Flooding hits Constable's Hay Wain beauty spot

An area immortalised in paintings by John Constable has been hit by flooding on the 250th anniversary year of the artist's birth.

The hamlet of Flatford in the Dedham Vale, on the Suffolk and Essex border, inspired many of Constable's paintings, such as The Hay Wain, which depicts Flatford Mill and its pond on the River Stour.

Anglian Water has positioned sandbags at the National Trust-run site due to the heavy rain.

"It's a very temporary measure and they're just being overly cautious just to manage any concerns," said Flatford Mill manager Simon Peachey.

The Hay Wain will go on display for the first time in the county later this year as part of a commemorative exhibition.

"The river has been probably higher than it has been in the last two or three years.

"It's covered our granary garden - we have concerts in there in the summer - but it's been completely underwater in the last few days.

"That amount of liquid has an impact on the water flow around the area," Peachey said.

He told BBC Radio Suffolk the beauty spot attracted about 150,000 visitors a year, with many keen to enjoy the sight of the Grade I listed water mill, just as Constable did in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

Many visitors also used the network of paths crossing the vale, but he said the footpath to Dedham was currently under several feet of water in places.

He also warned people to be cautious if planning to kayak or paddleboard along the River Stour as the water was running faster than normal and had got much colder.

Suffolk County Council said it was "not unusual" for the site to be submerged during winter as it was a floodplain and it was managing the situation along the footpath.

Constable's The Hay Wain was painted in 1821 and has been loaned to Colchester and Ipswich Museums' Constable 250 project, which will run for a year from March.

The painting, borrowed from the National Gallery in London, will be displayed alongside its preparatory sketches.

Constable was born in East Bergholt in 1776 and became one of the country's most important painters before his death in 1837 at the age of 60.

The artist was part of the Romantic movement and his works became synonymous with Suffolk, to the extent that the area in which he grew up is known as Constable country.

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