Things to do in Colchester

Dedham in the Stour Valley of Essex is the principal village of Constable Country, the landscape of the lower Stour that the painter John Constable used as the subject of some of the most celebrated paintings in the history of British art. The combination of the handsome main street of Tudor and Georgian buildings, the great Perpendicular church of St Mary, the Stour water meadows accessible from the village and the direct visual connection to the landscape that Constable painted makes Dedham one of the most rewarding literary and artistic heritage destinations in East Anglia. Constable was born at East Bergholt across the Stour in Suffolk and the paintings he made of this valley, including The Hay Wain whose composition is centred on Flatford Mill a short walk from Dedham, created images that defined the English pastoral landscape for subsequent generations both in Britain and internationally. The water meadows, the river, the mills and the great cloud-filled East Anglian skies that Constable recorded in his large exhibition paintings remain recognisable in the actual landscape today, a continuity quite remarkable for scenes painted two centuries ago. The Munnings Art Museum in the house of the painter Sir Alfred Munnings provides a further artistic dimension, and the boat hire from the Dedham boathouse for rowing on the Stour provides the most direct experiential engagement with the landscape that Constable made famous.