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.
Slaughterford 9 - 28th January 2024... why is this in Box Hill News? Well, this annual event starts and finishes in the old route of the A4 at the brow of Box Hill. The 9km route is shown at left - after crossing the By Brook to the Colerne area, the route is a bit of a mystery to me so 'we' have determined to follow it when the weather improves (walking not running!). A few photos follow then we have a gallery of photos taken in Lower Rudloe Lane and the 'gully' which runs from the lane down to Widdenham. All photos are taken on the return leg, the runners having just completed 'the Sting' which is the incredibly steep path from Widdenham up to the gully. And finally we have two photos, the first showing our own Ironman, Austin Wales, and the second an Iron Lady from Worcestershire who navigated the gully during this event rather than take the Sting (right of way BOX25 - Widdenham to the gully).
Parking in Leafy Lane for the 2024 Slaughterford 9. One of the first finishers may be seen (in blue) in the distance.
Parking at the Leafy Lane/A4 junction
Assembled runners, stewards and spectators line the finish at the Lower Rudloe Lane/A4 junction
Running up Lower Rudloe Lane to the finish
Our own Ironman - Austin Wales
This lady, from Worcestershire, was visiting her daughter. She didn't do the Sting but walked up the gully which, in many respects, is just as difficult with loose stones, water and overhanging branches and brambles
19th February 2023 - the rudloescene reader may have seen/heard, on many recent TV natural history programmes, that Britain is the least-wooded country in Europe apart from Ireland. Apparently, the average woodland density in Europe is in the mid-thirties% whereas in Britain it is just low- or mid-teens%. Why then would landowners, public and private, continue to decimate the woodland and hedgerows that we do have? The title picture shows the current state of the former hedgerow on Box Hill below the lower Beech Road entrance/exit. The enormous pile of logs and branches in the field indicates the extent of the destruction. The photos below show the hedgerow in May 2021 which, as you may see, reveals a fine variety of species and then we see the hedgerow as it was in winter 2013. The gallery further below provides a measure of the destruction.
May 2021 view of the hedgerow that has been cut down
And now a winter view of the destroyed hedgerow from 2013
2013 view of the hedgerow (at left) on Box Hill which has been cut down in February 2023
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