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.
January 2022 and John P contemplates the coming year thanks to a Hong Kong House calendar found in the Bradford Road verge. 2022 is, according to the calendar, the Year of the Tiger. The midwinter break also gives us the opportunity to reflect, amongst other things, on the usefulness of litter-picking campaigns both national and local.
Keep Britain Tidy registered as a charity in 1960 (the name came from a resolution passed by the WI in 1954). Notable events throughout the years have been:
- 1969 - the Tidyman logo appears
- 1977 - Clean for the Queen campaign
- 1987 - Charity changed its name to the Tidy Britain Group
- 1987 - The Blue Flag Award launched
- 1990 - Tidy Britain Year launched by Thatcher with Branson as Litter Tsar
- 1990 - (Branson realises it's a hopeless cause and quietly fades away)
- 1992 - Seaside Awards launched
- 2001 - Rivercare programme launched
- 2002 - Tidy Britain Group changes its name to ENCAMS
- 2008 - The Big Tidy Up launched
- 2009 - ENCAMS changes its name to Keep Britain Tidy
- 2011 - Love Where You Live campaign launched
- 2015 - celebration of 60 years of Keep Britain Tidy with prestigious dinner and award ceremony in Liverpool Cathedral
- 2016 - Clean for the Queen campaign launched
- 2016 - the We're Watching You campaign wins UK charity award
Have all the campaigns and slogans made any difference to the state of our environment? Take a look at this month's haul (last photograph) to find the answer in this neck of the woods. Through our litter-picking, we keep the roads that run through Rudloe looking better (I hesitate to use the words neat or tidy) than they otherwise would have been. But, with regard to the global problem, this doesn't help at all as we are putting unsorted litter into plastic bags (further adding to the plastic issue) which are then sent to landfill. So we are just shifting the problem from one place to another and adding plastic to the mix. The solution would have to be that either we (a new, local team) sorts (plactic, metal, card etc) the litter after it has been collected or Wiltshire Council sorts it rather than sending it to landfill.
Gathering for the off: Madeleine, Derrick, Gordon, Rod, John P, Lorraine, Meg and Dave. Mike is out of picture to the right while John and his Pine Close tribe are yet to arrive.
Lorraine and John P posing outside the Barn in the Bradford Road
John P studying the 2022 Hong Kong House calendar in the Bradford Road. The calendar revealed that 2022 is the Year of the Tiger; I was born in the Year of the Pig (naturally).
But not the year of this cat lying in the Bradford Road verge, another victim of a speeding motor vehicle
Back to the usual litter in the Bradford Road verge
Every month, we find many of these 'menthol chill flavour infusion' wrappers lying in the Bradford Road verge. Hard to fathom the mentality here of taking the 'discard' option over just putting them in a pocket.
Two fields 'below' Rudloe Estate, owned by Great Tew Estates, will sooner or later become the site of a planning application for around 150 homes
This month's haul - 17 bags. This after 60-odd years of the Keep Britain Tidy organisation, slogan and campaigns. Beware of slogans!
Captain's Log stardate 4th January 2022 - supplementary ... On a return voyage from Alpha Corsham, Mr Spock observed new debris on the A4 between Copenacre and Rudloe Firs. This appeared to be McDonald's takeaway remnants: packaging, cups, straws, sauce containers, chips etc. It was quite a mess so Spock determined to return and clear up. En route, Spock decided to pick up as he went - there was quite a bit of litter in the verge on the south side of the A4, actually enough to just about fill a black plastic bag (remember, 'black bags matter'); when he arrived at the location of the misdeed, he found that someone had already cleared up! That's Rudloe for you! He thought he would be able to squeeze the black bag into the waste bin by the Pine Close bus stop but it was too big (see picture below). He therefore dumped it into his domestic bin.
It was blowing a gale and tippling down* overnight (5th/6th February 2022) and this continued to around 8 o'clock when the winds dropped and some blue sky arrived. The wind and rain returned in the afternoon so we were very lucky to have a window of reasonable weather for the February litter-pick. *Northern expression
The title picture shows one of perhaps a score of packets of Rizla Menthol Chill infusion found in the Bradford Road verge. I don't get it, the modus operandi of these menthol infusion cards is demonstrated in the first part of this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dunAMS8mnOs. If you took the time to watch this demo, you will see that you unwrap the top of the silver foil wrapper of your packet of cigarettes, insert the infusion card, rewrap the foil and leave for an hour. Doesn't this beg at least one question? Why is this person performing these actions in the Bradford Road when he/she could have done it (depending on the source of the cigarettes) at home or immediately on leaving the shop (which would allow him/her to deposit the wrapper in the bin)? And even here, why doesn't he/she pocket the small wrapper for disposal at home? And why always in this stretch of the Bradford Road?
