Box NATS History Trails 2019: Box’s Unique Heritage
The magnificent Quarry Woods is the remains of collapsed quarry entrance shafts (courtesy Carol Payne)
This year’s series of Box Walks in conjunction with Box NATS is the most diverse ever. Each walk explores aspects of the village’s heritage and its part in the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We trace many of the village’s 213 Listed Buildings and Gardens and the magnificent viewpoints of the Box Valley. All walks are free and open to all but please book in advance.
Box Conservation Areas: Village, Ashley and Middlehill
Sunday 2 June 2019 meeting 2pm at Box Rec car park
The walk is 3 miles circular, mostly firm underfoot, walking suitable for stout shoes or boots.
You have probably walked part of this trail but why are these three areas defined as Historic England’s Conservation Areas - places worthy of preservation or enhancement because of their special architectural or historic interest. We consider where is the oldest part of Box and why Ashley and Middlehill have commons but not Box?
We start by looking at the modern centre of Box village in the Market Place and remember why this wasn’t the original centre of the village. The walk takes us to the edge of the old village at Townsend, and a look at the Candle and Soap Factory, before leaving the village for the hamlet of Ashley, the Manor House, home of George Wilbraham Northey, lord of Box and Ashley, the firing ranges for the Somerset Light Infantry and other military regiments, before leaving for Middlehill at Sunnyside (now ByBrook Nursing Home). We set foot in all three Box Conservation areas.
Sunday 2 June 2019 meeting 2pm at Box Rec car park
The walk is 3 miles circular, mostly firm underfoot, walking suitable for stout shoes or boots.
You have probably walked part of this trail but why are these three areas defined as Historic England’s Conservation Areas - places worthy of preservation or enhancement because of their special architectural or historic interest. We consider where is the oldest part of Box and why Ashley and Middlehill have commons but not Box?
We start by looking at the modern centre of Box village in the Market Place and remember why this wasn’t the original centre of the village. The walk takes us to the edge of the old village at Townsend, and a look at the Candle and Soap Factory, before leaving the village for the hamlet of Ashley, the Manor House, home of George Wilbraham Northey, lord of Box and Ashley, the firing ranges for the Somerset Light Infantry and other military regiments, before leaving for Middlehill at Sunnyside (now ByBrook Nursing Home). We set foot in all three Box Conservation areas.
Sunnyside House once the home of Mr Bingham who donated an early village hall to Box (courtesy Carol Payne)
Box Heritage Trail
Sunday 7 July 2019 leaving 2pm from Box Rec car park
4 miles circular walk offering magnificent views of Box Valley in the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and 21 heritage buildings many relating to quarrying and Brunel’s Great Western Railway. Please note that this walk has some steep sections which can be omitted with patience, if preferred. Walking boots advised.
Following the By Brook to Drewetts Mill and Millsplatt, we look at a cluster of six Grade II and II* Listed Buildings identified for their special architectural and historic interest to be protected for future generations.
The development of Box Hill by the Road is explored at the site of the Rising Sun pub, the shops and facilities which developed here including the splendid Clift Quarry Works, the last stone quarry operating in Box. The area once had several factories including a lemonade plant and a plastics factory.
We follow the line of the narrow-gauge rail track and then up to Box Hill on the Hill with its magnificent views of the Box Valley, through Quarry Woods, before turning back to Box via the Grade I listed Hazelbury House and its gardens and the Millennium Woods.
Sunday 7 July 2019 leaving 2pm from Box Rec car park
4 miles circular walk offering magnificent views of Box Valley in the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and 21 heritage buildings many relating to quarrying and Brunel’s Great Western Railway. Please note that this walk has some steep sections which can be omitted with patience, if preferred. Walking boots advised.
Following the By Brook to Drewetts Mill and Millsplatt, we look at a cluster of six Grade II and II* Listed Buildings identified for their special architectural and historic interest to be protected for future generations.
The development of Box Hill by the Road is explored at the site of the Rising Sun pub, the shops and facilities which developed here including the splendid Clift Quarry Works, the last stone quarry operating in Box. The area once had several factories including a lemonade plant and a plastics factory.
We follow the line of the narrow-gauge rail track and then up to Box Hill on the Hill with its magnificent views of the Box Valley, through Quarry Woods, before turning back to Box via the Grade I listed Hazelbury House and its gardens and the Millennium Woods.
