The trading estate, the island associations and the mayor from Montserrat.
Coming To Slough
Between 1948 and 1971 Caribbean islanders moved to Slough to support British industry, the NHS and the armed forces, and many of them found work on the Slough Trading Estate. The estate had begun as a military repair depot in the First World War and became a commercial estate in 1920, and its jobs had been drawing people to the town ever since.
A Town Of Island Associations
Slough's Caribbean community is organised island by island. The Anguilla Community Group, the Slough Dominican Association and SANAS, the St Kitts and Nevis Association Slough, are among the groups behind the town's Windrush Day celebrations, which have drawn more than 300 people for performances, a Zumba-thon and plenty of Caribbean food and drink.
The community also honours its elders. At a Windrush Elders' Dinner, the seniors who came between 1948 and 1971 were celebrated with guests from the Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis high commissions.
Lydia Simmons
Lydia Simmons was born in Montserrat. She was elected to Slough Borough Council in 1979, served as deputy mayor and then as mayor from 1984 to 1985, and she is often described as the first Black woman to become a mayor in the UK. She chaired the council's housing committee from 1985 to 1994, returned as a councillor from 1999 to 2007 and was made an OBE.
Black Slough Today
Since the 1960s Slough's jobs and its location have drawn a steady stream of people from other countries to settle, and the town's Caribbean and African families are part of a town built by people who came from somewhere else. Black-owned food spots, barbers, salons and brands are part of everyday Slough.
Shop Black-owned businesses in Slough on CashBlack.
Photo Credits
Original factory buildings on the Slough Trading Estate. Photo: Des Blenkinsopp, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons Shops on Farnham Road, Slough. Photo: David Howard, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons