en Willy Lott%27s Cottage

Willy Lott's Cottage (or Willy Lott's House) is a building in Flatford, East Bergholt, Suffolk, England, which appears in several paintings by John Constable, notably The Hay Wain.

The property is a Grade I listed building, reflecting its importance "as part of the Flatford Mill group" and "its significance in the work of the artist John Constable".^[1]

The earliest part of the building is sixteenth century. It was restored in the 1920s after a revival of interest in Constable's paintings. It has been renamed Willy Lott's House as that is the name Constable used in his paintings. It is owned by the National Trust.^[2] The cottage was purchased in 1926 by Thomas Parkington; after his death in 1943, the National Trust purchased it from his estate.^[3]

The cottage is located on the bank of the River Stour, just downstream from Flatford Mill in the heart of Dedham Vale, a typically English rural landscape. Flatford Mill, along with neighbouring Valley Farm and Bridge Cottage, are leased to the Field Studies Council, which uses them as locations for arts-based courses such as painting, and as accommodation for science-based courses such as residential ecology trips for students up to A-level.

William Lott

The cottage takes its name from its resident at the time John Constable did his paintings, when the house was known as Gibeons Gate Farm. William Lott (1761–1849), a tenant farmer, lived at Gibeons Farm and spent only four nights away from this house in his life. According to a 2020 article, "Willy Lott himself became famous thanks to Constable, but only after his death".^{[citation needed]}

The Story of Willy Lott and his Cottage (2023) has been published by Brian Lott,^[4] the gt-gt-gt-grandson of Willy's brother John Lott (1758-1827).