Flatford Mill

Last updated

Flatford Mill
Flatford-Mill.jpg
Flatford Mill
Flatford Mill
General information
StatusCompleted
Type Watermill
Architectural styleBeam
Town or city East Bergholt
Country United Kingdom
Coordinates 51°57′32″N1°01′17″E / 51.9588°N 1.0215°E / 51.9588; 1.0215
Elevation3 m (10 ft)
Current tenants Field Studies Council
Completed1733
Owner National Trust
Another view of the mill Flatford mill 2.jpg
Another view of the mill
The site where The Hay Wain was painted, as it exists in 2010, where it is primarily a tourist destination. Flatford Mill, site of the HayWain.JPG
The site where The Hay Wain was painted, as it exists in 2010, where it is primarily a tourist destination.

Flatford Mill is a Grade I listed watermill on the River Stour at Flatford in East Bergholt, Suffolk, England. According to the date-stone the mill was built in 1733, but some of the structure may be earlier. Attached to the mill is a 17th-century miller's cottage which is also Grade I listed. The property is in Dedham Vale, a typically English rural landscape.

Contents

The mill was owned by the artist John Constable's father and is noted, along with its immediate surroundings as the location for many of Constable's works. It is referred to in the title of one of his most iconic paintings, Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River) , and mentioned in the title or is the subject of several others including: Flatford Mill from a lock on the river Stour; Flatford Mill from the lock (A water mill); The Lock . The Hay Wain , which features Willy Lott's Cottage, was painted from the front of the mill.

Current use

The mill was listed in 1955. It is owned by the National Trust which leases it to the Field Studies Council. [1] who have run it as a field centre since 1943. [2] The National Trust also owns nearby properties, Bridge Cottage, Valley Farm and Willy Lott's Cottage.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Constable</span> English painter (1776–1837)

John Constable was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home – now known as "Constable Country" – which he invested with an intensity of affection. "I should paint my own places best", he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, "painting is but another word for feeling".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Stour, Suffolk</span> River in East Anglia, England

The River Stour is a major river in East Anglia, England. It is 47 miles (76 km) long and forms most of the county boundary between Suffolk to the north, and Essex to the south. It rises in eastern Cambridgeshire, passes to the east of Haverhill, through Cavendish, Sudbury, Bures, Nayland, Stratford St Mary and Dedham. It becomes tidal just before Manningtree in Essex and joins the North Sea at Harwich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet</span> Industrial museum in South Yorkshire, England

Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet is an industrial museum in the south of the City of Sheffield, England. The museum forms part of a former steel-working site on the River Sheaf, with a history going back to at least the 13th century. It consists of a number of dwellings and workshops that were formerly the Abbeydale Works—a scythe-making plant that was in operation until the 1930s—and is a remarkably complete example of a 19th-century works. The works are atypical in that much of the production process was completed on the same site. A more typical example of water-powered works in the area can be found at Shepherd Wheel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Bergholt</span> Human settlement in England

East Bergholt is a village in the Babergh District of Suffolk, England, just north of the Essex border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martock</span> Human settlement in England

Martock is a large village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated on the edge of the Somerset Levels 7 miles (11.3 km) north west of Yeovil in the South Somerset district. The parish includes Hurst, approximately one mile south of the village, and Bower Hinton, which is located at the western end of the village and bounded by Hurst and the A303. Martock has a population of 4,766 and was historically a market town.

<i>The Hay Wain</i> Painting by John Constable

The Hay Wain – originally titled Landscape: Noon – is a painting by John Constable, completed in 1821, which depicts a rural scene on the River Stour between the English counties of Suffolk and Essex. It hangs in the National Gallery in London and is regarded as "Constable's most famous image" and one of the greatest and most popular English paintings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guyzance</span> Human settlement in England

Guyzance, historically Guizance, is a small village or hamlet and former civil parish, now in the parish of Acklington, in Northumberland, England. It is located on the River Coquet, roughly 6 miles south of Alnwick and around 3 miles west of Amble. Guyzance is one of only two places in Great Britain with a -zance ending; the other is Penzance in Cornwall. The similar names are co-incidence, however. In 1951 the parish had a population of 128.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brantham</span> Human settlement in England

