Photo Gallery 3
This gallery starts with some photos taken around the Flatford Mill area. We're in Constable Country here.
This walk was a pretty long affair. Not that the walk itself was long (7½ miles,) but getting to it was a reasonable drive there and back. Most of this area is just North of the Essex/Suffolk border.
On the way back, I stopped off at East Bergholt. The Church here has a remarkable bell-cage in its grounds . The bells are actually rung by grabbing their head-stocks and pulling them round by hand! The head-stock is the piece a bell is hung from. It has bearings at either end. There is a downloadable *.mpg type file at the end of this page, of the bells actually being rung.
I used to think that these unusual bells were originally hung in a tower, but this is not the case. Scroll down towards the end for more, stopping of course to admire the views along the way!
Dedham Church
How about this for a typical Constable painting subject? Nothing in particular - just country!
This shot was taken just before the boat in the foreground had a pretty major collision with the bank, along with the possible accompanying language! Taken from the banks of the river Stour.
The "in-flow" of Flatford Mill...
...and its "out-flow".
The famous Willy Lot's House. This features in some of Constables paintings, and the very right part of it (the gable and chimney stack) can be seen in one of his best known, "The Haywain". This must have been painted before the building exterior was rendered!
As promised earlier, the rather unusual bell-cage at East Bergholt.
A view of the west end of East Bergholt Church. This is where the tower should be to house the bells in the cage. The truth is that the tower was never built! The empty space above the west end stub has never been built onto... at any time!
The bells in the cage. Notice they appear to be upside-down. If you view the page on bell-ringing, you will understand why! All five bells (just got them all in this shot looking through one of the grille apertures) are just beyond their points of balance. The people who ring these bells consider it's too much of a hassle to "ring the bells down". In other words to get them into their "normal" state, with their mouths down The brave people who ring these bells with their bare hands also have to use ear defenders, it's the law!
It seems to me that the ringing here is just too regular! I guess the sound track has been looped. The video aspect of it is interesting though.
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