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FLATFORD MILL, SUFFOLK
| Willy Lott's House |
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| Late in the afternoon |
One of my favourite places in England is Flatford
Mill near East Bergholt in Suffolk. It's in an area also known as Constable Country, for the famous painter John Constable,
whose relatives owned the watermill that's now Flatford's Millhouse or main building. As a tourist you can't actually visit
the buildings themselves (they're a field centre owned by the Field Studies Council), but you can enjoy some of the same views
that Constable made famous in his pictures, notably the Haywain. Willy Lott's House is featured in that; Willy Lott
was a tenant at the time Constable worked here.
As a teacher I have stayed at Flatford many times bringing my Dutch students
over to England to learn about life in the English countryside. Our latest trip was in May 2008. The FSC do a great job teaching
students of all ages (you can enrol for one of their many courses) about the environment.
Flatford is very easy to reach from Holland, because it's only a 20-minute drive
once you get off the Stena ferry arriving at Harwich from the Hook of Holland. It's also quite near the A12.
| CLICK THIS PICTURE |
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| VISIT THE FIELD STUDIES COUNCIL |
| 2007 Group |
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JOHN CONSTABLE (1776 - 1837)
John Constable (1776-1837) was an
English painter, and is now ranked with Turner as one of the greatest British landscape artists.
He was born the son of a wealthy miller in East Bergholt, Suffolk. He attended grammar school in nearby Dedham, Essex.
Although he showed an early talent for art and began painting his native Suffolk scenery
before he left school, his great originality matured slowly. He committed himself to a career as an artist only in 1799, when
he joined the Royal Academy Schools and it was not until 1829 that he was grudgingly made a full Academician, elected by a
majority of only one vote. In 1816 he became financially secure on the death of his father and married Maria Bicknell after
a seven-year courtship and in the fact of strong opposition from her family. During the 1820s he began to win recognition:
The Haywain (National Gallery, London, 1821) won a gold medal at the Paris Salon of 1824. His wife died in 1828,
however, and the remaining years of his life were clouded by despondency.
After spending some years working in the picturesque tradition of landscape and the manner of Gainsborough, Constable developed his own original treatment
from the attempt to render scenery more directly and realistically, carrying on but modifying in an individual way the tradition
inherited from Ruisdael and the Dutch 17th-century landscape painters.
He never went abroad, and his finest works are of the places he knew and loved best,
particularly Suffolk and Hampstead, where he lived from 1821. To render the shifting flicker of light and weather he abandoned
fine traditional finish, catching the sunlight in blobs of pure white or yellow, and the drama of storms with a rapid brush.
Constable worked extensively in the open air, drawing and sketching in oils, but his finished pictures were
produced in the studio. For his most ambitious works--`six-footers' as he called them--he followed the unusual technical procedure
of making a full-size oil sketch, and in the 20th century there has been a tendancy to praise these even more highly than
the finished works because of their freedom and freshness of brushwork.
In France Constable was a major influence on Romantics such as Delacroix, and ultimately on the Impressionists.
Constable's work can now be seen in different museums in London,
notably Tate Britain, the National Gallery, and the Victoria & Albert.
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| John Constable |
| Haywain |
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| Boat Building |
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| Flatford Mill |
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| Haywain scene in 2007 |
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| Boat Building scene today |
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| Dedham Vale |
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| CLICK HERE |
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| The Millhouse on a sunny morning |
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| Flatford Mill as seen from Willy Lott's House |
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| The Mill House |
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| Standing in front of Willy Lott's and looking back, this is what you see. It's now the main building |
| The Mill House Gable |
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| With Willy Lott's behind you, this is what you see when you start your walk back to the car park. |
EAST BERGHOLT, SUFFOLK
The village closest to Flatford Mill is East Bergholt
in Suffolk. It's a lovely little place. In St Mary's Church a number of Constable's relatives lie buried. Constable himself,
however, is buried in London.
In the 1086 Domesday Book East Bergholt is referred to as Bercolt (meaning
wooded hill), which is the King's land, in the charge of one Aluric Wanz, and held from Aluric by Aubrey de Vere.
The tower of St Mary's was never finished, apparently because money had run
out after Cardinal Wolsey's downfall in 1529. For this reason, the bells still hang in a 16th century cage behind the church.
They are still rung on special occasions.
John Constable was born in East Bergholt on 11 June 1776. His father, Golding
Constable, was a prosperous corn merchant who, among other things, owned Flatford Mill.
Visit e-bergholt.net
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| ANOTHER EAST BERGHOLT SITE |
VISIT SUFFOLK CAM FOR GREAT PHOTOS
| St. Mary's Church |
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| 20th May 2005 |
| St Mary's Church |
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| Drawing by Constable |
DEDHAM, ESSEX
Dedham is a lovely little village near Flatford,
but just inside Essex. You can walk there from Flatford along the River Stour in about half an hour. John Constable
did this every day as a boy, for he went to grammar school there. The school building still exists, right next to the church,
the tower of which is just visible in the second photo. I took this standing in a country lane when we were on our
way back to Flatford after we had visited East Bergholt church on 4 August (see picture above).
| River Stour with Dedham church |
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| Dedham church |
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| High Street |
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HADLEIGH, SUFFOLK
About 10 miles north west of East Bergholt is Hadleigh,
which is a nice little market town. It's got a beautiful Guild Hall, a fine church and a very nice and old-fashioned High
Street. Hope they'll be able to preserve that even though a big Tesco's may be moving into the area!
| Hadleigh High Street |
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| Here we're at the north end |
Visit Nicola's Guide to Hadleigh in Suffolk
| St Mary's |
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| Guildhall |
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| February, 2006 |
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| February 2006 |
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| The Idler in the High Street |
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| A nice second-hand bookshop |
| High Street, south |
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| Near the Milestone and Partridge's |
| CLICK THIS IMAGE |
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| CLICK THIS PICTURE |
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| The unofficial guide to Great Britain |
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| VISIT THE BRITISH EMBASSY IN THE NETHERLANDS |
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