Brantham is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. It is located close to the River Stour and the border with Essex, around 2 miles (3 km) north of Manningtree, and around 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Ipswich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridge Cottage</span> Historic cottage in Flatford, Suffolk, England

Bridge Cottage is a 16th-century thatched cottage in Flatford, East Bergholt, Suffolk, England. It has been a National Trust property since 1943 and a Grade II* listed building since 1955. The National Trust market the property under the name "Flatford: Bridge Cottage". The building is timber framed, but this is not evident from the outside as it is rendered. The II* grading, unusual for an architecturally unremarkable cottage, "reflects the importance of the cottage as part of the Flatford Mill group and its significance in the work of John Constable".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atherstone on Stour</span> Human settlement in England

Atherstone on Stour is a small village and civil parish about 3 miles (5 km) south of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 59.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Field Studies Council</span> Educational charity based in the UK

Field Studies Council is an educational charity based in the UK, which offers opportunities for people to learn about and engage with the outdoors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dedham, Essex</span> Human settlement in England

Dedham is a village in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England. It is near the River Stour, which is the border of Essex and Suffolk. The nearest town to Dedham is the small market town of Manningtree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stourton with Gasper</span> Civil parish in Wiltshire, England

Stourton with Gasper is a civil parish in the southwest of the English county of Wiltshire. Its main settlement is the village of Stourton, along with the hamlets of Bonham and Gasper. The village is about 2+12 miles (4 km) northwest of the small town of Mere, and is part of the Stourhead estate, which includes much of the west of the parish. The estate is in the ownership of the National Trust, and the entrance to the estate's famous house and garden is through the village.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willy Lott's Cottage</span> Iconic house depicted in famous painting

Willy Lott's Cottage is a house in Flatford, East Bergholt, Suffolk, England which appears in several paintings by John Constable, notably The Hay Wain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwardstone</span> Human settlement in England

Edwardstone is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. The parish contains the hamlets of Mill Green, Priory Green, Round Maple and Sherbourne Street, and Edwardstone Woods, a Site of Special Scientific Interest. In 2021 the parish had a population of 375. The parish boarders Boxford, Great Waldingfield, Groton, Little Waldingfield, Milden and Newton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flatford</span> Human settlement in England

Flatford is a small hamlet in the civil parish of East Bergholt, in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is most famous for Flatford Mill, Willy Lott's Cottage and Bridge Cottage, immortalised in the paintings of John Constable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Itchen Stoke and Ovington</span> Human settlement in England

Itchen Stoke and Ovington is an English civil parish consisting of two adjoining villages in Hampshire, England, 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Alresford town centre in the valley of the River Itchen, 5 miles (8.0 km) north-east of Winchester, and 2 miles (3.2 km) south-east of Itchen Abbas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henny Street</span> Human settlement in England

Henny Street is a hamlet in the civil parish of Great Henny and the Braintree district of Essex, England. The hamlet is on Henny Road at the east of the parish and adjacent to the west bank of the River Stour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Painswick Stream</span> River in England

Painswick Stream is a small river in Gloucestershire, England. It is a tributary of the River Frome, and flows generally southwards, passing around the village of Painswick and through the town of Stroud. It used to join the Frome at its mouth, but was diverted into the then-derelict Stroudwater Navigation as part of a flood relief scheme in the 1950s. Despite its small size, it has been used to power a significant number of mills, many of which were associated with cloth manufacture until the industry was hit by a series of depressions in the 1820s and 1830s. Some found other uses, being used for grinding corn and for the manufacture of walking sticks and umbrella sticks, another prominent local industry. Many were subsequently demolished, but a number survive which have been granted listed building status.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knowles Mill</span> 18th-century corn mill in England

Knowles Mill is the remains of an eighteenth-century water-powered grain mill, located in the Wyre Forest in Worcestershire, England. The mill has been owned by the National Trust since 1938. The mill and its surroundings feature extant machinery, as well as notable populations of adders and wood cranesbill.

References

  1. Historic England. "Flatford Mill (1351931)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  2. "Field Studies Council". Flatford and Constable. 2 November 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2022.