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.
Friday 9th June 2023 saw the sunny weather continue and, at long last, the north-easterly wind begin to drop. This amble (more like a route march on the return journey) started at Thickwood, dropped into the By Brook Valley upstream of Slaughterford and continued to Ford. We shelved the idea of going on towards Castle Combe in view of the time/effort involved (on the return leg particularly). Or it might have been the call of a pint at the White Hart. The title picture is of a cottage garden at Slaughterford.
Setting off along Thickwood Lane in the direction of Slaughterford
Red valerian and oxeye daisies predominate in the verge of Thickwood Lane
Slaughterford Beach
Water meadow with alders bordering the By Brook beyond
Common Hill Plantation
Pool below one of three weirs on this section of the By Brook
Reflections in the pool above the northernmost weir
Upstream of the weir, some outlying buildings of Ford village appear
Those outlying buildings, possibly New Church Farm, come more into focus
The By Brook runs through the grounds of the White Hart at Ford
We stopped for a pint and a bite to eat at the White Hart. The beer was okay (Brooklyn Pilsner) but that, for me, was the only positive element of this stopover. You have to have chips with pasta so I ordered a side of triple-cooked chips with my rigatoni. The chips were limp, lifeless and overcooked and the pasta needed a copious amout of salt and pepper in order to extract any flavour. I could have done ten times better myself. We were in the garden where no tables had been cleared following lunchtime service (we arrived post-lunch) and a dead shrub adorned a large, stone planter. This place has gone downhill big time.
From Ford, we took the 'cut' through Common Hill Plantation to Slaughterford. This was the first element of the route march.
Common Hill Plantation on the 'cut' to Slaughterford
Common Hill Plantation on the 'cut' to Slaughterford
Cottage garden at Slaughterford. Landscape version of the title photograph.
Slaughterford bridge (over the By Brook)
Hay rolls in a Park Farm (probably) field at Thickwood
Nicking a book from the phone box library at Thickwood
No photos between Slaughterford and the Park Farm/Hall Farm crossroads as this was the second (and relentless) slog up to Thickwood
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