Blog

October 17, 2018

As autumn comes to the Stour Valley, SB tells us what’s happening in her garden on the banks of the River Stour. Many thanks to her for these interesting insights. Autumn mornings can be breathtaking at sunrise when an early morning mist forms over the water meadows opposite us. The…

October 10, 2018

This blog post features two poems written by Linda Bevan and Jo Porth, both members of the Sturmer and District WI. Jo Porth is Secretary to the Sturmer Village Hall Charity.  Their committee has been organising some events to celebrate the River Stour Festival in Sturmer, including a fun run,…

September 23, 2018

This blog post welcomes back SB with more Garden Clippings from her garden on the banks of the River Stour, with more wonderful insights into the wildlife living on the river.   The much-needed rain finally came.  The water butts have filled up and the hosepipes are stored away in…

August 16, 2018

This blog post comes from SB who lives on the banks of the River Stour. She regularly writes about the wildlife and changing seasons on the river for the local parish magazine and we are delighted that she has agreed to share her “Garden Clippings” with us on the River…

August 7, 2018

On the banks of the River Stour at Henny, July 2017….. “The river is flowing the wrong way.” “What do you mean?” “The river is flowing the wrong way!” I repeated. “Look at the current. The wind is blowing the water the wrong way.” It was a breezy day. “No,…

May 2, 2018

  I was delighted when Ruth Philo mooted the concept of the River Stour Festival. it seemed to me there has long been a need to link together in some way  the many attractions of the river Stour from its source in Cambridgeshire to the North Sea at Harwich. The…

Professor John Thornes giving his talk in front of a screen.
April 1, 2018

Constable’s Skies – A talk by Professor John Thornes at Boat House Gallery, National Trust, Flatford on 6th March 2018. Professor John Thornes, Professor of Applied Meteorology discusses the sky in John Constable’s paintings. To John Constable the sky was “the keynote”, the “standard of scale” and the “chief organ…

February 20, 2018

This week we’ve handed over the blog to Ordnance Survey Outdoor Champion Barbara Walshe, who lives in Boxted and said in the Gazette that her favourite walk is from Flatford to Dedham. Barbara plans to walk the Essex Way as well as all sorts of other long distance paths. Read…

January 26, 2018

Professor John E Thornes of the University of Birmingham will talk  about ‘Constable’s Skies – before and after The Haywain?’  at the Boat House Gallery Flatford on Tuesday 6th March at 2pm. Tickets from National Trust Flatford £8 In this blog post he explores John Constable’s painting of  a rainbow over…

Stour, Dedham, Flatford, River Stour Festival
January 24, 2018

John Milne writes… My wife is a painter and works for the National Trust. It was with her that I started to explore the valley of the Stour river.  I think we are both moved by trees and always have been. That response may be formal – in general landscape…