Dedham

22nd Sep

Dedham Parish Church - credit:S

We woke to a beautiful morning in Dedham. Why Dedham you may ask? When I was a kid,our local library rented out framed prints of famous paintings and my Mum was smart enough to get one every week and hang it above the table where it became the subject for dinner time conversation. I had two favourite artists - Brueghel and Constable. I always remembered looking for the church tower in Constable's pictures, as it made an appearance in most of them. This church tower is in Dedham, and today I could see it out the bathroom window, as we're about 200m from it.

As it happens Dedham is a delightful little village that's been around a long while - many buildings are medieval. There are a few half timbered buildings but most of the properties along the High Street look Georgian: lots of imposing facades, albeit on a mini scale. Turns out quite a few are really only facades attached much earlier houses and shops. There are no power poles or street lights so it remains very photogenic, if not a little too perfect. We're staying in a Georgian home that has been beautifully renovated. The owner told us how their elderly neighbours pretty much dictate any changes to the village - the council tends to defer to them. On the plus side, their passion has kept the village from being over developed, but on the negative side, it makes renovating a nightmare.

River Stour - credit:S

Our first stop for the morning was Dedham's St Mary's church built from 1492 to 1522, with the 131 ft tower completed in 1519. The tower is a particularly good example of the traditional flint clad buildings in East Anglia - blocks of flint in mortar, with all the small off cut chips wedged in the mortar. I loved the old wooden carved doors, and small things like a camel decorating a memorial panel from 1632 (not many camels in Dedham - how did they know what they looked like!).

Most of the sites of Constable's Dedham Vale paintings are within walking distance, so we headed off along one of Britain's many public footpaths that cross farmland and other private land. This one went along the banks of the River Stour and over the Stour Bridge where we stopped for morning tea, sitting out under the trees, right next to the dry dock where river barges used to be maintained. These were also a subject of Constable's paintings as were the nearby locks (no longer the originals of course!). It was then a short walk to Flatford Mill, where Constable lived. Right outside Flatford Mill is the pond and Willy Lott's house that feature in the painting The Hay Wain. The sun wasn't at the right angle to do it justice, so we planned to come back closer to sunset - which we did the next day, and this is the result:

The Hay Wain - credit: S

Dedham church a la Constable - credit: J

It was such lovely weather (although getting cloudy), we continued walking north to East Bergholt, again using the public footpaths to stay off the narrow country lanes. It's no wonder Dedham church appears in so many Constable paintings as it seems to pop up regularly between trees and across fields. They say that Constable is popular because he captures countryside that is quintessentially English, and it sure is! There was also something about the light and clouds that seemed just right too.

East Bergholt church with bell cage - credit:J

There is a very old church in East Bergholt that has a very unusual feature: a bell cage. There are a few of these in existence, but in this case the story goes that 5 huge bells were purchased to go into a new tower to be funded by Cardinal Woolsey. With his downfall went any hope of a church tower. Instead, a wooden cage-like building was built to house the bells. They are the heaviest bells in the UK and sit upside down in cradles. Unbelievably, they are still rung every Sunday - I'm glad I don't live next door!

We found a quaint little tea room for afternoon tea (nothing between a a cream tea!) before wandering back along more footpaths to Dedham. The downside of these public footpaths is that their routes aren't always obvious: we went wrong somewhere, had to climb over a gate, and almost ford a stream (until we saw the little foot bridge) not having the faintest idea where we were until thankfully a few landmarks appeared.

Our hosts recommended a place for dinner that we could walk to - along yet another public farmland footpath. As it was dusk, we saw lots of rabbits. Fortunately the sign "Bull in Field" was not a reason for concern, as the bull was way off the distance. We had a very nice meal before braving the country lane in the dark - no street lights! Still better than the farmland footpath.

23rd Sep
An even more beautiful morning - sunshine with a hint of autumnal crispness. Our charming Airbnb hosts provide us with a more modest healthy breakfast thank heavens, so we don't waddle out the door. I had two aims for today, both related to Arthur Ransome (of Swallow and Amazon fame) rather than Constable for a change. He wrote two books set in this part of England: Secret Water and We Didn't Mean to go to Sea. In both, they start out at Pin Mill on the River Orwell (more of an estuary at this point, as it's close to the coast).

Hanford Water Reserve - credit: J

Secret Water is set on what is now known as the Hamford Water Reserve, inland from Walton-on-the-Naze. The original plan had been to take a boat tour on the reserve, however the tides were not in our favour. It's an extremely low, marshy area where acres of extremely soft squidgy mud are revealed at low tide. Boats can only pass much of it at high tide and today those were very early in the morning and in the evening. Instead, I used Google Maps to find a road into the reserve area. This turned out to be quite a cross country adventure over a very unmade road (giant potholes) and of course with the low tides, all we could see at the end of the road was mud and tussock-like grass. But that's exactly like the book, so I didn't mind. I say that the road ran out but in fact it turned into a causeway that we weren't brave enough to take as it wasn't in great condition. I did however walk part way out on it, and couldn't resist testing the mud on either side - definitely the sort to lose gumboots in! I'm pretty sure that this is what Ransome used for the "wade" where kids get the tides wrong and end up stuck out on the causeway as the water is pouring in.

Pin Mill - credit:S

Clouds over the River Orwell - credit:J

We had a quick side trip into Walton to look for a public toilet (not a great seaside town) before setting our sights on Pin Mill. The small harbour area is still very much as it was in Arthur Ransome's day in 1930s with the Butt and Oyster pub and Alma Cottage (the pink one in the photo), looking very much like the illustrations in the books. The "hard" (road/ramp to provide access over the mud to the water at low tide) is still there, there are still boat builders and old river barges with brown canvas sails. Only the cars and modern sailboats spoilt the illusion of going back in time.

We consumed a leisurely and large lunch at the Butt and Oyster, so no dinner was needed that night. Good old sausage and mash, sticky toffee pud and apple crumble, accompanied by local Suffolk ale and cider.

Then it was back to Flatford to have another go at photographing the view in better light - well worth it as the evening sunshine was beautiful, even if not very much like Constable's dark atmospheric colours. Shame about the jet contrail! (see photo above).

The day ended with a lazy evening at our temporary home, including chatting with our hosts. James is a potter and I had a tour of his studio and the latest pots just out of the kiln this morning. He does domestic pottery, in shades of blues and sage greens, although he is still experimenting, so the colours aren't always as he expects. It was nice to do very little as we were facing a long drive the next day.

Barge at Pin Mill - credit: S