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.
We awoke to a downpour on Sunday, 2nd October 2022 but the old adage 'Rain before 7, fine before 11' came to pass. Towards the end of the litter-pick, having dressed for the cold and rain, we were all overheating. The title pictures show John P in the Bradford Road 'thinking on' and the red/scarlet maples (Acer rubrum) on Rudloe Green.
The stalwarts who braved the weather: Rod (what no Lorraine?), John P, Derrick, Gordon, Bernard and Meg. Mike has already departed.
Gordon and Derrick patrol each side of Leafy Lane
One of Bradford Road's field maples (Acer campestre)
Bradford Road beeches from Skynet Drive
Autumn colours are beginning to appear in he Bradford Road maples
A close-up of those colours
Bradford Road beeches and the Dickens Gate SUDS pond
A wasted resource in the Skynet Drive verge
John P braving the traffic in the Bradford Road
Before the member of Corsham Civic Society netted an over-the-table sum of £5 million for the site of Park Place, muntjacs could regularly be heard calling in the elephant grass - 'see' the 30th December 2013 YouTube video here: 30th December 2013 video
Car bonnet lying in the Bradford Road verge. How could this have arrived here? Fallen off the back of a lorry?
John P patrolling Rudloe Estate
The patrol continues in the shade of Rudloe Estate's beech
Eight bags of dog crap in the crevices of the dry stone wall at Rudloe Firs; six years on and the moron responsible continues his/her ludicrous behaviour - see the 29th/30th October 2016 article here: https://www.rudloescene.co.uk/news/rudloe/
Looking like autumnal colour, this is horse chestnut leaf blight at Rudloe Firs
Looking north from Rudloe Firs and still no sign of the commencement of the Hartham Quarry slope shaft and associated buildings
Dressed for rain, an overheated Rod and Gordon head home for a cuppa after their exertions
A post-pick wash-up: Rod, Gordon, Derrick, John P and yours truly put the world to rights
A modest haul which will be collected by Wiltshire Council's French contractor, idverde, tomorrow (Monday)
The 6th November 2022 Rudloe litter-pick started in a fine spell following days of rain and ended in a downpour when yours truly received a soaking. Lorraine picked up along Leafy Lane but by the following morning I noticed (journeying to Chippenham Station) that some berk had ejected a plastic cup at the chicane by Rudloe House. The title photo shows sycamore leaves in the unlittered verge by the old barn in the Bradford Road.
Gone are the days of a dozen-and-a-half litter-pickers on this monthly pick. Today, the crew consists of stalwarts Rod, Lorraine, Bernard, Meg and Mike (and yours truly so six altogether)
Bernard sets off down Boxfields Road on this fine (!) autumn morning
Maple leaves at the Bradford Road/Rudloe Estate/Skynet Drive junction
An eastern floral (cosmos?) border has been created to prettify the Dickens Gate estate
And this is how residents 'prettify' the local hedgerows - one of a number found in the Bradford Road hedgerow adjacent to Park Place
A more 'natural' border of dock with beech beyond at the Skynet Drive/Bradford Road junction
The early-November hedgerows in the Bradford Road
Spot the litter-picker - Mike at the Bradford Road/Westwells Road junction
Rudloe Estate framed by the ash and brambles of Skynet Drive
Sycamores provide autumn colour in Skynet Drive (the ash is devoid of leaves)
Sycamore, Miscanthus and the view to Rudloe Estate from Skynet Drive
Lorraine in Leafy Lane
Tim Barton's (tenant farmer) Miscanthus still borders Skynet Drive but further development threatens
Miscanthus and hawthorn berries with the Bradford Road hedgerow beyond
The field 'below' Rudloe Estate is also threatened by development (little is safe under the current regime)
Mature trees in the (northern) Bradford Road hedgerow
And the rain starts at the Bradford Road 'chicane' by the old barn
Today's haul which will be collected by Wiltshire Council's French contractor tomorrow (Monday)
4th December 2022 and the last litter pick of the year followed by a dram or two at the Quarrymans. The title picture shows John P in the Bradford Road along with a couple of bags 'full' of litter.
The usual suspects: Dave, Rod, Mike, John P, Gordon, Madeleine and Derek gather before the 'off'. As may be seen, John has already amassed a fair amount of litter from his perambulations around Wadswick Common.
John patrols one side of the Bradford Road
Bradford Road woodland
Bradford Road woodland
Bradford Road woodland
The remaining Miscanthus crop seen from the junction of Bradford Road and Skynet Drive. This 10-acre field will soon fall prey to the developer.
Cyclists out for a Sunday spin in rather inclement weather while John slogs up the Bradford Road with this month's haul
The Bradford Road 'below' Rudloe Estate; these winter days remind me of childhood 'up north'
Bradford Road looking t'other way (towards Corsham)
Long Close Avenue from the Bradford Road. The foreground field, owned by the Johnston mining group, will see development before long.
The beech canopy in the Bradford Road woodland
The beech canopy in the Bradford Road woodland
Bradford Road beech woodland
A dozen bags which will be collected by the French contractor, idverde, tomorrow (Monday)
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