Dedham Vale

John Constable was born at East Bergholt in 1776, his father owned Flatford Mill, and he painted this few kilometres of the Stour so persistently that the area has been called Constable Country since the nineteenth century. The unusual thing is how much of it survives: Flatford Mill, Willy Lott's cottage, the dry dock and the lock all stand, and it is possible to stand where the easel stood for The Hay Wain and see the same cottage across the same millpond, though the trees have grown and the ford is deeper. The vale was designated a protected landscape in 1970. Rowing boats can be hired at Dedham and taken up to Flatford, and the riverside path links the two villages in about an hour on foot each way.

What you actually see

• Willy Lott's cottage - the house in The Hay Wain, still standing at Flatford.
• Flatford Mill - Constable's father's watermill on the Stour.
• The riverside path - a walk of about an hour between Dedham and Flatford.
• The rowing boats - hire from Dedham up the same reach he painted.

When to go

April to October, with the trees in leaf as in the paintings; early morning light on the millpond is the closest to what Constable worked in. Winter is quiet and the paths are heavy with mud.

Honest expectations

Flatford has no public parking within easy reach and the National Trust car park fills early. The buildings are viewed from outside or used as a field centre rather than shown as museums. Summer weekends are busy and the river narrow with hire boats.

Nearby

Dedham village is upstream; Colchester lies south and Ipswich north.