The magnificent Grade I listed Hazelbury Manor (courtesy Carol Payne)
Lost Village of Boxfields and Rudloe
Sunday 4 August leaving 2pm from Rudloe Community Centre car park off Corsham-Bradford road.
A unique chance to discover Rudloe in association with Rudloescene.co.uk and former residents of the Boxfields Estate.
3 miles circular, mostly flat and on firm ground but stout footwear is advised.
Most of the present Rudloe Estate was built in the early 1960s to house residents from the old prefabs at Boxfields and Thorny Pits and the remaining Ministry of Defence workers. It became significant when safeguarding the national interest against Cold War Russian attack because a nuclear deterrent strike could have been launched from the Box underground tunnels. We find the site of Rudloe Firs and Brewer’s Yard but stay on the south side of the A4 down Leafy Lane, the edge of Clift Quarry, to Rudloe Park Hotel which was built by the quarry-owners the Pictor family. Herbert Pictor inherited the family firm and constructed the building, then called Rudloe Towers, as his epitaph. The strange building was more like a mausoleum after Herbert and his wife divorced. Herbert continued to live in the house alone and isolated until he went bankrupt in 1907.
The trees in Leafy Lane woods have Tree Protection Orders on them. Not so, the prefabs which once stood at Boxfields. All have now been cleared but the roads, pavements and streets are still quite visible. Our route then winds past the old Tunnel Inn pub into White Ennox Lane and the site of the old Box Highlands School opened in November 1943 for the children of the Boxfields Estate. There are some remaining prefabs at Thorny Pits, once a single person’s hostel, used to house workers in the underground factories in 1941-42. In 1956 it was used for Hungarian refugees.
We complete the modern view of Rudloe with amazing sites of the Ark Data estate hidden by woods where most of the country’s worldwide web information is stored (known to you and me as The Cloud even though it’s underground). And finally, back via the famous Burlington Bunker WW2 site, the Hawthorne Chapel and the infamous Flamingo Club (your misspent youthful memories welcomed).
Sunday 4 August leaving 2pm from Rudloe Community Centre car park off Corsham-Bradford road.
A unique chance to discover Rudloe in association with Rudloescene.co.uk and former residents of the Boxfields Estate.
3 miles circular, mostly flat and on firm ground but stout footwear is advised.
Most of the present Rudloe Estate was built in the early 1960s to house residents from the old prefabs at Boxfields and Thorny Pits and the remaining Ministry of Defence workers. It became significant when safeguarding the national interest against Cold War Russian attack because a nuclear deterrent strike could have been launched from the Box underground tunnels. We find the site of Rudloe Firs and Brewer’s Yard but stay on the south side of the A4 down Leafy Lane, the edge of Clift Quarry, to Rudloe Park Hotel which was built by the quarry-owners the Pictor family. Herbert Pictor inherited the family firm and constructed the building, then called Rudloe Towers, as his epitaph. The strange building was more like a mausoleum after Herbert and his wife divorced. Herbert continued to live in the house alone and isolated until he went bankrupt in 1907.
The trees in Leafy Lane woods have Tree Protection Orders on them. Not so, the prefabs which once stood at Boxfields. All have now been cleared but the roads, pavements and streets are still quite visible. Our route then winds past the old Tunnel Inn pub into White Ennox Lane and the site of the old Box Highlands School opened in November 1943 for the children of the Boxfields Estate. There are some remaining prefabs at Thorny Pits, once a single person’s hostel, used to house workers in the underground factories in 1941-42. In 1956 it was used for Hungarian refugees.
We complete the modern view of Rudloe with amazing sites of the Ark Data estate hidden by woods where most of the country’s worldwide web information is stored (known to you and me as The Cloud even though it’s underground). And finally, back via the famous Burlington Bunker WW2 site, the Hawthorne Chapel and the infamous Flamingo Club (your misspent youthful memories welcomed).
Rudloe Towers (now called Rudloe Park Hotel) is a wonderful High Victorian neo-Gothic edifice (courtesy Carol Payne)
All walks are free and open to everyone. Please be aware that you are walking at your own risk.
To book your place email boxpeopleandplaces@yahoo.co.uk or phone 01225 743614.
To book your place email boxpeopleandplaces@yahoo.co.uk or phone 01225 743614.