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.
Viki returning to base after injuring her hand in the constant battle against litter. This 7th April 2019 battle was illustrated later when, a few hours after the litter pick, about fifteen items of McDonald's detritus (bags, boxes, cups, sauce containers) were found scattered on the A4 above Copenacre (see last picture).
John, Gordon, Rod, John II, Lorraine, Pat, Viki and Robin prepare for the off as Dave fantasises
Dave now shows the group some of his dance moves
John, Rod, Lorraine and Pat head off to do Westwells Road and Bradford Road
Dave at the brow of Box Hill heading down the A4 towards Pickwick
Two bags full - Robin and Dave heading back up the A4
Gordon at the brow of Box Hill, By Brook Valley beyond
Rod returning from Westwells Road with split bag
Not a bad haul but actually it's a disgrace really that this amount of litter is discarded in and around Rudloe every month. And, of course, this is happening all over the country.
This illustrates the problem. Just a couple of hours after the litter pick, someone chucked their McDonald's bag out of a car on the A4. These 15 items were scattered all over the road and verge. It's a never-ending battle.
Dave and Derrick in the Bradford Road on the 5th May 2019 litter pick with the unfortunate Bellway, 88-home, greenfield development behind. Unfortunate because there is an, as yet, undeveloped brownfield site with planning permission for 180 homes just a quarter-of-a-mile away. In the other title photograph we see Leafy Lane in all its spring glory and the magnificent beech in a Clift Close garden.
Robin, John, Brian, Howard, Rod, Bernard, Lorraine, Madeleine, Derrick, Dave and Pat, with Viki plus Jane & Tom still to arrive, at the Boxfields Road/Leafy Lane rendezvous for this May 2019 litter pick
Dave and Derrick venturing down Skynet Drive with the Bellway earthworks behind on what was, last year, a lovely meadow
Viki seen through the spring foliage of Toghill Crescent's beech
Madeleine taking her life in her hands on the Bradford Road curve below Rudloe Estate (today's drivers were, in general, quite considerate)
The Redcliffe 'strategic gap' estate creeps closer to Rudloe; the 50 affordable homes will, of course, be built closest to the pylon and overhead lines
In order not to lose planning application 15/00712/WCM to the three-year start rule, the mine owner (which, I am told, is now Johnson's of Cornwall rather than Hanson) have dug an arbitrary hole to 'prove' start of work; Halfway Firs beyond
The sight of cow parsley can be better enjoyed in a litter-free Bradford Road
'We' ventured into Pickwick in order to come back up up the A4 which was remarkably litter-free (others having 'picked' as far as Copenacre)
This field 'below' Copenacre remains the only unthreatened (by development) farmland on the arterial routes in west Corsham (Pickwick)
SUDS (sustainable drainage systems) or attenuation ponds are to be found in all new developments; this one at Copenace or Pickwick Court as it is now known. These fashionable pieces of infrastructure may have unintended consequences.
The taxpayer-funded Help to Buy scheme funnels money into the pockets of building companies' shareholders and company bosses whose salaries and bonuses (e.g. Persimmon's Jeff Fairburn and his £75 million bonus) have skyrocketed
Original flats and recent GreenSquare houses in Long Close Avenue beyond a litter-free Bath Road
Wild garlic in flower in a relatively litter-free Rudloe Firs on 5th May 2019
Bovine friends enjoying the handiwork of Jane and Tom at Boxfields (photo by Jane Roberton)
Tom tackling quite a pile of rubbish twixt Beech Road and the A4 (photo by Jane Roberton)
Bernard and John wend their way home as Mike and Millie cross Leafy Lane. The sycamore in the garden of 12 Springfield Close is the only remaining TPO tree (of 11) at the southern end of Springfield Close. The TPO was dated 1970.
Lorraine, Mike, Millie, Rod and Pat remain to wash-up today's issues (one of which is that spring growth is hiding much of the litter)
This month's haul awaits collection at the junction of Boxfields Road and Leafy Lane
June's litter pick finds John rummaging about in the Bradford Road verge. On my side of the road is a typical find - a half-full bottle of pop. Interesting that many of the bottles and cans recovered on the litter picks still contain a considerable amount of liquid (usually beer or cider). The pictured bottle contains half of its dandelion and burdock and still had quite a bit of fizz; the released aroma was a reminder of childhood and the corner shops in the back streets of Stockton Heath (Warrington). But why do people chuck away so much of their purchases?
Boxfields Road and environs were a tad chaotic today with vehicles parked in the passing places; Dave directs operations with Viki, Howard, Robin, John, Meg, Rod, Brian, Lorraine and Pat about to venture forth, Mike having already departed
Howard checking the footpath behind Springfield Close along a deserted Bradford Road
The Dickens Gate greenfield development begins to take shape blocking important views of the Marlborough Downs, the Clay Vale and Salisbury Plain from one of the highest points in north-west Wiltshire (see other articles)
Herb robert in Skynet Drive with the Redcliffe 170-home speculation slowly filling the designated (by Corsham Town Council, Wiltshire's Landscape Character Assessment and the Core Strategy) 'strategic gap' twixt Corsham and Rudloe
Yellow rattle in Skynet Drive with the Redcliffe 170-home speculation slowly filling the designated (by Corsham Town Council, Wiltshire's Landscape Character Assessment and the Core Strategy) 'strategic gap' twixt Corsham and Rudloe
John at the Rudloe/Corsham border crossing on the Bradford Road although at the equivalent crossing point on the A4, Pickwick, not Corsham, is now designated. These locations are about 5 kilometers or one McDonald from west Chippenham.
John, now in 'Corsham' and, at the end of my picker, more evidence of the distance of one McDonald from west Chippenham
The landscape version of the title photo with the half-full bottle of dandelion and burdock in the Bradford Road
Lorraine in the vicinity of Rudloe Estate's beech
John returning up the Bradord Road in a location which, until last year, was a lovely, rural spot with a canopy of broadleaf and fruit trees but is now ruined by urbanization
Views of the Marlborough Downs, the Clay Vale, Salisbury Plain and intervening meadowland unnecessarily reduced to this. This illustrates how the planning system and our repesentatives have failed the people, the environment and future generations.
Trouble in Boxfields Road as passing places have been used for parking by attendees at LLPF's football tournament
A fairly modest pile today partly due to litter being hidden by summer vegetation growth; John, Robin, Brian, Rod and Pat discuss today's events
Litter pick finished, Robin directs drivers towards LLPF's parking as traffic backs up onto the Bradford Road (the brown pick-up also belongs to a tournament attendee)
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