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.

2nd March 2025 - and the March litter pick takes place during a spell of clear, sunny but cold weather. The title picture shows Lorraine in the Bradford Road heading for Rudloe Estate and beyond.

March litter pick - supplementary. My usual (driving) route to Corsham is via Leafy Lane and the A4 but on Friday, 14th March, I gave someone a lift to the Links so drove up the Bradford Road and what a revelation unfolded. The verges 'below' Rudloe Estate were filled with (apparently used) tissues. It seemed as if someone had wandered along with a basket of tissues scattering them with each step. The panorama below shows the area where the tissues could be found and the following gallery shows the litter in more detail.

March litter pick - second supplementary. This 'litter event' unfolded during a walk to Leafield Trading Estate on Saturday, 22nd March. I thought I was bound to find litter on the verges of the Bradford Road which is a regular location for vehicle ejections and so it proved. A first though was an ejection of a MyTreatsBristol box which I guess would have contained pieces of Peri Peri something (chicken maybe) before being scoffed but instead, just the dips remained (three dips for £1.20 - a bargain ejection). Then there was a brown paper bag with two drinks cans and a bag of chips. Why would chips (and dips) be ejected when they could be taken home and 'freshened up' in the air fryer (and 'dipped')? I didn't have a plastic bag with me so all I could do was gather up the rubbish and stuff it into the Toghill Crescent litter bin. And, of course, there was the compulsory bag of dog crap flung into a tree (see pic).

Just by the by, the Miscanthus has been cut and will, presumably, be baled next week for use in the boilers of Wadswick (Country Store, cottages etc) or perhaps sold on as biofuel (see last photo).

2nd February 2025 or Candlemas Day brought some reasonable weather for the litter pick. Traditionally, Candlemas Day brings the end of the Christmas season (which started on 25th December) and this was the day when the Christmas decorations finally came down. However, unrestrained commercialisation has turned Christmas on its head with retail (and media) organisations putting up their decorations (and adverts) immediately following Halloween (or even earlier). Why don't we Rudloeites return to tradition and put our decorations and lights up on Christmas Eve and take them down on Candlemas Day? In this midwinter season, we could read books, watch black-and-white films on TV whilst partaking of cheese and beans on toast and a cuppa.

A decision has been made to redesignate Park Place as Krap Place as it seems that certain of the residents are habitual crap-flingers

February Litter Pick Log - Supplementary
Having cleared (personally) the A4 verge between Copenacre and Rudloe Firs, I was somewhat more than p***ed off that a load of McDonald's detritus appeared there on Wednesday (5th February) morning (see photos in gallery below). As the McMoron also discarded his/her receipt (see photo), we can see that (s)he bought a sausage & egg muffin, hash browns and a hot chocolate from Mcdonald's, Chippenham at 09:51. Perhaps twenty minutes later, (s)he discarded all the packaging on the Rudloe verges; even the torn-off tops of the McSugars were discarded (see photo). But not only that, there was another ejection, this one of Chicken McNuggets and McFries packaging on the Corsham side of Rudloe Firs. The distance between McDonald's, Chippenham and Rudloe Firs is roughly 3.3 miles; from now on, this distance will be known as 1 McMetre.

I emailed McDonald's, Chippenham (see .pdf file below) giving details of this episode. If you see a star in the east, you will know that they have responded.

February Litter Pick Log - Second Supplementary
On his peregrenations around Rudloe, John Port came across yet more Henry Weston cider bottles (eleven) along with two Thatcher's Vintage cider bottles in White Ennox Lane. And closer to home, he found yet more McDonald's detritus in the Leafy Lane Playing Fields car park; the receipt showed that this pile of rubbish was purchased at the Melksham outlet.

February Litter Pick Log - Third Supplementary

In Valentine's week, John found more Henry Westons cider bottles in White Ennox Lane (see photo below). And I was so fed up with seeing the plastic bag lying in Leafy Lane outside the Rudloe Arms that I did an impromptu pick on Valentine's Day itself (and they say romance is dead). The bag contained a soiled nappy; the pick continued through Rudloe Firs (numerous bottles, four bags of dog crap etc) then along the A4 verge where yet more McDonald's detritus had been ejected by a McMoron at the one McMetre distance (3.3 miles) from the Chippenham McDonald's. I managed to fill (really fill) a black plactic sack which was then shoved into the Leafy Lane bin by the Pine Close bus stop.

5th January 2025 and the first litter pick of the year was close to postponement as there was a snowstorm on Saturday evening (4th). This would mean, of course, that litter lying on the ground would be hidden from view. However, the snow turned to rain in the morning (5th) and by the time of the litter pick start, it was pouring down. The title picture shows Lorraine on the new Bradford Road footpath twixt the Park Place development and the pelican crossing. I was somewhat critical of this new path in the 7th November 2024 article here Rudloe News, because I thought it would be much too narrow. However, it turns out that my senses were playing tricks as the footpath width is fine.

* The photo opportunity! Below we see prospective LibDem councillor Peter Wragg (at left) along with regular Derrick in Leafy Lane in photo taken by Gordon.