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.

Small boats harbour - Gibraltar, November 2024

The high-rise buildings shown in the gallery below are, wihout exception, sitting on land reclaimed from the sea. That reclamation goes on at both the west (town) side of the Rock and at the east (Catalan Bay etc) side. The first photos below illustrate some current west side reclamation.

In 1940, the British government evacuated the majority of the civilian population of Gibralter in order to reinforce the territory with more military personnel, though civilians with essential jobs were permitted to stay. The civilian evacuees were sent to numerous locations, including Casablanca, London, Madeira and Jamaica; some spent up to a decade away from Gibraltar, but the majority returned in 1943 after the Allied invasion of Sicily. The evacuation reinforced the British national identity of the Gibraltarians via their participation in the Allied war effort. A monument to the evacuation is shown in the second photo in the gallery below; it is located on the roundabout at the junction of Waterport Road, Europort Road and North Mole Road.

Views in and around Gibraltar port are in the gallery below. I missed (photographing) the $75m tender (support vessel) of Geoff Bezos's yacht which was berthed (the tender) in the port the day before I took these photos. The tender itself resembled a WWI battleship with a narrow prow. The yacht is called Koru and is a luxury (of course), three-masted sailing yacht, 127 meters long. It was built in the Netherlands twixt 2021 and 2023 and is reported to have cost north of $500 million. When commissioned, it was the second-largest sailing yacht in the world.

Following the Battle of Trafalgar, HMS Victory made her way to Gibraltar for repairs, carrying Nelson's body. She put into Rosia Bay and after emergency repairs were carried out, returned to Britain. Many of the injured crew were taken ashore at Gibraltar and treated in the Naval Hospital. Men who subsequently died from injuries sustained at the battle are buried in Trafalgar Cemetery, part of which may be seen through the gateway in the picture above. The following picture features a muriel (as they say in Bristle) in Ragged Stsff Road of the battle.

The following photos were taken at various locations around Gibraltar: Trafalgar Road, Rosia Road, Admirals Place, Royal Gibraltar Yacht Club...

Now we move to the east side and Catalan Bay which just a few years ago could still be taken for a sleepy inter-war, or perhaps 50s/60s seaside village. Now, the Art Deco (almost) Caleta Hotel (see pictures elsewhere) has been demolished, no doubt to be replaced by a towering monstrosity, half-a-dozen (or more) tower blocks now blight the timeless view of the Rock and further substantial development is in the offing in the form of a marina and associated infrastructure on the north side of the village.