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.
7th July 2019 and the midsummer Rudloe litter pick sees: Dave, Howard and Robin in Leafy Lane, John in his gold-tinted glasses in the Bradford Road and the litter of the new Redcliffe Estate in the designated 'strategic gap' twixt Corsham and Rudloe (across the wheat field and with convolvulus arvensis in the foreground).
Rod, Lorraine, John, Gordon and Robin prepare for the off, Mike and Meg having already departed. Dave and Howard were late arrivals and with yours truly taking the pic, that makes ten Rudloeites on this midsummer venture.
And off they go, Howard and Robin down Leafy Lane, and Lorraine, Rod and Gordon down Westwells Road and Bradford Road
Nine months after the start of work, the height (above the roadway) of the new, Bellway development indicates that important views across the Clay Vale will be blocked for everyone except for those living in the south-east quadrant of the new estate
The Redcliffe section of the west Corsham conurbation creeps closer to Rudloe. At this, western, end we see some of the sixty 'affordable' homes (closer to Rudloe and the pylons and allocated to the Merlin housing association) taking shape
The owner of Wideacre, twixt the Stone Close estate and Halfway Firs, has (thankfully and as far as I know) resisted approaches from developers
The trees of the Lucknam Park Estate describe a line twixt Colerne and Thickwood. Here (Lucknam Park), according to John, hundreds of butterflies of many different types may be found in a meadow deliberately left uncut.
Back to litter! Looks like a fairly modest haul but this pile amounts to one bag per person which is absolutely good enough!
The August 2019 litter-pick and three bags almost full in Bradford Road with Brian, Jane and Tom then Brian inspects thirteen bags full at the junction of Leafy Lane and Boxfields Road.
Before the 'off', equipment is getting sorted; Mike has already departed; Jane and Tom are already picking between Katherine Park and here
Important view (ref Wiltshire Landscape Character Assessment, 2004) in Bradford Road blocked by Bellway development
Dave takes the high road while Madeleine takes the low in Bradford Road
Dave, Brian and John rummaging around in the Bradford Road verge
The unfortunate, Bellway, 88-home, greenfield development pushes into the Rudloe skyline blocking important views to Marlborough Downs and Salisbury Plain. The adjacent B3109 closes next Sunday, 11th August 2019, for three months.
This was a lovely meadow - see last year's news/pictures
Brian on the A4 verge above Copenacre
The unfortunate, Redcliffe, greenfield, 170-home development fills the required 'strategic gap' thus contributing to the west Corsham conurbation
Brian in the horse chestnut avenue opposite Rudloe Firs at the brow of Box Hill
Brian with this month's haul at the junction of Leafy Lane and Boxfields Road
The 1st September 2019 Rudloe litter pick sees, in the title pictures, Dave at Rudloe Fiveways and Howard on the A4 below Copenacre (we don't usually venture that far east but this is on the return leg of a circuit whose outward leg is down the Bradford Road as far as the byway beyond the golf superstore)
Brian, Madeleine, Meg, Adam, Gordon, Rod, Rob and Dave awaiting the off; John has just arrived out of picture, Mike has already ventured off down Westwells Road and Howard was a late arrival which made a round dozen
Howard (in the shadow of the hedge) and Dave in the Bradford Road close to the entrance to Rudloe Estate
Lovely country view eh! This is the 15-acre field 'below' Rudloe, the former site of a proposed new slope shaft for Hartham Quarry. However, an application has now been made for a slope shaft at Rudloe Firs, leaving this field available for ...
... development of course. A 15-acre field bought by the Johnston organisation for £1,200 just last year has morphed from a stone mine to a gold mine with development farmland at £1 million per acre in southern England. Simples (if you're a landowner).
An R-reg (from opaque rear plate) BMW with no front number plate had just accelerated to about 75mph here but when he saw me, with hi-viz and camera, he screeched to a complete stop. He then crept forward and we exchanged words.
Howard in the Bradford Road; the cyclist in the distance had said "thank you" when he passed.
No one can recall Wiltshire Council cutting back verges to within an inch of their lives in August. This is the brow of Box Hill on the return leg of the litter pick; the verge twixt Chapel Plaister and (big) Fiveways has also been scalped as has ...
... the verge and hedgerow on the Bradford Road. One wonders what Wiltshire Council is playing at; with cuts to essential services, why are they both wasting money on such unnecessary tasks and, at the same time, trashing the environment.
The following is the essence of an email sent to Wiltshire Council on 2nd September 2019:
No one in this neck of the woods can recall Wiltshire Council cutting back hedgerows and verges to within an inch of their lives in August. There has been what appears to be overly-severe cutting back on the B3109 between Chapel Plaister and Fiveways, again on the B3109 between Rudloe and Pickwick and on the A4 at the brow of Box Hill.
So, why have you done this, what appears to be, unnecessary cutting back this year both in a time of relative austerity and when we are urged by environmental organisations (and by our common sense) to keep as much as possible of our environment 'wild' in order to benefit wildlife (and the planet!).
The results of our labours this month - this will be collected by Wiltshire Council on Monday 2nd September
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