Melford Hall, Dedham and the long walk to Flatford Mill

The Bank Holiday Monday weather forecast threatening rain, Mrs T. suggested an outing to Dedham today, Sunday, as we have never visited this area of the countryside before.

Eshewing taking the faster, but scenically less interesting route all of the way along the A14, we abandoned the dual carriageway at the market town of Bury St Edmunds and took the winding country road to Sudbury.

The time being close to luncheon, we followed my stomach's advice and diverted to Melford Hall, a National Trust house in the village of the same name and availed ourselves of the facilities there. This small mansion is still the family home of the Hyde Parkers and the stained glass windows at the front of the house suggested that it would be deserving of a closer look.

The two rooms that really instilled themselves into my memory were the library and the nursery.
The library, which though small by mansion standards, did have a congenial and hospitable air that invited spending the afternoon buried in a book. My eye was also caught by a delicately inlaid ebony and ivory writing table which I endeavoured to photograph with the small camera, the “anti-shake” setting giving a reasonable chance of succeeding in capturing at least one clear image in the low light.

Entering the nursery, I was immediately struck by the painting of the present Sir Richard Hyde Parker, 12th Baronet, as a child with his toy dog. It was not a masterpiece but did convey the intimate link to a family home, which I believe was the intention. One of the toys in a cabinet was Jemima Puddleduck, given as a gift by Beatrix Potter herself, a relative of the family and a frequent visitor with her entourage of pets.

The small garden contained a selection of peonies, many of which were distinct through their bicoloured form (magenta outer petals and lighter, yellow inner ones). The inner petals also distinguished themselves by their more narrow and curved nature. I photographed these with a painter's eye as they appeared to combine the Chinese painting styles of peony/rose for the outer petals and chrysanthemum for the inner.

We drove on to Dedham, arriving at tea-time, and took a respite in the Essex Rose Tea House where I enjoyed a summer pudding and Mrs T. had a lemon meringue with lemon meringue ice-cream that was rich, creamy and absolutely delicious.

We decided to take the walk across the fields to Flatford Mill and progressed through the genteel Brook Street of Dedham onto the National Trust trail promising to lead us to the mill. This was the more circuitous route, through pleasant, gently undulating countryside of pastures and fields, so it was not until around 6 o'clock that we arrived at the complex of buildings and water features around Flatford Mill.

With the sunlight frequently appearing between the scurrying white clouds on this windy day, the River Stour, the locks and ponds were all very picturesque. The mill itself is now a field study centre with limited access, however we were able to wander round to the actual millpond featured in Constable's iconic painting of the English landscape, The Haywain.

Time had changed the scene, especially as the mill building looked more recent, but Willy Lot's Cottage, as seen in the painting, did still exist. Apparently, the water in our present time is deeper than in Constable's but the question still arises as to what incompetence left the haywain stranded in the river Stour.

We returned to the car by the shorter route following the Stour, racing with three canoeists who were also travelling in the same direction upstream. As their route followed every bow of the river and our past cut across these in the fields, we kept up with them. Most amusing was the reaction of dogs belonging to other walkers, who were most perturbed by the sight of the half men, half floating logs passing by and invariably gave chase along the bank, barking wildly. The fields were also full of cattle who were in turn drifting in the same general direction, no doubt waiting for the evening call back to the farm.