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.
Covid walks continue for the moment ... Sunday 9th May 2021 brought an early perambulation to Corsham via Leafy Lane Wood, Rudloe Estate, Hudswell, the Carriage Drive, Pound Mead and Station Road. And, getting adventurous, an unplanned break was taken ... for coffee at Mother & Wild. The title photo is of one of the ponds by the Carriage Drive (Pockeredge Drive) below the third, small Pockeredge Lake (which itself is just a pond really).
The vibrant green of spring growth is evident in these maple leaves in Leafy Lane
And Leafy Lane Wood itself is springing to life - this is the main byway, BOX107A, through the wood
Scores of mini-maples in a mini-forest in Leafy Lane Wood
And now a mini-forest of taller midi-maples
A gurt patch of common or English violets adjacent to byway BOX107A
The wild garlic is just about to come into flower at the eastern end of the wood
Wild garlic beneath a substantial beech tree - a view from the Leafy Lane footpath
This baby rook had fallen from its nest in the Leafy Lane Wood rookery. It did not seem at all perturbed by my presence.
The red maples of Westwood Road with the Leylands Road flats beyond
The red barriers of Leylands Road with the red maples of Westwood Road beyond
Rudloe Estate from the elephant grass field
Dickens Gate greenfield development and Bradford Road beeches from the elephant grass field
Trees at the entrance to the Airbus site in Skynet Drive from the Miscanthus field; Rudloe military comms tower beyond
Scots pines on Hudswell 'Common'; parapet of entrance to underground workings at left
More pines on Hudswell 'Common'. The small, symmetrical tree at centre-left is possibly a Weymouth or eastern white pine.
Hudswell woodland
Someone's been busy cutting down trees and grubbing out roots. There's more to worry about closer to home than the Amazon rainforest.
This is just one of the substantial log piles at the top end of Pockeredge Drive feeding a mini log supply industry operated from the adjacent house
Pockeredge Lake (the lower one)
Pond above Pockeredge Lower Lake; poplars beyond
Pockeredge Drive (aka the Carriage Drive) with yesterday's rain apparent from the wet road and puddles
A lone walker and spring growth in Pockeredge Drive
One of a number of small ponds adjacent to Pockeredge Drive
Woodland at the eastern entrance to the Carriage Drive
Alkanet on garden wall in Station Road
Methuen Estate cottages on the Melksham Road where lived Bill Hadfield, the chairmaker. Bill would wander abroad (Scotland) on his motorbike and also venture to India and Brazil where he would instruct in his art.
Looks like the Methuen Arms will be using home-grown veg in its meals. Pity about the missing eucalyptus (see photos elsewhere).
I've often wondered about the history of this odd structure at the rear of Haine & Smith in the High Street. It looks like a wartime prefab with an asbestos roof. I'll have to ask the Civic Society.
Getting rather parched so stopped off at Mother & Wild for a coffee. Time is approaching 9:30 on a Sunday so I didn't expect the cafe to be open but, surprisingly, it was.
Enter family of four, parents with wild hair, odd clothes, speaking what seemed to be German between themselves (I'm no longer sure that nationalities can be used in descriptions as sportsmen have recently been suspended and fined heavily for using nationality along with an expletive in exchanges - 'Polynesian' was one such description. However, I note that, strangely, the ultra-PC BBC is repeating Fawlty Towers at prime time which includes all manner of supposed nationalistic language). One assumed that at this time on a Sunday morning, their presence had something to do with religion.
Father coughed repeatedly. Exit stage left.
Escape route was along the High Street, past the former Corsham surgery where many an odd (think synonyms) encounter was had with Dr Henderson.
Peacock atop Corsham Post Office calling the faithful to the morning service at St Barts
And the faithful answer the call
I can't recall if Catalpas are usually this late into leaf. I know that they flower in early July.
Corsham Court's enormous, rambling yew hedge
Emerging horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) leaves and flowers in Cross Keys Road
Horse chestnut close-up with buttercups and daisies; Bences Lane beyond
Methuen Estate cottage in Cross Keys Road
Another horse chestnut close-up in Cross Keys Road
The £374,000, remodelled Cross Keys junction created a pelican crossing where nobody crosses and a wide footpath where nobody walks
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