Episode
Constable Country, the Cracks Beneath and Opportunity
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- Apr 26, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 356
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Summary
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com This weekend, on the advice of ChatGPT, I visited Constable country. That is Essex, the villages of Dedham and East Bergholt, by the River Stour, which John Constable so famously painted. Having just spent a fortnight in Namibia, I’ve become attuned to stunning landscapes. Even so, I was blown away by the beauty of the place. Here are some snaps to get you in the zone. I went with a French friend who wanted to see the “real England”, but not too far from Stansted Airport. As we drove into East Bergholt, I began, as I always do as soon as I see them, to despair at the ugliness of modern buildings. No wonder we have so many NIMBYs, when what gets built around beautiful villages is so bland and ugly. Objection is both rational and natural. But then we turned a corner and everything was suddenly stunning. It’s not a part of the world I knew. I had lazily assumed all of Essex looked like Basildon. It doesn’t. It was glorious. You could really see the Dutch and Flemish influence in the architecture and the colours they were painted - so different to the equally beautiful Cotswolds, where I was last weekend doing gigs . We were only sixty miles from London, but it still felt like an England of old, unblighted. My French companion could not understand what I had been moaning about when I complain about decline. This was the England she knew growing up, and she got excited by everything. Scones. Tea. Churches. Beautiful landscapes. Polite conversation. Phone boxes. Properly kept gardens. Even the beer. “It’s not cold,” she said, before promptly downing it. My oft-cited complaint that the England she knew is disappearing seemed nonsense. There was no evidence of it here. As we walked into Manni…