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.
A walk to Wadswick to buy bread, milk, ready meals (tut tut) and wine (an essential) on 23rd April 2020. The title picture was taken in the 'back road' to Hazelbury Manor.
A mountain ash outside 6 Springfield Close. This tree was planted in the late-60s at the time the 'top end' of Springfield was built, so is now more than fifty years old but is still not that big.
Spring growth on Boxfields Road trees which were planted in the late-90s by Kevin Ford for the Leafy Lane Playing Fields organisation
Dandelions and buttercups on the site of the flat-roofed prefab estate (demolished in 1964) in Boxfields Road
Memorial 'rock' carefully placed on a cast-iron utility cover in Boxfields Road
The reverse of the rock: '1918 - 2018', 'lest we forget', 'BYBROOK ROCKS'
Cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis) amongst the white dead-nettle (Lamium album) in Boxfields Road
The beeches of Doohan's Wood are coming into leaf and an unidentified (will check later) fruit tree is in blossom at Woodland Adventurers
In this view, the horse chestnuts of Hazelbury Manor's back entrance dominate the middleground with Chapel Plaister on the horizon
A bizarre turn of events at this time sees rights-of-way BOX44 and BOX47A being fenced in by the landowner. This wholly unnecessary enterprise will make social distancing problematic, requiring walkers (and riders) to cross paths much more closely.
A horse chestnut at the intersection of right-of-way BOX48 and bridleway BOX51 - 23rd April 2020
Rocks and nettles adjacent to bridleway BOX51 - 23rd April 2020
Dry stone wall with miscanthus remnants beyond at the Bradford Road entrance to Wadswick Green
Dandelions and daisies border the Wadswick airstrip with Kingsmoor Wood and one of Ark Data's edifices beyond
The B3109 in the Time of Covid - 23rd April 2020
Two oaks with long-standing ivy growth in the Bradford Road
Spring growth on an oak in White Ennox Lane - 23rd April 2020
Could be a line of Oriental Spruce or Bishop Pine grown for shelter from the cold, northerly winds for the old Box Highlands School and its playing fields. The round-topped tree in front has the characteristics of a hornbeam.
One of White Ennox Lane's whitebeams at left with the site of Box Highlands School at right and Doohan's Wood beyond
Horse chestnut in White Ennox Lane; Doohan's Wood beyond
Part of a large patch of ground elder at the northern end of White Ennox Lane. Best picked young, the leaves may be used as a spring leaf vegetable, in soups or as a pot herb. Like Japanese knotweed, it is viewed as an invasive, exotic plant.
Dandelions, buttercups and daisies at the site of the old flat-roofed prefab estate in Boxfields Road with the 'landmark' Scots pine at the western end of Leafy Lane Wood beyond - 23rd April 2020
A tangle of fallen willow branches at the site of Delta Rectangle Shaft 2 or Webb's Stores Shaft in Boxfields Road. Box Quarry lies beneath and there is an Indiana Jones-type stone staircase with rope handrail that leads to a stone blockhouse here.
Hawthorn and comfrey at the eastern end of Boxfields Road - 'bread and cheese' and poultices
This sycamore, outside 12 Springfield Close (thanks to Jacky & Brian), is the only one remaining of a plethora of mature trees at the southern end of Springfield Close which had tree preservation orders (TPOs)*
* see the 25th April 2019 article here https://www.rudloescene.co.uk/localities/rudloe/leafy-lane-flora-fauna/
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