HADLEIGH CASTLE

HADLEIGH CASTLE

It was rather fun to grow up as a child in the knowledge that your family ancestors once lived near a castle in the UK in the 15th Century. Too bad that it was now a ruin, that didn't stop the imagination from soaring to great heights. Later, it was fascinating as an adult to learn that the ruins had been depicted by the English artists JMW Turner and John Constable (1776-1837). This copy is of Constable's 1829 work.

Commentary on a mezzotint copy of the Constable painting: The sky, Constable's 'chief organ of sentiment,' is meteorologically precise; light comes from the northeast as it would on the 'morning after a stormy night'; and invests the scene with an artificial vitality. Constable takes a high viewpoint, and gulls fly below eye level, removing the viewer to a seemingly greater distance from the ruin and drawing the eyes into the craggy ravine. This view from the cliffs above the Thames magnifies the desolation of the scene. A shepherd, alone except for his dog, exaggerates the barrenness of the scene and may reflect Constable's loneliness at this point in his life. The printed version is almost identical to the painted sketch in subject and composition. The ruin itself may be seen as 'symbol of [him]self', projecting his mental state on to architectural collapse. The use of mezzotint emphasizes the dramatic lighting of the scene. The shaft of white light on the right horizon, the contrast of the jagged edge of the break in the tower, the cows, and the black gulls against the white clouds and the white gull against the dark foreground create a work of tonal contrasts and expressive chiaroscuro. - From Wake Forest University Print Collection.

Strangmans had been associated with Hadleigh and this part of Essex for many years (there is a Strangman Ave at nearby Benfleet) before some of them settled in Waterford in Ireland. In 1852 my direct ancestors left there for Australia and later New Zealand. I had already visited the areas in Ireland where they had lived (Araglen) and some were buried, particularly Mocollop cemetery on the border of Co Cork and Co Waterford.

Other Strangmans from Australia had visited the Hadleigh Castle ruins over the years and in May 2005, on the day before I was due to return to Australia from a short visit to the UK I travelled to Hadleigh with my son Peter. The following are photos that we took. The countryside was very green but the wind was bitterly cold and we took shelter in the ruins of the remaining tower to eat our lunch. There were fields of yellow canola in the distance and nearby the wind sent waves through the fields of grass, something we don't see in Australia.

Please contact me if you have information to add about the Strangmans or Hadleigh Castle.

Denis Strangman, Canberra, Australia. E-mail: string@hotkey.net.au

You can catch a glimpse of the ruins from the train as you travel between Benfleet and Leigh on Sea.

The train as seen from the ruins.

You drive down a road adjacent to a Salvation Army training establishment (which serves refreshments in a comfortable tea room) and there is a Notice board at the start of a walking path.

This is the map showing walking trails and paths around the surrounding countryside.

Peter Strangman on the path with the ruins in the distance.

Approaching the ruins. The Thames estuary is in the distance.

View to the left of the path with Hadleigh in the distance.

A horse and foal in the fields.

There is a sign on a post which gives information about the walks.

Another sign giving the history of the Castle but partly obscured with graffiti.

Above and right: Taken from the front of the tower.

A close-up of distinctive bands surrounding the tower. A historian and archaeologist who visited the site told me it is East Anglian flint , much prized for 3,500 years.