Geograph - photograph every grid square

A view of the mill stream between Willy Lott's House TM0733 : Willy Lott's House, Flatford and TM0733 : Flatford Mill; famous as the setting for one of John Constable's most iconic works "The Hay Wain" Link .

The view is regularly maintained (by The National Trust) to retain the appearance of the painting but it is not possible to faithfully re-create the scene in the painting for several reasons:
∙ None of the trees shown in Constable's paintings survive today
∙ Water levels in the millstream are considerably higher than in Constable's time. Over the last 200 years, this part of East Anglia has sunk relative to The North Sea by about by about 30cm.
∙ On the far side of the stream, a long embankment obscures the view of the meadows seen in the Hay Wain. This is a sea wall, built in 1949 to guard against tidal flooding
∙ Constable "cheated" by squeezing the roofline of Willy Lott's House to help with the composition of his painting
∙ Constable painted a wider-than-normal angle of view, not easy to create without very expensive ultra-wide angle lenses
∙ The hay cart is no longer there!