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.
Horse chestnut at Bradford Road; view across the Hannick development site to the Marlborough Downs
2nd November 2020 - returning from a Halloween walk, it occurred to me how much the Springfield Close landscape had changed in 45 years. The first picture below (click on the pictures to enlarge) looks down Springfield Close in the winter of 1975/76, the other two, taken on 31st October 2020, illustrate how things have changed.
21st January 2019 - the By Brook Valley from the brow of Box Hill a month after the winter solstice with Kingsdown escarpment, Bathampton Down, Lansdown and Bannerdown escarpment shrouded in mist
Little fluffy clouds over Halfway Firs on 7th September 2018
Sunrise in a Bradford Road hedgerow which will soon be scrubbed out for a speculative greenfield development (17/12270/REM)
The By Brook Valley from the brow of Box Hill on 2nd December 2017
Rudloe by night under a gibbous moon - 27th August 2017
Fine spring morning in 'Leafy' Lane with contrasting oak and sycamore leaf colours. This prospect is now gone thanks to local, witless officials who have nothing better to do than sanction tree removal, leaf-blowing and other such nonsense
A touch of the Mediterranean on Rudloe Estate - Centranthus ruber on 26th June 2017
A touch of the Mediterranean on Rudloe Estate - Centranthus ruber on 26th June 2017
Sunrise in the By Brook Valley from the top of Box Hill on 29th December 2016
Folly Farm at dawn on 29th December 2016
Sunset over the downs to the south and east of Bath from the top of Box Hill - 9th December 2016
Most peculiar sky over Rudloe - 23rd August 2015
Sunset in Leafy Lane on 20th October 2012
View over the Clay Vale to Oliver's Camp above the south-west escarpment of the Marlborough Downs - January 2000. This view, from the path behind Springfield Close, is now lost thanks to greenfield development.
The lights of Bath from the brow of Box Hill - Jan 1998
2017 view across the Clay Vale at dawn from the footpath behind Springfield Close. This 'important' view is now gone 'forever' (for current and future generations) thanks to greenfield development (Bath ASU and Dickens Gate).
Daybreak - the sun strikes a field maple in the Bradford Road verge behind Springfield Close. Greenfield development (Bath ASU and Dickens Gate) now precludes this event.
Discarded re-usable bags and lunch waste in Skynet Drive
29th January 2016 - homo stultus
If you take a look at photo 63 in the second gallery here November 2014 you will see one of the many piles of carrier bags that are regularly discarded in a Skynet Drive hedge. This practice has been going on for years; it appears that he or she buys lots of 'lunch' goodies at Sainsburys, perhaps consumes them while listening to Radio 1 here, then chucks the remnants into the hedge.
Today, 29th January, the tradition continues but now with the re-usable bags for which Sainsbury's levies a charge. A key factor in the abandonment of single-use bags was that charging for a more substantial bag would encourage customers to re-use thus reducing waste and environmental pollution. This thinking of course did not take into accout the morons that populate our society.
An argument/theory has been offered, by scientists, that we have now entered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, which defines Earth's most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes are now altered by humans (see www.anthropocene.info).
My theory is that along with this new epoch, Earth is now populated by a new species, no longer homo sapiens (wise man) but homo stultus (stupid man)
Sunday 13th December 2015 - a strange old day
Went the day well? It started with a reflection on what will be lost to the Hannick and Bath ASU speculation on local pastureland and continued with a rubbish (litter) clear-up of Skynet Drive and Bradford Road. The Skynet Drive detritus filled seven bags (plastic, supermarket-type) which were stuffed into the two bins at the Rudloe Estate bus stops. The 'compulsory' bags of dog crap found hanging off hedgerow plants were, of course, included in the clear-up. A quick snip is all that's required to empty the bags into the depths of the hedgerow where the offending material will rot down soon enough, the bags go in the bin.
The main event followed: clearing Bradford Road starting from the old cottage/barn, opposite Springfield Close, and continuing to the Stone Close area. The resulting, substantial pile may be seen in photo no. 8 below - this constituted a boot-load which was then taken to the Melksham recycling centre. With this (typical) amount collected on a 200-yard stretch of one country road, the state of many parts of England today may be seen as a national disgrace (see http://www.litteraction.org.uk/the-rudloe-mob).
Light relief in the afternoon as indicated in photo 9 ... English culture at The Bell in Walcot Street ... beer, English cuisine (including a Mediterranean casserole!), music from Bill Smarme and the Bizness (Youtube upload coming shortly), comedy, mates, conversation ...
9th August 2015 - cosmic background radiation from the Big Bang now in Leafy Lane Wood?
No, tens of thousands of hoverflies were buzzing in the canopy. According to an August 2004 article in the Ipswich Star, hundreds of thousands of the little creatures made an appearance there:
"A plague of hoverflies could soon be at an end the Evening Star can reveal today. Hundreds of thousands of the harmless insects have been attracted to the region in recent days thanks to rising temperatures and perfect conditions. But they will soon disappear as quickly as they arrived, if it rains ..."
And another 'emergence', this time of flying ants, occurred a couple of weeks ago. The extract below is from the Bath Evening Chronicle, 1st August edition. Box residents may have noticed their appearance from scores of underground colonies on the 'Rec'.
"You don't need to be sharp-eyed to have noticed the swarms of flying ants in Bath over the last couple of days.
The flying insects have been spotted around the city, landing on people's clothes and hair. The bizarre sightings are not unusual, however. In fact Friday was 'Flying ant day' - an informal term for the day on which queen ants emerge from the nest to begin their nuptial flight. In most species, the males fly alongside them, although they are smaller. The queens often try to escape the males, allowing only the fastest and the fittest to mate. The queens fly around then mate with several males and drop to the ground, where they lose their wings and try to start a new colony."
Muntjac barking in the miscanthus at Rudloe
At around 7pm on Monday 30th December 2013, a muntjac could be heard barking in the miscanthus field at the eastern edge of Rudloe. Muntjac can often be seen in the elephant grass here - both the muntjac and the miscanthus are imports from China.
Okay, just cows in a field but this is Leafy Lane Playing Fields in its former life
Winter aconites in Leafy Lane, Rudloe House opposite
Unusual weeping ash at the edge of Rudloe Estate and the woodland bordering the Bradford Road - 1998 (now felled of course!)
Farming (remember?) taking place in the fields that have now become the monstrous 7.5-metre high, steel clad buildings of the supposed Corsham Science Park and the Dickens Gate development. Image from May 1998.
Views of Rudloe including Leafy Lane Wood and Bradford Road
Click on image to enlarge and view caption
Another Rudloe gallery
There is so much to see in Rudloe!
Some older images
And now some images from the 90s. For more old Rudloe images, see the Archive, Rudloe pages.
Remember winter? In the excessively mild winter 0f 2015/16, here are some images, from December 2010, to remind readers of what a proper winter looks like. All photos were taken in Rudloe gardens and Leafy Lane Wood.
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