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.
In 2018, we had Beast from the East (in March), now we have Monster from the North (I couldn't think of a alliterative word) on 8th March 2023. This walk started in Leafy Lane Wood and continued through Boxfields, Thorneypits and Westwells. In the title picture we see right of way BOX107A to the west of Leafy Lane Playing Fields.
Looks like a good six inches of snow fell last night
Winter comes to Highlands Close on 8th March; Leafy Lane trees beyond
There's quite a traffic flow in Leafy Lane so by mid-morning the road itself was clear
The Leafy Lane 'chicane' with the entrance to Rudloe House at left
Two snow blocks in the small meadow twixt Leafy Lane Wood and the trees which bound the meadow to the south
On BOX107A, the principal right of way through the wood
Under the spreading chestnut tree at the western end of the wood
The site of Webb's Stores in Boxfields Road which recently sold at auction for £91,000. The Delta Rectangle Shafts, or Webb's Stores Shaft, lie in the wooded area across the road.
Seventy-odd years on and Arthur Larkin's handiwork still earmarks the site of Webb's Stores
A desolate morning in Boxfields Road
Tunnel Inn in Boxfields Road which recently changed hands for the best part of three-quarters of a million pounds
Could be a Christmas garland on Tunnel Inn but tis the Virginia creeper
White Ennox Lane with Doohan's Wood (now Woodland Adventurers) at right
Another view of White Ennox Lane; Doohan's Wood is principally of beech
Further on in White Ennox Lane, the entrance to the old Box Highlands School is at left
Looking back to Tunnel Inn, the mortuary for those workers who lost their lives in the construction of Box Tunnel (which lies beneath my feet) is the steep-roofed structure to the right of the main buildings
In White Ennox Lane with the old beech tree at right and the site of Box Highlands School at left
Here is the site of the old Box Highlands School at one time used as a market garden but has now lain unused for twenty years or so
Heading down White Ennox Lane, the Wadswick commercial and agro-industrial complex looms through the mist
Going round the bend in White Ennox Lane
Gone round the bend in White Ennox Lane
Arriving at the junction with Bradford Road, the three remaining prefabs from the post-war Thorny Pits hostel site lie across the road
Bradford Road with the Thorny Pits (now Thorneypits) prefabs at left
The old Thorny Pits hostel site with a Spring Quarry air shaft in the distance and Paddy's Hill beyond
Hawthorn, Spring Quarry air shaft and Paddy's Hill
Hawthorn, larches and one of the original Ark Data data/server centres beyond
Standing and fallen oak at Thorneypits
Catkins (hazel? willow?) at the foot of Paddy's Hill
Old stile on right of way BOX49 with Paddy's Hill at left and Round Wood at right
Right of way BOX49 with Paddy's Hill at left and Round Wood at right
Right of way BOX49 leads to Wadswick Green (the old HMS Royal Arthur site)
On the way (BOX49) to Wadswick Green
Catkins on the way (BOX49) to Wadswick Green
Now on the Cinder Path (CORM140) to Westwells, the Donkey Field lies behind us and this marvellously wild field hides Wadswick Green
On the Cinder Path to Westwells
The "marvellously wild" field which 'fell' into the hands of a company called Westwells Paddock Ltd in 2021 - see info below
The 'marvellously wild' field was, I believe, 'originally' owned by Defence Estates (being adjacent to HMS Royal Arthur, I guess this would make sense). It subsequently fell into the hands of Bridgemere Ltd (registered in the Isle of Man) which also 'owned' the adjacent Donkey Field site for which it entered planning applications (N/11/01613/OUT and N/12/01289/OUT) in 2011 and 2012. All the land (this field and the Donkey Field) was then sold on to the predatory developer Summix who (as we know) entered a planning application (18/09884/OUT) for the Donkey Field which was (as we again know) refused by Wiltshire Council but later sanctioned by the Planning Inspectorate. All quiet on the western front at present with regard to the Donkey Field, however... Summix has now sold on the "marvellously wild" field to an entity known as Westwells Paddock, an adjunct of Ark Data. The 'officers' of Westwells Paddock are the same as those of Ark Data vis Ian Stuart Perryment, Derek McDonald, Huw Thomas Owen, Andrew John Pettit and Periminder Tony Singh. If we look at the incoporation document of this company (see initial 10 pages of the document in the .pdf file below) we see that the Isle of Man rears its ugly head again as the 'Initial Shareholdings' were by Ark Midco Ltd of Douglas, IoM and... the Persons with Significant Control section shows Paul Elliott Singer of West 57th Street, New York holding 75% or more shares in this company.
Adobe Acrobat document [215.1 KB]
Winter at Sands Farm, Westwells
Exiting the Cinder Path after walking the Donkey Field rights of way
Looking back along the Cinder Path
Dodgy parking at Westwells
The Westwells Road/Westwells junction with John Doohan's bungalow at the apex
The south-east corner of the Donkey Field
Westwells in winter (don't vehicles spoil the streetscape)
A Basil Hill building seen through the Westwells conurbation
A vehicle-free Westwells Road (foot of)
The old Spring Quarry layby which saw a plethora of bus traffic at knocking-off time
Westwells Road from the site (outside) of the old Post Office
Now looking the other way, down Westwells Road, from outside the misidentified Neston Gardens which have little or no garden space and are not in Neston
The older (going back a few generations), old Post Office in Westwells Road
St Peter's Church at the former RAF Rudloe No. 2 Site in Westwells Road
Paraphernalia atop the old accommodation blocks at the former RAF Rudloe No. 2 Site in Westwells Road; comms tower beyond
The old thrift shop and youth club at ex-RAF Rudloe No. 2 Site
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