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.
The Reckoning is a Dash Arts production staged at arcola theatre in Dalston. From the Director's Note we learn "This play is a collision of worlds: part verbatim, part fictional, part lived. Most of the stories you'll hear comedirectly from witnesses, word for word. Others are drawn from the personal experiences of our cast and creatives, and some are imagined - shaped by the truths we've felt, if not literally lived. Together, they form a kind of reckoning: with war, with complicity, with resistance - and with the stories we choose to tell and remember." It's about the war in Ukraine. As the performance ends, the conversation continues. Audiences will be invited to hear reflections from expert speakers—journalists, lawyers, and those with lived experience of the conflict - see https://www.dasharts.org.uk/the-reckoning. For the matinee performance on Saturday, 14th June 2025, the conversation continued with Nick Tranter, a volunteer with 4Ukraine Humanitarian Aid.
I decided to walk from Paddington to Dalston, a distance of about seven miles. I thought I could do this in about two hours, it took three (thankfully, I built in time contingency). The title picture shows arcola theatre.
Foolishly perhaps, I decided to make this trip on the same day that Bath were playing Leicester at Twickenham in the Premiership Rugby final. The train appeared full when it arrived at Chippenham but 'we' (four 'friends' were making the trip to Twickenham for the rugby so they and 90% of the other passengers would be alighting at Reading) managed to squeeze on, Japanese style. We, along with about ten others, were crammed into a vestibule as far as Reading. The photo, at left, shows the view down the carriage in front. From Reading, I almost had that carriage to myself.
'Works of art' at Paddington Station. The colourful, lofted 'swirl' seems quite stylish but what on earth is that shapeless, gaudy (worthless even) 'thing' supposed to represent?
And talking of gaudy (ref Paddington Station), I wonder what lies behind these facades in Chapel Street
In Marylebone/Euston Road (A501)
The Doric Arch at Euston Station was built in 1837 and demolished in 1962 to enable the rebuilding of the station. And those that have had the misfortune to depart from Euston Station will have seen the 'train crash' of a station that resulted. All that remains of the arch now is the name - of a Fullers pub close by.
In Chalton Street, Somers Town, a procession of ponies and traps passed with police escort to the front and rear. They were going at quite a pace - I wondered how on earth this could come about in all the London traffic.
The British Library and St Pancras Station. Talking about the destruction of the Doric Arch at Euston, in the 60s and 70s, 'we' thought that Victorian buildings were old-fashioned and should be replaced by modern, concrete structures (if we could send men to the moon, we could do anything). Unbelievably, St Pancras Station was under threat and it required the intervention of John Betjeman and others to save it. JB's efforts are recognised through a statue in his honour and a pub, the Betjeman Arms, both in the train shed.
The most popular entertainer of the Regency era, Joseph Grimaldi performed, inter alia, at Sadler's Wells in Islington
Substantial Islington terrace (Georgian?)
Having recovered my senses, I decided to take the train back to Paddington. Dalston Junction station was just around the corner from arcola theatre and there I discovered another world of London travel - the London overground network. I took a Windrush Line train to Whitechapel where I changed for the Elizabeth Line (Crossrail). The Windrush Line runs from Highbury & Islington to New Cross. The other London overground lines are:
- The Weaver Line - Liverpool Street to Enfield, Cheshunt and Chingford
- The Liberty Line - Romford to Upminster
- The Mildmay Line - Richmond & Clapham Junction to Stratford
- The Suffragette Line - Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside
- The Lioness Line - Euston to Watford
A final word on the arcola experience... Towards the end of the performance, a small bowl of Ukrainian summer salad (and a wooden spoon!) was given to each member of the audience and on leaving, the recipe card below was handed out.
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