website, but not to which page - and my search of the site finds no reference to Riga. So it is still an unsourced statement. I'm adding a note to 87.81.176.119's talk page to ask them to reference the statement if they reintroduce it. Grblundell (talk) 10:29, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Making Slough Good

I only joined Wikipedia for this page. As a kid I asked my dad why was Buckinghamshire council office on Windsor Road? and was explained but is only a little ref in the history. I been on Wikipedia two holidays now and wonder why Slough isn't a Good article like other towns nearby?

I grew up in Manor Park with practically no history of the town I lived in, but I am trying to find good things for the article. Other articles have 50 references to the article - are we just so happy to be in Slough that this is enough?

Make 2008 a time to make Slough a good article - we could start by going to Wikipedia Peer Review and telling us why we are B rate. Bpeps (talk) 19:00, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Looking at wp:peer review we're probably not ready for that yet, but I am about to put a request on Wikipedia:Requests for feedback. If I've read that right then we should get feedback there so please keep an eye on that page to give us pointers on where to go! Cheers, Grblundell (talk) 15:31, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
I've just given the article a quick blast of WP:UKCITIES, and done some converting of templates. I hope this helps! -- Jza84 · (talk) 21:32, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
as well as Jza84's most welcome changes, the following comments have been made on WP:RFF,for which many thanks
  • Well I'd say it is in need of many more inline citations and the quality templates need to be addressed. The trivia section, for example, should probably be worked into the main article, where it is relevant.—RJH (talk) 21:03, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
  • The list sections are the longest parts of the article, and the actual information sections don't actually have that much information. Maybe mix it all in some? Fléêťflämẽ 03:38, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
I'll try to pick up more from RFF as and when. Grblundell (talk) 09:41, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Ethnically Diverse

I have reverted 78.145.138.176 's contribution as - it reads like weasel words - it isn't sourced

But the reverted statement isn't perfect either. I would add a citation request, but my phone declines to edit documents as big as 31k, and the text is in the intro...

Could someone please - source the current statement - define what we mean by 'ethnically diverse'? It seems to me that it is not a synonym for 'has a large non white population' - if a town was (say) 50% white british and 50% Tamil, it surely would be less ethnically diverse (two ethnic groups only) than a town that was 90% white british, 5% Tamil and 5% Maori (3 ethnic groups).

Many thanks Grblundell (talk) 10:08, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

I've found the following page in the archive of the Commission for Racial Equality Ethnicity profiles: South East England - Slough. This starts like so:
Leaving aside London, Slough can claim to be the most diverse place in England. If you were to pick any two people at random from its population of 120,000, there would be a 62 per cent chance that they would be from different ethnic backgrounds.
I took a quick look around the site for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the body which replaced the CRE, but could not track anything down quickly. There are many references to Slough, for example!
Perhaps someone else can pick up this and run with it?
EdJogg (talk) 13:25, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
In the case of Slough, "one of the most ethnically diverse" is really quite meaningless. Croydon, too, is ethnically diverse. Slough either is or is not the most ethnically diverse towns. It isn't according to [[1]], it is Brent. Dieter Simon (talk) 18:56, 14 February 2008 (UTC)