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.
Must be getting to the end of these Covid walks now ... here we have three walks for the price of one. The first on Sunday, 16th May 2021 took in a pint at the Quarryman's ... outside, but from tomorrow we can move inside which, given the foul weather (another record must be on its way - something like the coldest, wettest May on record?), will be essential. The second and third walks, on 18th and 19th May, included a sojourn on the bridge over the railway at the Northey waiting for the Belmond British Pullman and its engine Merchant Navy class Bulleid Pacific Clan Line. I was far from the only one waiting there and some passing motorists clearly wondered what was going on; some stopped along the Ditteridge road and returned to enquire. A couple in wellies (driving in wellies?) approached me and we got chatting which turned out to be a long chat as the train was 30 minutes late. But lo and behold, this happened to be Clive Freeman and partner, local farmers; I have heard much about Clive but never met him. My intention was to take photos of the train but we were so occupied in conversation that I failed to check that the camera was set to auto-focus - it wasn't and all the photos were out of focus. But hey ho, they wouldn't have been particularly enthralling anyway as we were on the eastern parapet with the train running away from us. More important was meeting Clive and his partner for the first time. Then, on to the banks of the By Brook to photograph the recently-installed 300-metre fence for the supposed purpose of wildlife conservation. All right-minded individuals will know that this is absolute tosh - there is an underlying reason behind this - see 20th May 2021 article.
The new Leafy Lane Playing Fields fence which matches the fence installed around the woodland by the new owners. I must admit, it's too visually intrusive for my liking (compared with the old, iron fence) but others have expressed a different view.
Mountain ash (55-years-old now), the 'pollarded' ash, supposedly with die-back but still alive and the sycamore, one of the remaining six broadleaf trees with TPOs (originally, there were twenty-six) in this area of Springfield Close
A further agricultural building at the southern end of Boxfields Road (in the AONB!) adding to the Freeman's agro-industrial Clouds Farm complex
Speedwell and cow parsley in Boxfields Road
The roadway of Aldhelm Crescent in the flatroof prefab estate is still visible 57 years after the demolition of the estate
More evidence of the old prefab estates, this time the pitched-roofed one, with this apple tree in the Boxfields Road verge
The formerly verdant verge here is now bare thanks to the parking for Woodland Adventurers
Red campion in the Boxfields Road verge, Quarry Wood beyond
The eastern portal of Middlehill Tunnel dominates this view of the By Brook Valley west of Box
You can tell we're close to old quarries here with these massive stones embedded in the dry stone wall outside the Quarryman's Arms
View across the By Brook Valley from Barnetts Hill; Thickwood on the horizon
Heading up Love Lane
At the top end of Love Lane
The White Ennox Lane woodland adjacent to the old opencast quarry
The White Ennox Lane woodland adjacent to the old opencast quarry
The White Ennox Lane woodland adjacent to the old opencast quarry
The northern end of White Ennox Lane close to the Beech Road junction
The view towards the Village on the Hill from Beech Road
Beech Road
I would say ALLCOMFREY rather than ALLWOOD
One of the beeches of Beech Road
Emerging from Beech Road onto the A4
European wild ginger in the lane leading to Lower Rudloe
A Beech Road house (maybe Allwood?) through A4 beeches
View down the A4 towards Box from the beech 'canopy'
Now the view 'up' the A4 towards Rudloe
Another view down the A4 taking in the old Moon Aircraft buildings with Box Hill Motors beyond
Lower Rudloe from the A4
Lower Rudloe Farm at bottom-right, Folly Farm at centre with the Village on the Hill beyond
Lower Rudloe with Folly Cottage in the foreground, Rudloe Manor at right and John Miller's bungalow at far left
Folly Cottage again in the foreground, Rudloe Manor at right and one of the 'executive' homes of Bybrook View beyond the distant beeches
The view down the By Brook Valley towards the Mendips from the brow of Box Hill
Coppiced limes opposite the entrance to the Rudloe Arms in Leafy Lane
New growth of the Leafy Lane oak opposite Dandelion Cafe (the former NAAFI)
On to 18th and 19th May 2021 now, and we go a bit further west to Box village and the By Brook
Box Hill Lower Common with speedwell
View across the By Brook Valley to Colerne from Box Hill Lower Common
View across the By Brook Valley to Colerne from Box Hill
View towards Thickwood and Euridge from the slopes of Box Hill
The Village on the Hill from the slopes of Box Hill
Close-up of the Village on the Hill
A broadleaf canopy characterizes the eastern entrance to Box on the A4
The broadleaf canopy at the eastern entrance to Box
Approaching the entrances to Tunnel Throw and Oak House
Emerging from the broadleaf avenue and onwards to The Queens
Looking back through the broadleaf avenue
Mill Lane cottages from the Rec
The grounds of Real World Studies (formerly Box Mill) in Mill Lane
The bridge over the By Brook in Mill Lane
On Macmillan Way heading north along the By Brook
Regarding the gallery below and the 'defilement' of the landscape at this point in the By Brook Valley, see the 20th May 2021 article here: 20th May article
Just downstream of the diabolical fence
Putting the diabolical fence out of frame, here is the By Brook landscape as it should be
The sign (Red Sky at Night, Get off my Land) in the grounds of Tunnel Throw has shaken and stirred the locals - see the 20th May article in 'Box', 'News' referenced above. The abomination (the fence) is out of frame here.
The By Brook downstream of the abominable fence
Meanwhile, on the Rec ...
Revisiting this walk on 27th June, I decided to 'post' a couple of the 'out of focus' photos of the Belmond British Pullman which I thought weren't up to scratch. They are in the gallery below.
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