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.

2022 - a new year with the same old problem - still, it gives us Rudloeites something to do on the first Sunday of the month. Just a reminder - we meet at the junction of Leafy Lane and Boxfields Road at 10 o'clock; contact Dave Wright (dave.wright533@tiscali.co.uk) or Paul Turner (wirepuller@hotmail.com). The title photo shows John P, on the first pick of the new year, studying a Chinese calendar from Hong Kong House found in the Bradford Road verge - apparently 2022 is the Year of the Litter-picker. Maybe it should be but actually it is the Year of the Tiger.

22nd December 2023 - and yet another 'supplementary' litter-pick was required. On a morning walk to Corsham, quite a bit of litter was spied along the Bradford Road and on the verges of the A4 in Pickwick so the litter-picker and a couple of plastic bags were sent for for a pick-up on the return journey. The following gallery chronicles the journey.

The final month, December 2023, of this two-year litter-picking period requires a supplementary dispatch. The December report (along with November and October) may be found here Oct-Nov-Dec 2023. Following the December litter pick on Sunday, 3rd December, Wiltshire Council, that blundering, bumbling organisation, decided to cut the A4 verges. Apart from depriving wildlife of winter shelter, this (of course) had the effect of denuding the verges (see the contrast between the A4 verge opposite Copenacre on Sunday, 3rd December and that same verge one week later in the gallery below): 

That 'denuding' exposed the plethora of hidden litter lying at the base of the verge and the cutting not only cut the plants but also cut the metal cans and plastic bottles into shreds. And does Wiltshire Council pick up the almighty mess they have created? No, of course they don't... so the residents of Rudloe and passing travellers are left with a verge that looks like a rubbish dump. This can only be remedied by well-intentioned locals venturing out to clear up the mess (before Christmas is upon us) which filled two bin bags that two local residents agreed to stow in their bins (thanks John and Jane). This exercise gives rise to another exercise (the physical type) which can be combined with errands like delivering Christmas cards and stocking up on essentials from the local farm shop. This assignment is described, pictorially, in the galleries below.