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.

Another court appearance found us, on 19th March 2026, in Newport confronting a charlatan by the name of Clery. The title picture shows the River Usk from the east bank.

But we don't want to talk about court appearances do we? We want to talk about railways and the state of the UK, or England in particular which is, in many respects, a basket case. Ironically, the railway journey to Newport (to our west) saw us heading east to Swindon where we changed for a South Wales train. However, our sheduled train, the 08:12 to Newport, was cancelled so we had to wait half-an-hour for the next train. But wait, having said that the 08:12 was cancelled due to "problems with the train" (the causes of cancellations or delays seem to be taken from a list), it duly arrived, on a different platform, heading not for Newport but for Bristol Parkway. The half-hour wait on Swindon Station was a most unpleasant experience apart from the intercourse (verbal) with the Lithuanian cafe assistant. The wait brought me to realise why many people don headphones or ear pods - see/hear the YouTube video below which drivel formed the continuous backdrop to our wait.

The photo below shows the Newport Transporter Bridge, one of four that existed in the UK. The other three were the (1) Widnes-Runcorn Bridge which was demolished in 1961. I remember crossing the Mersey on this bridge in our car in the 1950s. This bridge featured in the Stanley Holloway monologue Tuppence Per Person Per Trip, (2) The Middlesborough Transporter Bridge which 'we' could have used in 2016 but twas a Sunday and the bridge was closed, it is now closed for safety reasons with plans to refurbish and reopen in 2032 and (3) the listed, disused Warrington Transporter Bridge. The Newport bridge is closed for restoration work.

The banks of the Usk around Newport Bridge and close-ups of the bridge piers

Contrasting styles - the Tudor Ye Olde Muringer House (pub) in the High Street and Clarence House (modern monstrosity) which was the destination of our vist