This is one of many walks around Dedham and Flatford and away from the two villages themselves is an incredibly quiet and peaceful walk. We’ve never been to Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) before, but at 90 square km, we will definitely be returning soon. We adapted our route, which has already had a few positive ratings!, from this suggestion by Dedham Vale AONB & Stour Valley Project, who have links to numerous pdf maps on their website. John Constable and other renowned landscape painters have famously immortalised this area.
6.7km / 4.1 miles
Link to OS Map Route: Dedham Flatford Circular
Conditions: Warm, Overcast, Showers
Two car parks near the River Stour, Dedham; the larger of the two is Dedham Car Park. (Pay and Display)
Water Meadows, Woodland and Pastures
We started our walk by walking over the bridge to leave Essex and headed east on the Stour Valley Path with the River Stour on our right through the water meadows. This section is confusingly also called the St Edmund Way. Considering this was a warm but not particularly sunny Wednesday at the start of July, the river banks here were very busy; we commented to each other how rammed it would be on a hot summer’s weekend! The Boathouse on the other side of the bank serves food, drinks and hires out kayaks and rowboats. The river bent away from us and we left the crowds behind by walking in an almost straight line to a hedge and into a narrow path canopied by greenery. I don’t know what it is about these hedgerow tunnels where you are completely covered by trees but we are absolute suckers for them, like being in a woodland fantasy world.
We did pass a few people here, not ideal as it meant having to come off the path and into the overgrowth to adhere to social distancing. There is another route that takes you to where this tree tunnel ends though, past the closed Fen Bridge, which we admired from afar before heading up a stoney lane in an easterly direction until we reached a road. The next section is certainly less wild and more agricultural, the small coppice had recently been cultivated and we passed a very smelly sewage works! Definitely the low light of the walk!
Popping out on to the road and confusingly up someone’s driveway, we unexpectedly came across construction of several somewhat-out-of-place, small, alpine-esque chalets on a hilltop. Once completed, these (presumably holiday) homes should have an excellent view across the valley. Thankfully, the route got less populated again quickly, passing through tall wild grass and down the centre of a large sheep field – please keep dogs on leads. The area was once rich in sheep rearing due to the combination of woodland and pasture; it was this wool trade that made the area wealthy enough to construct the beautiful buildings, so it’s poetic to see it still used for this purpose in places.
Flatford Mill – Stour Valley Path
Upon existing the field we were back on the Stour Valley Path. The short track turned sharply right and Willy Lott’s wonky cottage greeted us. Beyond that stood the beautiful red-brick Flatford Mill adorned with climbing plants; it honestly prompted an open mouth, ‘wow’ reaction. The water in front of the mill is clear, calm, dotted with lily pads, and framed by long grass, wildflowers, and over-hanging trees.
Willy Lott was a farmer, and besides his cottage being the subject of Constable’s The Hay Wain, that’s all that was remarkable about him! Records from the late fourteenth century describe the mill as a “fulling mill”, an ancient process for cleaning sheep’s wool cloth. The mill fulled wool until around 1700, when the cloth industry in East Anglia began dying out. While sheep farming declined, the demand for bread soared. Flatford became a corn mill and was even owned by the Constable family from 1742 to 1846. It continued as a working mill until 1900 and today, is Grade I listed and owned by The National Trust. The views across the water from the mill are different today than when painted by Constable – the water level is higher for one – but it’s a serene and stunning scene nonetheless.
We continued past the other mill buildings to the National Trust tea rooms, bought some jam and milk to have with our picnic and crossed the river just as it started to rain! This was actually excellent timing as we found a dry spot under a tree right next to the river to have our scones, tea and cake that we’d packed. Usually, we’d stop at a tea rooms and have a cream tea on this sort of walk, but with lockdown only just lifting and the café operating takeaway only, a picnic was a safer bet!
We sat there for about 45 minutes to an hour, the raindrops rippling the calm river, fish picking insects off the water’s surface, and the only company some damp kayakers and a duck that kept sailing slowly past, hoping for a crumb of cake. It’s hard to image that this river was once a bustling trade route.
River Stour to Dedham – Fen Bridge
We finished our tea just as the rain eased and set off with the meandering river to our right and grazing cattle to the left. Since many (if not all) were bullocks and we had a dog, we gave them a wide berth, but they didn’t seem phased by us at all. You can ramble in a straight line across the pasture (it’s a makeshift but well-trodden path, rather than an official one) or hug the river the whole way (as well as The Stour Valley Path, this part is also the St. Edmund Way again). We did the latter in the hope of spotting an otter, since they have now returned to the Stour in good numbers, but sadly had no luck!
This area has an understated beauty. There’s no magnificent peaks or staggering trees, just simple luscious greenery. We couldn’t in the moment grasp what it was that makes this and other parts of the vale so beautiful, but on reflection, think it’s because the views are unblighted by telegraph poles or pylons. It feels like it would have done hundreds of years ago and is perfect for rambling.
Eventually we reached the south side of Fen Bridge, which is closed “for safety reasons”. Yet another local sight captured in Constable’s paintings, the closure of this rickety footbridge means long detours for walkers that rely on it as a river crossing; Constable himself used this crossing on the way to his school in Dedham. However, the bridge there today is in fact a replica placed in 1985. It’s unclear how such a relatively new bridge on a popular route has fallen into such disrepair! The Stour Valley Path/St. Edmund Way goes over the closed Fen Bridge, so at these point we continued to follow the river. After a short while the path left the river, went through an expansive tree tunnel alongside some fields, and into Dedham, Essex.
We were here late afternoon, by which all the shops and cafes were shut (if they were even open, this being the week lockdown eased had somewhat). Under normal circumstances, this would be a bustling tourist spot. The village is traditional and beautiful with a mix of Georgian and Tudor architecture, and the 15th century church is a fine example of the wealth generated from the cloth industry. Just as the skies opened again, we scurried back to the car park promising to ourselves that we’d return for another Dedham Vale adventure soon.
Love Wild Walks
