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.

Incredibly, this was a first visit to the Swindon & Cricklade Railway on 2nd January 2023. This railway was part of the Midland & South West Junction Railway (M&SWJR) which ran from Andoversford to Andover (see map below); the line was closed to pasengers in 1961 and goods in 1970 (See the 13th August 2016 article here: https://www.rudloescene.co.uk/news/corsham/rugby-league-2016/). The title picture shows Collett 0-6-2T no. 6695 being uncoupled from the train at Taw Valley Halt before 'running around' (to pull the train back to Blunsdon and beyond). Neath (87A) was home to 6695 in BR days; it was withdrawn from service in 1964 and rescued from Dai Woodham's Barry scrapyard in 1978.

You may see that the engine headboard says The Tiddly Dyke which was, along with The MilkyWay, the nickname of this line. The latter sobriquet was due to the amount of milk traffic carried but the origin of Tiddly Dyke, for the moment, remains a mystery.