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.
The Sunday (15th November 2020) after a dreadful Saturday which required the house lights on for most of the day and brought persistent rain with a strange orange/purple light in late afternoon. The walk took in Boxfields, Thorneypits and Sands Quarry at the Donkey Field. The pig in the title photograph, at Woodland Adventurers, brought a stick over to me then grunted at 5-second intervals throughout our 'conversation'.
Old man's beard on the fence of the Wessex Water (YTL - a Malaysian company) reservoir at the Leafy Lane/Boxfields Road junction
Kingsdown from Boxfields Road
Some leaves remain on the beeches of Doohan's Wood in White Ennox Lane on 15th November 2020
Leaves on the epicormic growth of the beech opposite the old Box Highlands School entrance; Tunnel Inn is at the 'top' of White Ennox Lane
Miscanthus (elephant grass) in Manor Farm's (Wadswick) fields to the west of Kingsmoor Wood
A wider view taking in Manor Farm (Wadswick) itself; White Ennox Lane in the foreground (looks like there's plenty of miscanthus in the barn to fuel the Wadswick boilers over the winter; the current crop will be harvested in April)
A section of repaired dry stone wall in White Ennox Lane, Manor Farm's miscanthus beyond
And now, three close-ups of Manor Farm, Kingsmoor Wood and the miscanthus - click on the icon with outward-pointing arrows to see full-screen versions of the photographs:
Glenda and Gordon Matthews in White Ennox Lane (see the gallery below for a 'portrait' of Gordon and Glenda). The world was put straight following this meeting and another encounter with Denise and Phil Beattie, in Boxfields Road.
The Bradford Road hedgerow with old man's beard and field maple leaves; two miscanthus fields and Manor Farm beyond
The Bradford Road hedgerow again with woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamera) and old man's beard (Clematis vitalba); Thorneypits substation (at left), Round Wood and Kingsmoor Wood lie beyond
Miscanthus at the Bradford Road entrance to Wadswick Green
Old man's beard in the Thorneypits byway with miscanthus and the Wadswick agro-industrial complex (Manor Farm) beyond
"I hear you singing in the wire" (perhaps not, this is electricity)
Moss on the dry stone wall bordering the Thorneypits byway with hazel leaves not yet (in mid-November!) acknowledging autumn's advance
The ash that thinks it's an oak in the Thorneypits byway
The paraphernalia of Ark Data lies beyond the larches in this view north from the Thorneypits byway
Spindle (Euonymus europaeus) berries, old man's beard (Clematis vitalba) and oak branches in the Thorneypits byway
A close-up of the spindle berries (which are pink with orange seeds) and old man's beard
Blackberry leaves 'turning' with silver birches and their autumn colour on Paddy's Hill beyond
Close to the entrance to Wadswick Green, right of way BOX51 (towards Hazelbury) leads on to BOX50 (Thorneypits) and BOX52 (Wadswick)
Treetops in the vicinity of Sands Quarry
The barred entrance to Sands Quarry at the western edge of the Donkey Field woodland
The Westwells access road to Wadswick Green from the Donkey Field woodland
A wasted resource among the oak and maple leaves in the Donkey Field woodland
The Donkey Field woodland on the afternoon of 15th November 2020
Old, fallen branches in the Donkey Field woodland (moss has significant environmental benefits: amongst other things, it is one of the best absorbers of carbon dioxide and it conserves water)
The Donkey Field devoid of its flora thanks to clearance by owners Summix and repeated spraying with weedkiller (there are no environmentally-friendly weedkillers - the spraying will have detrimental effects on local people/animals)
Beech at the western edge of the Donkey Field; Stephens Plastics yard beyond
Bistort at the entrance to the MoD Basil Hill overspill, visitors' car park in Westwells Road
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