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.
17th April 2026 brought two visits, one from mate Mike over from Trumpland and the other (with Mike) to the Severn Valley Railway Spring Gala. The trip to Kidderminster (the southern terminus of the SVR) was tortuous - a three-hour journey involving three train changes at Bristol Temple Meads, Worcestershire Parkway and Worcester Foregate Street. The worst aspect was the Cross Country Trains (Deutsche Bahn) journey from Bristol to Worcestershire Parkway; when the station announcer at Bristol said that the train (from Plymouth to Edinburgh) consisted of four coaches (one of which was first class), my heart sank. There was a considerable crowd awaiting the train which, as might be expected with only four coaches, was already full so I had to stand for my 50-minute journey. However, others had longer journeys - a family of five (three small children) were travelling to Birmingham and had to stand for the length of their 85-minute journey; when the train stopped at Cheltenham to pick up yet more passengers, one of the adults and two children had to stand in the toilet. That's life in 21st-century Britain thanks to privatisation.
The title picture shows one of the many bookstalls at Kidderminster Town station.
The gallery below shows a number of images of Bristol Temple Meads station and the Cross Country Plymouth-Edinburgh train. The first two pictures focus on the roof which has been refurbished over the past four years at a cost of £70 million; in the second picture, the colourful terraced houses of Totterdown can be seen. The third picture shows the empty pub on platform 3 (the main platform); not only is the pub empty but all other food and drink outlets have also disappeared from this platform. The fourth and fifth pictures show structures at the eastern end of the station while the sixth is the First World War Roll of Honour of station staff. The seventh picture shows the line which entered the original Brunel train shed (and is now a car park). The final pictures show the Cross Country train arriving and the crush both on the platform and on the train.
The desolate Worcestershire Parkway station with no shelter from winds and weathers
At Kidderminster Town station where we lunched in the buffet (Brief Encounter or what)...
4903 Hagley Hall with a four-coach train at Kidderminster Town
Tea shed and a service yard on the run to Bridgnorth behind Duke of Gloucester
Duke of Gloucester taking on water at Bridgnorth
Passing a rake of 1935 coaches on the return journey
Back at Kidderminster...
Whilst Port of Par is a standard gauge locomotive, it is only 90" high
The booking hall (etc) at Kidderminster Town station
Just as we were leaving, the sun comes out. Note the Art Deco public address speaker.
Didn't care for the offered journey via Worcestershire Parkway, so returned via Worcester Shrub Hill instead (along with 3 Bristolians my luvver). Lots of semaphore signals in this part of the world.
And talking of signals, here is SH80, the remaining 'banjo' signal half-way along platform 1 with its subsidiary calling-on disc. There were once six of these at the station.
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