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.
1st February 2026 brings the Candlemas Eve litter pick. The cold spell of early January has gone and it has been raining for weeks (with floods on the Somerset Levels as usual). Luckily, we hit a dry, misty patch on this Sunday morning - the rain started just as we finished. Thie pick coincided with the annual Chippenham Harriers 'Slaughterford 9', a 9-mile cross-country run in the By Brook Valley, starting and finishing at the brow of Box Hill. Hundreds of runners take part and Rudloe is awash with vehicles - in the 'official' parking in Boxfields Road, Leafy Lane, the brow of Box Hill (Corsham side)... in fact anywhere a free spot can be found. The title picture shows Madeleine, Gordon (posing), Derrick and local/Wiltshire councillor Peter Wragg about to set off.
Stalwarts braving the weather for the Candlemas Eve litter pick were: Rod, Lorraine, Madeleine, Meg, John, Gordon and Derrick. Mike had already set off, Peter and Sian were late-arrivals (see title picture of Peter and photo below of Sian)
Sian had litter-picked from Corsham through Potley/Pockeridge and Westwells so certainly needed her trolley. One of two (very) large bags from her efforts may be seen in the pile behind her. She is about to continue picking around Rudloe.
Pre-pick, on a walk, John found 13 bottles and 4 cans in White Ennox Lane and a little while later found a further half-dozen. This is deja-vu all over again as 27 cider bottles were found here last February (take a look at the Feb 25 webpage).
A million years of human evolution brings this aberrant, perverted behaviour...
John and Lorraine in the Bradford Road
And again...
A Krap Place (Park Place) miscellany...
Thatchers country, McDonald's country and the Green Hand Gang at large
The 2026 Slaughterford 9 finish at the brow of Box Hill
The February 2026 tally which will be collected by Wiltshire Council's French contractor tomorrow (Monday)
4th January 2026 and the first litter pick of the new year finds Lorraine and John in Toghill Crescent on this bright, cold day. The cold spell has been with us for a week now and is forecast to continue throughout the coming week. John regularly does some pre-pick picking in the lane twixt Chapel Plaister and the A365 (the lane leads to Old Jockey or Horse & Jockey). John related a tale from his latest pick when he found two 'unusual' objects. The first was a package wrapped in Sainsbury's plastic bags and sealed tightly with tape. Clearly, he had to find out what this package contained - on unwrapping, two engineering bricks were discovered. The second object was a dildo. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken of the objects but this is not the first dildo discovery - a picture (with commentary) of the first may be found here: 6th May 2018 article in the 10th photograph (scroll down).
Preparing for the off, beanies much in evidence, we have: John, Meg, Rod, Kate, Iain, Lorraine, Derrick and Bernard; Sian is yet to arrive so, along with yours truly, that makes ten of us.
The backdrop for the first litter pick of the new year
Lorraine and John wending their way up Toghill Crescent
It's coffee time...
A miscellany of litter...
This month's haul (14 bags) which will be collected by Wiltshire Council's French contractor tomorrow (Monday)
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