Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
though he probably had no idea that the flat valley floor is the result of recent (Flandri-
an) sea-level rise.
John Constable (1776-1837) was born in East Bergholt (
c2
), a village 3 km down-
stream from Stratford St Mary on the Stour, near to the present crossing of the A12
trunk road. He was the fourth child in a family whose successful milling and river
transport business on the Stour dominated John's early years, providing the basis for
his life as an artist. His delight in the challenge of portraying river-bank scenery and
activities - often under highly variable light and changing skies - was highly original.
Most previous artists had tended to invent landscapes as incidental backgrounds to por-
traits of individuals, or to historical or religious scenes. Much of his work shows scenes
in the 20 km stretch of the lower Stour valley that is now known as Constable Country,
and he built much of his reputation on this work. Remarkably, Thomas Gainsborough
(1727-88) came from further up the same Stour valley of Suffolk, though he was born
some 50 years earlier, and is most famous for his portraits.
FIG
250.
The Valley of the Stour with Stratford St Mary in the distance. (Copyright J.
Constable/V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum)
Over the whole of the southern part of this Landscape, the gently hilly scenery
is dominated by the presence of the coastline. There are two rather distinct kinds of
coastal scenery here, each reflecting a different response to the Flandrian rise in sea
level that has taken place since the last important cold episode of the Ice Age. The first
of these consists of cliffs where low hills (now 10-30 m above sea level) have been
attacked by storm waves. These cliffs occur from the Naze (
c3
), via Walton, to Frinton-
on-Sea (
c4
) and Clacton (
c5
) and, to a minor extent, at Jaywick (
c6
). Most of these
cliffs have been cut in material of the Early Tertiary London Clay, but small amounts
of Late Tertiary Crag deposits exist on top of this at, for instance, the Naze. Surface-
blanket layers of younger sand and gravel have also locally been cut into small cliffs.
