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.

rudloescene
rudloescene

A short walk to Corsham on 7th June 2020 to deliver PPE in the Time of Covid. The outward journey was via the Bradford Road with return along the A4. As previously reported, some are taking advantage of the quiet roads.- in the 40 mph limit around St Patrick's Church, a Porsche (as far as I could tell) accelerated so hard that it was doing an estimated 80 mph at Traveller's Rest. The title picture is of the broken wall that bounds the small meadow opposite the roundhouse (by the Guiness Trust's Pickwick Villa).

Dark clouds above and below in the meadow lost to the Bellway greenfield development
Just three or four of the many dog roses in the Bradford Road verge opposite the Bellway development
And certainly dark clouds over Rudloe Estate with GreenSquare's proposal to increase the density of the estate by building on the Green
Halfway Firs in the distance. The field at left (can't really be seen in this picture) is the one which had planning permission for a slope shaft to Hartham Quarry. That permission has now lapsed; a slope shaft at Rudloe Firs now has permission ...
... well almost. This is the field shown at right in the last picture. Formerly a Halfway Firs Farm field, this is also now owned (as with the field with lapsed permission) by Great Tew Properties, part of Nicholas Johnston's empire ...
... further down the Bradford Road now but continuing the Johnston story ... Look out now for development proposals for the two fields owned by Great Tew Properties and also for the other field here owned by Roy Cornford

The 'Johnston empire' mentioned above includes, inter alia: Bath Stone Group Ltd, The Bath Stone Company Ltd, Monks Park Minerals Ltd, Hartham Park Minerals Ltd, Oathill Quarry Ltd and Stone Processing Sales Ltd as well as Great Tew Properties Ltd.

Seven of the twelve apostles at St Patrick's Church. These are crab apples which, being an old crab myself, I adore.
Clearly the Time of Covid - the roads around the Hare & Hounds are free of traffic
Acacias at the junction of Pickwick Road and Arnolds Mead
The lovely limes in Arnolds Mead. Strange that the road is preferred over off-road parking.
Parking in the Time of Covid. It's not normally possible to get a shot of this acacia in the Newlands Road car park without a car in picture.
Maple, birch and acacia at the 'roundhouse' A4/Park Lane junction
The road to Rudloe, 'Gateway to the West', passes through what has become Greater Pickwick. The three (two shown) distant poplars are reminders of the substantial line of poplars that graced the Bradford Road where Stone Close now stands.
And talking of substantial, how's this for a blackberry patch below Halfway Firs
Another view of that blackberry patch with an old milestone which clearly (!) says 'To BATH' but it's difficult to discern a mileage (should be 8)
This blackberry patch is becoming an obsession
Let's widen our horizons - blackberry patch with ivy, maple, dogwood hedge (possibly), Copenacre air shaft, ash, sycamore and elderberry
Cocks and hens, and a Maidment field twixt Copenacre and Rudloe Firs. Hartham Quarry lies beneath.
Wheat in a Stafford field, Rudloe Estate beyond. But look closely (also see next picture) to see that an area has been marked out with canes ...
Markers in Stafford's wheat field, north of Rudloe Estate, so something is afoot. Call me cynical if you like, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Stafford/Gladman cabal has designs on this field (for development).
Dry stone wall with cocks and hens, Maidment's field ... and poppies. And, as indicated previously, Hartham Quarry lies beneath.
Does that (the Redcliffe development) look like the edge of a Cotswold town to you? Ruined the view, cemented (literally) the 'strategic gap' (as you may see, it has effectively joined Corsham and Rudloe). To paraphrase Jim Royle, "Sense of place my arse"
'Landmark' field maple towards the brow (Corsham side) of Box Hill, Rudloe Estate beyond
The brow of Box Hill looking west, Rudloe Firs at right, fine maple opposite. A new slope shaft and surface workshops for Hartham Quarry have, effectively, been sanctioned at the north side of Rudloe Firs.
The horse chestnut avenue at the brow of Box Hill

To see full-page images of the photos in the gallery below, click on the icon with inward-facing arrows

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© Paul Turner