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.
Wanderings here and there in November 2019. Title picture shows the By Brook in flood from the bridge below the Wilderness on 5th November 2019.
The weir at Pulteney Bridge with tulip trees beyond on 31st October 2019
High and dry at Middlehill with Price's new factory beyond on 5th November 2019
Middlehill junction on 5th November 2019 with, from the left, the roads leading to Alcombe, a private residence, Ditteridge and beyond and Meadowbrook B&B
View from Box High Street with the tulip tree on Box Rec and Mill Lane houses beyond on 5th November 2019
Mill Lane from the High Street on 5th November 2019
The western portal of Middlehill Tunnel and environs on 5th November 2019
Portentous cloud in Marshfield Way, Lansdown on 7th November 2019
And the same cloud beyond the Fairfield Arms also on 7th November
Mountain ash at Claremont with Bathampton Down beyond - 7th November 2019
Birch and beech in Leafy Lane - 8th November 2019
The Kennet and Avon Canal at Bathampton adjacent to the George - 13th November 2019
Old Man's Beard on the fence of ex-RAF Rudloe No. 2 Site in Westwells Road - 16th November 2019
Single-leaved ash at the western end of ex-RAF Rudloe No. 2 Site, comms tower beyond and the roundabout sign has been flattened, I would imagine for the numerous BladeRoom wide loads heading for Ark Data - 16th November 2019
And here's a BladeRoom, in Leafy Lane, heading for Ark Data in Westwells Road on 22nd November 2019
Beech woodland twixt Bankwaters Road and Bradford Road with the unfortunate Dickens Gate development beyond - 18th November 2019
A sign from the past 'What is a frigbob' along with a sign of the times - plastic bins that ruin the street scene in Sandy Lea Avenue - 18th November
Maple in Marshfield Way, Lansdown - 21st November 2019
Leafy Lane Wood from Kidston Way - 22nd November 2019
A wet Leafy Lane on 22nd November 2019
And an even wetter Leafy Lane on 27th November 2019
It's tricky walking along this section of path after a downpour
The remaining 21 acres of miscanthus in the Bradford Road; 27 acres have been lost to the Redcliffe development - 22nd November 2019
The edge of the 21 acres seen from Skynet Drive - 22nd November 2019
The edge of the miscanthus and the Skynet Drive verge - 22nd November 2019
22nd November - dark days at Rudloe with greenfield development supported and brownfield development opposed by Corsham Town Council
Just a few houses have chimneys on the Dickens Gate development - here's one and it is cock-eyed
24th November 2019 - a concrete jungle which just over a year ago was a lovely meadow
The small area of woodland remaining twixt Bankwaters Road and Bradford Road after the rest was annexed by the school through an agreement with the 'owner', GreenSquare. This photo on 24th November 2019.
In early, swinging 60s Chippenham this was the El Chico coffee bar (in the Causeway) - this photo and others below taken on 26th November 2019
And this was the Causeway Caf which then became Spin-a-Disc coffee bar (I still have some ex-jukebox 45s from here)
Jolly's Cafe in Chippenham Market Place was the Galleon coffee bar in the early 60s
In the early 60s this building in St Mary Street was home to the Cornucopia coffee bar
Down an alleyway to the right of Woolworths was the entrance to the Salamander coffee bar which was on the first floor above Mitzi's fashions. The Salamander used pyrex cups for its Italian coffee.
Pizza Hut was, in the early 60s, the Harlequin coffee bar - this is New Road near the foot of Station Hill
Network Rail has (for reasons best known to themselves) been felling mature trees along the northern side of the embankment between Shockerwick and Bathford. The diameter/circumference of the bigger stumps indicates that some were perhaps 100 years old.
The confluence of the By Brook (at left) and the Avon (in the middleground) at Bathford on 27th November 2019
Ivy on the parapet of the bridge over the Avon at Bathford with ... hmmm horse chestnut (from its morphology) beyond on 27th November 2019
St Swithun's at Bathford with alders lining the Avon and Bathford Hill (aka Farleigh Down) shrouded in mist beyond on 27th November 2019
Here's a close-up of those alders on the riverbank and a mass of nettles in the meadow on 29th November 2019
Bathampton meadow with Bathampton Down shrouded in mist beyond. This oak, as with many, is holding on to its leaves, others have shed them completely. You may see this phenomenon north of the A4 at Shockerwick with adjacent trees laden and bare.
The 'NHS' Kidney Care Centre at Bathford. This is a new dialysis centre run by Fresenius, a German company of course, but don't worry when we get our country back following Brexit we'll 'Unlock Britain's potential' (this from one of Boris's lecterns)
29th November 2019 - members of Boxlea WI returning to Bathford through Bathampton meadow having partaken of tea at Holburne Museum (and walked there and back along the Kennet & Avon Canal)
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