Welcome to the Rudloe and environs website.
Here you will find news, articles and photos of an area that straddles the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in north-west Wiltshire.
Contributions in the form of articles or photos are welcome. Even those with completely contrary views to mine!
Thanks to the website builder 1&1 and Rob Brown for the original idea.
Rudloescene now, in January 2014, has a sister, academic rather than anarchic, website about Box history here: http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/
It contains thoroughly professional, well-researched articles about Box and its people.
Contact rudloescene through the 'Contact' page.
This is a pictorial of an early-morning jaunt to Chippenham on 17th July 2023. An Elvis fan was encountered, by chance, at two locations around the town - see the title pictures. Later, we passed the Eddie Cochrane memorial on the Bath Road verge at Lowden.
The accident on the A4 at Lowden and Eddie's demise at St Martin's Hospital were big news in this provincial town (and worldwide) in April 1960
James Gray MP buying a ticket at Chippenham Station ticket office which, along with many (most) others is scheduled for closure. He will join (lead?) the campaign against the closures - watch out for articles in the local press.
Bin Lane leading to Chapel Mews. One (of many) indications of how life, and the environment, has changed over the last two generations
Bin Hill, a back route to the railway station, Wiltshire College and the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre
Beers on offer at Chippenham Station cafe. At £3.80, Corona is somewhat cheaper that at the Methuen Arms (for example) where the same beer will set you back £5.15. At 08:30, one customer took advantage of this 'bargain'...
Taking advantage of the cheap (!) beer, the gentleman at the counter was buying his second Corona while the lady at far right spent the whole time I was there (10 minutes) 'powdering her nose'
Stables in central Chippenham
The 60s was a time when we thought we could change the world. Fly to the Moon; demolish old, Victorian (built by Brunel) cottages at the brow of Station Hill and build marvellous new structures using modern materials. This is the result.
Continuing to 'take back control', Veolia is a French waste contractor. Bath City Council uses Suez, another French company, for its waste services. Maintaining the theme, Wiltshire Council's landscaping contractor is idverde, French.
The now closed Sir Audley Arms in Audley Road. This substantial site will, no doubt, be developed to provide yet more housing for immigrants. "Migration has continued to be the main driver of the UK's population growth since the 1990s" (ONS).
The western end of Lowden to where, on summer evenings in the early sixties, I would occasionally cycle to watch passing steam engines (pre-metal fence and vegetation growth)
Traditional corner shops (grocers, sweet shops, chip shops) have been replaced by shops offering aspects of personal grooming (hair studio, tattoo parlour, barber) as seen here at the junction of Lowden and Palmer Street
Railway bridge at Lowden with cottages beyond which may have been built to house workers on the railway in the 19th century
19th-century image of the Lowden cottages with St Peter's church and almshouses beyond
St Peter's Church with Elisabeth Utterson's almshouses beyond. The almshouses came first (in 1884); the church was built in 1886. Don't the bins (and the yellow lines) spoil the street scene.
Reflections in a van window in Lowden
Cottage at Lowden which was renovated and put up for auction by George Lacy (Smith & Lacy) in 1972. In spite of the fact that we were family of one of his employees, no favour was offered and we lost out to a higher bid.
Electrification infrastructure in place west of Chippenham but the catenary stops at Cocklebury. Bath and Bristol remain isolated in spite of the Government's much-trumpeted investment of tens of billions in the (privatised) railway,
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