Today we went to Flatford, the village immortalised by John Constable in the early 1800s. Flatford today was a little different from the Flatford Constable knew, as the whole area has sunk about 30cm since his time, so the River Stour (not the same River Stour as Stourhead!) is considerably higher than in his time. Add to this that only a couple of days before, they had had a heavy downpour (40mm in a couple of hours), so the river was running a banker! This means that one of our aims, to hire a boat and row along the river, was out of the question. The Dry Dock (which he painted in Boat Building near Flatford Mill was anything but dry!
The Hay-Wain, 1820-1
View where it was painted
But we walked around the place, and enjoyed its picturesque beauty. We stood in the same place Constable was when he painted The Hay-Wain, and took a photo in roughly the same direction, by Willy Lott's Cottage — interesting, but not a Constable painting! The National Trust has been gradually buying up the whole of Flatford, and now most of the village is a National Trust site. They are putting as much of the village as possible back to what Constable would have known, and are renting out parts of it for holiday stays. This makes for a very pleasant experience as you walk through the village that John Constable would have known.
The Bridge
A View on the Stour near Dedham, 1822
Bridge Cottage
After Flatford, we set our sights for Ipswich and Orford Castle, but we decided to return to the same layby we stayed in last night — it was comfortable and convenient.
Distance driven — today, 43 miles ( 69 km ); to date, 8,902 miles ( 14,327 km )
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