Flatford Mill is a Grade I listed

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

on the River Stour at

Flatford 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 C ...

East Bergholt East Bergholt is a village in the Babergh District of Suffolk, England, just north of the Essex border. The nearest town and railway station is Manningtree, Essex. East Bergholt is north of Colchester and south of Ipswich. Schools include E ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, 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. The mill was owned by the artist

John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...

'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 ''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, Suffolk, River Stour between the English counties of Suffolk and Essex. It hangs ...

'', which features

Willy Lott's Cottage Willy Lott's Cottage (or Willy Lott's House) is a building in Flatford, East Bergholt, Suffolk, England, which appears in several paintings by John Constable, notably ''The Hay Wain''. The property is a Grade I listed building, reflecting ...

, was painted from the front of the mill.

Current use

The mill was listed in 1955. It is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

which leases it to the

Field Studies Council Field Studies Council is an educational charity based in the UK, which offers opportunities for people to learn about and engage with the outdoors. History The organisation was established as the Council for the Promotion of Field Studies in ...

. who have run it as a field centre since 1943. The National Trust also owns nearby properties, Bridge Cottage, Valley Farm and Willy Lott's Cottage.

References

External links

Tate Britain Flatford Mill diagram map
* * Grade I listed buildings in Suffolk Watermills in Suffolk Field studies centres in the United Kingdom John Constable East Bergholt {{Suffolk-struct-stub