This walk is a delightful way to experience Constable country. The painter grew up in the nearby village of East Bergholt, the son of a prosperous miller who owned the water mills at Dedham and Flatford. Flatford Mill is now a busy tourist destination but the visitors do not wander far so you can walk nearly all the way passing few people, yet immersed in landscapes that still look remarkably like Constable's.
We walked there in June on an unsettled day of those bubbling cloudscapes the painter is famous for, when the meadows were golden with buttercups, glorious to see. We did the walk again on a perfect August day with sunshine, blue sky and white fluffy clouds. Some cornfields had been harvested. Families were picnicking and swimming and many people were rowing boats on the river. Swallows followed us all the way, dipping over the fields, while others gathered on the wires in readiness for their long journey. House martins were nesting under the bridge at Flatford and also at Manningtree station. We saw rooks and green woodpeckers in the fields, Egyptian geese, mallards and a little grebe in the Stour, a flock of goldfinches including fluffy juveniles feasting on thistles, and greenfinches and a couple of whitethroats. We heard but could not see a blackcap. There were also many butterflies (Red Admiral, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper and Common Blue) as well as a few dragonflies.
There are plenty of places to swim in the Stour between Dedham and Flatford, but a particularly good spot is opposite Dedham Mill, where the river opens into a pond and there is a small gravelly beach. The water is shallow at the edge and you have to paddle out some way before you can swim, but then a few strokes will take you out of your depth. Further down towards Flatford you need to be careful because the river is not wide and may be busy with small boats.
There is a lot to see on the way. St Mary's church in Lawford, probably built as the estate church of Lawford Hall, dates from the 14th century. The tower is composed of a delightful mixture of brick and different kinds of stone including puddingstone, and the light, spacious interior is well worth a visit. Pevsner describes the early 14th century chancel as 'one of the most splendid monuments of its date in the county'.
Dedham is an attractive village with old pubs and houses and its parish church, also dedicated to St Mary, is one of the great churches of the area - a grand, mainly 15th century building, testimony to the prosperous weaving industry. The tower was painted several times by Constable and the church contains one of Constable's very few religious paintings, the Ascension.
Dedham Mill, built in 1809, was owned by Golding Constable, the painter's father, and used for grinding grain and making cloth. An unfinished painting by Constable, sometimes on show at Tate Britain, depicts a rustic building considerably smaller than the structure there today and surrounded by more open ground.
The hamlet of Flatford, by contrast, preserves several buildings more or less as Constable painted them. The effect is slightly disturbing, as if the last 200 years, which transformed economic and social life, had never happened. No doubt the effect is partly achieved by restoration undertaken by the National Trust, which acquired the estate in 1943. Bridge Cottage, next to the National Trust café, now houses a small Constable exhibition. Beyond the café is the dry dock depicted in Constable's 'Boat Building on the Stour' - or at least a dry dock that looks similar. The Mill and Willy Lott's House are a little further downstream and the latter, particularly, looks very like the painting of it.
Manningtree circular wild swimming walk, Essex and Suffolk directions
1 Manningtree
Turn right out of the station and go down the slope to a footpath signed to Flatford and Dedham. At the tarmac track, turn right and almost at once take a signed footpath left leading uphill with fields to the left and trees to the right. At the top of the hill the path bears right and continues to St Mary's church. From here all the way to Dedham the route follows the Essex Way (EW).
2 On the Essex Way
Go through the churchyard and out the other side to a lane where there are two FP signs. Take the left hand path, which follows the field edge (keeping the fence on your left) out to a road junction. Turn right up Dedham Road until you come to two FP signs on the left. Follow the left-hand one, which bears slightly right, and aim across the field to the left of a pylon. (If there is a standing crop, you may have to go round the field edge.) Continue past a cross path to a track onto which you turn left, bearing to the right and then straight on following the EW (avoiding a left turn). Continue on this green lane to a house on the right (Humberlands). Immediately afterwards, take a signed footpath to the right which leads into a small wood and soon crosses a small stream and then the railway track. Take care: this is the main Norwich line, with fast trains on it.
1.5 miles
3 To Dedham
Continue straight on across a large meadow, with horses often in it, through several kissing gates to cross a road. Continue on the path, from where you get your first view of Dedham church and glimpses of the beautiful Stour valley, to another road, where you turn right and walk down through trees to take a path on the left at the bottom just before a bend in the road. Follow it to a fairly busy road. Turn right and at a safe point cross over to take a path on the left. After passing through four fields, turn right on a surfaced lane ignoring a path straight on. Go down the lane a short distance, passing some cottages and take a left turning (FP and EW signs) that almost at once becomes a path. Continue by Park Farm, keeping left, avoiding a couple of paths to the right. Soon cross a small stream bed and shortly afterwards take a path off to the right, heading towards Dedham church. At the cricket ground a path turns left but stay on the EW, which turns right then left, emerging onto a road just east of Dedham church.
3.5 miles
4 A swim in the Stour
Take the road opposite the church (B1029, Mill Lane) and follow it to cross the River Stour. For a short diversion to a good swimming place and picnic spot, take the path to the left along the river to arrive opposite Dedham Mill.
5 To Flatford
Afterwards, retrace your steps to the road and cross over to take the path opposite, which follows the Stour downstream towards Flatford Mill. From here to Manningtree station, the route follows the St Edmund Way. After about half a mile, the path crosses the river by a footbridge and continues along the right bank to another bridge. Cross and turn right on a narrow road to reach the National Trust Centre, Bridge Cottage, Willy Lott's House and Flatford Mill itself.
6 miles
6 Return to Manningtree
After exploring the mill area, retrace your steps to Bridge Cottage and cross back over the little bridge, turn left and continue downstream on the river's right bank. After passing Willy Lott's House on the far side of the river ignore a path to the left (a dead end) and continue following the river, but at a slight distance. From here on, access to the river for swimming becomes difficult. The path crosses a small tributary stream and veers to the left, with another path going off to the right. Take the left-hand path (signed Manningtree) and a little further on cross another small tributary where the path curves slightly left, still following the river. You will soon see a path off to the right, which should be signposted to Manningtree station, but on our second visit all three fingerposts had been broken off. This soon becomes a track, which zigzags its way back to Manningtree station.
7.25 miles
Route by Margaret Dickinson and Liz Valentine.
Route reproduced with kind permission from Wild Swimming Walks, book available now for only £14.99 from wildthingspublishing.com
