Chalvey

Chalvey is a former village, which is now a suburb of Slough, in the unitary authority of Slough in Berkshire, England. It was transferred to Berkshire from Buckinghamshire in 1974.

Chalvey
St Peter's Church
Chalvey Location within Berkshire
OS grid reference	SU965795
District	Slough
Ceremonial county	Berkshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Slough
Postcode district	SL3
Dialling code	01753
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Royal Berkshire
Ambulance	South Central
UK Parliament	Slough

It was first recorded in 1217 by an Old English word meaning "Calf Island", from Cealf meaning calf. As the name implies, Chalvey lies low on the plain of the River Thames, and there may have been enough of a rise for an island to stand above the slough from which the later town takes its name.

Chalvey has never formed a parish on its own, being twinned with Upton in the parish of Upton-cum-Chalvey.

As Slough developed, Chalvey developed as a working-class community of small terraced houses. Nonconformist churches were established starting with the Congregationalists in 1806.[1]^:37

In 1849, the Slough to Windsor railway was built, passing through the middle of Chalvey. A halt was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1929 but closed the following year.[2]

At some point between 1850 and 1880, a local legend developed about the "Chalvey Stab Monkey" involving an organ grinder and a stabbed monkey; the first person to get blind drunk on the anniversary of the monkey's funeral is declared "Mayor of Chalvey". Traditionally, residents of Chalvey have been known as "stab-monks".[1]^:40 A long-standing local joke suggests that Chalvey's main industry is in the Treacle Mines. On occasion, this has been taken to be a reference to the local sewage works.[3]

It was stated on the "Immigration - How We Lost Count" edition of the BBC1 documentary Panorama on 23 July 2007 that Chalvey is severely overcrowded, and that most of its residents are immigrants and members of ethnic minorities. Chalvey has a large Asian population.[4]

The first recorded Lord of the Manor of Chalvey was recorded in the year 1502. The current Lord of Chalvey, Christopher Johnson, lives in the United States.

References

1. Fraser, Maxwell (1973). The History of Slough. Slough Corporation. ASIN B001GN44T8.
2. Hunter, Judith; Hunter, Karen (1992). Around Slough in Old Photographs. Alan Sutton Publishing. p. 53. ISBN 978-1845884628.
3. Slough Museum (2003). The Changing Face of Slough. Breedon Books. p. 58. ISBN 978-1859833155.
4. 2001 - Key Statistics Slough Borough Council Chalvey Ward Archived July 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine