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.
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