Death in Slough
Sir: Nicholas Coleridge's comments on Slough (Diary, 19 January) reminded me that in the 1950s that town was a most exciting place for a small boy to travel through. On coach journeys from Oxford to London the route lay through the middle, where there stood (perhaps still stands?) a very tall pole on the top of which was a small red light. This was illuminated if there had been a road death in Slough during the day. As Slough proudly boasted that it was a Safety Town, I doubt if it was much used, but the linked traffic lights, which guaranteed unimpeded progress if drivers went no faster than 30 miles an hour (or, presumably, twice as fast) and the distant prospect of Windsor Castle, the traverse of Slough was undoubtedly the high spot of the journey, much more eagerly awaited than Henley or Maiden- head, and provided us children with an unparallelled introduction to the world we have now inherited. I never saw the pole lit up, but my expectations for the next journey were, strangely, never diminished.
P. R. Williams
15 Culworth House, Allitsen Road, London NW8
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