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 first Rudloe litter pick of 2019, on Sunday 6th January, saw a dozen Rudloeites (and one Corshamite - thanks Jane) venturing forth. The title picture is not untypical of the mysteries one comes across when wandering abroad. Just a little plastic bag ... but its contents provide the mystery ... an unopened bottle of Coca Cola, an unopened packet of M&Ms, a new tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush. What? Why? As usual, answers on a postcard to ...
But actually, as indicated above, this is not untypical. Also found, by others, on this first jaunt of 2019 were two, unopened bottles of Prosecco and unopened cans of beer.
Ready for the off are Jane, Madeleine, David, Brian, Meg, Robin, John, Rob, Mike, Jan and Dave with, of course, yours truly behind the lens
This gilet jaune was spotted in Rudloe Firs close to the (now closed) entrance to Brewer's Yard quarry
Dave on the A4 above Copenacre with, beyond the trees and the pylon, Redcliffe architectural detritus
Beyond Corsham, Bradford-on-Avon is the most southerly Cotswold town. Yet here we have the Redcliffe arm of Corsham reaching out towards the Cotswold AONB with complete disregard for the nature of the built environment.
Robin scouring the A4 verge at the brow of Box Hill opposite Rudloe Firs
I suppose the caption for this picture could be 'a cow's backside' - I would imagine that's what the owners of the Bellway homes beyond the new barn might feel about their modified view.
Dave and Robin with a plethora of winter food (ivy berries) for our feathered friends on the A4 above Copenacre
Jane (who caught the bus up from Corsham to help clear our streets) and David in Leafy Lane
John and Madeleine keeping to the speed limit in Boxfields Road (Dave went to pick up their 'other' bag)
Dave, who organised this litter pick, will inform Wiltshire Council that the bags can be picked up at the junction of Leafy Lane and Boxfields Road
February 2019 - just missing a couple in this pre-pick shot; luckily the rain has stopped
If the shotguns don't get 'em, the traffic will. This pheasant in the Bradford Road verge.
Litterers seem to have an inbred desire to hide their waste; here, stuff has been chucked over the fence at the Bradford Road lay-by
There's an extensive patch of euphorbia in the Bradford Road verge twixt Springfield Close and the Links
From a distance these snowdrops in the Bradford Road verge appear to be litter; nothing could be further from the truth
Much foreground litter here at the Bellway, Bradford Road development; the 'important views' here designated by the Wiltshire Landscape Character Assessment of 2004 will be lost to future generations. So much for local plans!
Here is much larger, structural litter unnecessarily blocking the designated important views. The Wiltshire Landscape Character Assessment (2004) asserted that such building should be on low-level, brownfield sites.
Through the structural steel, Oliver's Camp or Castle at the western escarpment of the Marlborough Downs can still be seen. But thanks to Chris Watt of Bath ASU, and contrary to Wiltshire strategic plans, this view will be lost for good.
Back to low-level rubbish now and here's Rod adding to his already bursting sack in the Bradford Road
This is just about it, but one more large piece of plastic needs to be picked up from White Ennox Lane
The view from White Ennox Lane across the field of winter wheat, Hazelbury Manor's horse chestnut drive and the main drive on the skyline
And here's the final pile with the offending piece of plastic added
Note that the March 2019 litter pick scheduled for Sunday, 3rd March will be postponed until the following Sunday, 10th March if the forecast heavy rain arrives as expected.
Well, so much for weather forecasts. I checked the BBC TV morning forecast and the Met Office online forecast and both predicted heavy rain from about 8 o'clock until about 11 o'clock followed by a two-hour clear period with more rain later. But all we had was some light rain until about 9:30 followed by cloudy skies with little or no rain (even until now, as I write, at 3:30). So the litter pick went ahead with a somewhat reduced crew (eight in total) and a consequent, reduced haul (see the title photo).
John, Gordon, Rod, Lorraine and organiser Dave at pick start with Mike, Howard and yours truly not in shot. No rain, just cloudy and damp.
Howard looks, aghast, at the 100-metre long, 7.5-metre high monstrosity disfiguring the Rudloe landscape
I'm reminded of the ultimate paragraph in my 14-page (!) objection to the original planning application (13/05724/OUT) for this commercial speculation. It went as follows:
Baldwin's 'The sounds of England, the tinkle of hammer on anvil in the country smithy, the corncrake on a dewey morning, the sound of the scythe against the whetstone and the sight of a plough team coming over the brow of a hill, the sight that has been in England since England was a land, and may be seen in England long after the Empire has perished and every works in England has ceased to function, for centuries the one eternal sight of England' is gone and is now superseded by 'The twinkle in the eyes of landowners and developers who have discovered cash cows over the brow of the hill. Communities and local planners cut down by the scythe of central government viewing not centuries but five-year terms. Grey blocks on every street corner as a reminder of a time of barbarism and infamy'.
A red light for traffic but a green light for overdevelopment in west Corsham with nigh on 1,000 residences in the pipeline. Howard at right.
Here's the Redcliffe speculation creeping towards Rudloe across the 'strategic gap' (the gap designated to prevent a west Corsham conurbation)
A memorial to David Plummer from his mother, Sharon, at the site of his fatal crash on the Bradford Road in August 2007
In the half-hour or so on the Bradford Road section of the litter pick below Rudloe Estate, there were two incidents of cars overtaking in spite of oncoming cars. The overtaking drivers were going flat out in third gear in order to complete their manoeuvres, then shortly afterwards, around the Rudloe bends, they would most likely have to stop at the red light shown in the photograph above. What is the point? Why do people drive at breakneck speeds?
Travelling through an area at speed gives the driver, and passengers, little or no appreciation of the locality being passed through. The sights, sounds and scents (certainly in spring) of a journey cannot be appreciated at speed. Our towns and cities have been ruined by the tyranny of the motor vehicle. About 360,000 people have been killed on Britain's roads since the Second World War. Yet still we pander to these icons of oneupmanship in programmes like Top Gear. Much, or most, of roadside litter is from cars whose occupants, isolated from the real world outside, don't give a damn about the (local) environment.
A tiny coal tit in the Bradford Road verge, a delicate victim of a brutish motor vehicle
Lorraine, Howard, Dave, John and Rod with the fruits of their labours behind
Lorraine, Rod and John heading home along a litter-free Leafy Lane
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