Dedham
Dedham is an affluent village, set at the head of Dedham Vale in the heart of a classic English landscape made famous by John Constable.
If the countryside scenery seems familiar its because this part of the picturesque Stour Valley, the meandering River separating Essex with Suffolk was the subject of many of John Constable’s most celebrated paintings, such as the Haywain, Flatford Mill and Dedham Vale.
Constable, the prominent 19th Century landscape painter was born close to Dedham in a village called East Bergholt. His father was a wealthy merchant who owned nearby Flatford Mill, setting for many of the painter’s most famous works. The mill that stands there today is not the same one, though it houses an art workshop. As a child, Constable was taught in the Grammar School in Dedham.
The area, known as Constable Country, includes a number of walking paths around the countryside that John Constable knew and loved of which he once said, ‘every stile and stump and lane, these scenes made me a painter’, and little is changed today. The bucolic countryside remains unspoilt and buildings such as Willy Lott’s Cottage as seen in the Haywain and Bridge Cottage have still survived. In Dedham the tall church tower remains, as seen in a number of paintings including the View on the ‘Stour near Dedham’.
Dedham town itself is an attractive town of 17th Century Georgian and Flemish houses and has interesting connections with early settlers to the United States. Dedham supplied more passengers on the Mayflower than any other community in England and the town of Dedham near Boston in the US is named after this town here in Essex.
Dedham makes a great base for exploring the surrounding countryside, and has a collection of fine restaurants and quaint tearooms within the locality.