A small band of diehard litter-pickers gathered for the February litter-pick: Lorraine, John P, Rod, Rob, Gordon, Derrick and Dave can be seen here before the 'off' with one of the other Johns and Mike still to arrive. With me, that's ten.
And this is Wiltshire Council's modus operandi. Finding it necessary to justify their existence, they wander the highways and byways identifying (with red paint) trees that they have, unaccountably, deemed to require the chop
From a distance, these snowdrops in the Bradford Road looked as if they might be paper litter - thankfully not
Herb Robert in flower in a Bradford Road wall
The Bradford Road verge in winter
The Bradford Road verge in winter; maple still surviving at right
The retention of leaves in winter (by a deciduous tree) is called marcescense. Trees, like this beech in the Bradford Road, that exhibit marcescence are known as everciduous.
Miscanthus is harvested in the spring. This crop, seen from Skynet Drive, will produce the last harvest as the farmer's tenancy agreement has been terminated and the land will be ... developed (of course). Another 100 or so houses for the conurbation.
Another winter landscape, with moss, in the Bradford Road
Lorraine and John P in relaxed mode at the eastern edge of Rudloe Estate
Back to work after the tea break
After heavy rainfall, water pours into the Bradford Road here from right of way CORM72. Redcliffe's Park Place estate beyond.
An old 'friend' - a bag of dog crap in the Bradford Road hedgerow
Not easy to pick out but there are three Rizla Menthol Chill wrappers here (refer to text above)
Back in the old routine - McDonald's detritus in the Bradford Road
Another Rizla Menthol Chill wrapper among the emerging daffodils
The fields to the north of Bradford Road, 'below' Rudloe Estate, the site of the previous (now abandoned) proposal for a slope shaft for Hartham Quarry. This 17-acre site will now become a gold mine by virtue of development of perhaps 150 homes.
A feline friend in the beech woodland adjacent to Rudole Estate
Field maple with a garden escapee (Hebe) in the Bradford Road verge. Monstrous Corsham Science Park buildings beyond.
Today's relatively modest haul which will be collected by idverde (French company) tomorrow
6th March 2022 and Howard tackles Bradford Road litter during the monthly Rudloe litter pick (see title pic)
The usual suspects gather for the March litter pick. From the left, we have Rod, Howard, Meg, Madeleine, Derrick, John P, Lorraine and Dave. Mike has already departed and John H yet to arrive so eleven in total including yours truly
John P negotiates the daffodils in the Bradford Road
Daffodils in the Bradford Road verge with the Dickens Gate estate beyond
John and Lorraine seen under a bough of a Bradford Road horse chestnut
The pick takes us along the Park Place side of the Bradford Road hedgerow. Looking south, we see an area to be landscaped (apparently).
The remaining Bradford Road elephant grass. This will be the last crop (to be harvested soon) as the farmer's tenancy has been terminated. Beyond the pylon and associated wires, about 12 acres (100+ homes) are available for development.
A new litter item in the Bradford Road verge. There were about half-a-dozen of these scattered about.
Doing the conga in the Bradford Road,: Lorraine, John P and a jogger
More daffodils in a quiet Bradford Road
Continuing the daffodil theme, this is the other side of the Bradford Road
Normal service resumed - McDonalds detritus between violets
More McDonalds litter on the A4 verge
Daffodils and a Copenacre air shaft below Halfway Firs
Modern litter - a Covid antigen self-test kit on the A4 verge
Back to the default litter
This poor deer has been lying on the A4 verge at the brow of Box Hill (Corsham side) for a week or so
Here is the brow of Box Hill, with daffs
Here is the rubbish collected along the A4 twixt the Corsham side of Copenacre and here at the brow of Box Hill. The message on this sandwich board is hardly legible and, to me, constitutes more rubbish disfiguring the countryside.
A patch of three-cornered garlic (apparently, yet another invasive species) emerging at the brow of Box Hill
Daffs outside Rudloe Arms
Time is flying. Incredibly, I've missed the snowdrops in Leafy Lane, but caught the primroses.
A patch of daffs in Leafy Lane; there are many more at the southern end
This month's haul which will be collected by contractor idverde (French of course) on Monday morning
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