The Snapping Bishop

Found along the Thames estuary at Hadleigh, over the last century these ruins have been the inspiration to millions of artists, one of them, a John Constable had spent many hours sketching the ancient desolate towers set against the huge vista of the Thames estuary below.
In 1829, after being married late at 33 years old, his younger wife Maria died of tuberculosis, later that very year in desolate and desperate grief Constable painted the castle and its surroundings which you can see in the link below.

John Constable. “Constable. Hadleigh Castle 1829″ Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, USA.

Virtually all Constables most famous works where produced after his marriage.
Constable commented on his work after her death, “All I can do is ruins.” …he said. He continued to paint in grief for another nine years until his own death.

The photograph below contains the left most tower in Constables painting …as you can see its only a shadow of its former self, 80% of it having collapsed since he painted the castle more than a century ago.  The shot below that is the main tower you see in constables painting, some of its height appears to have been lost otherwise its resemblance is obvious and it remains wholly intact compared.

The last two photographs contain some of the views of the Thames estuary in the far distance, I’d suggest the one below could have been close to where Constable painted his scene, he’d have been looking left across the photograph,  I suspect there was a tower or raised ground behind that tree which has since slipped down the hill side (Their are many remains of walls down over that edge) and that was his vantage point looking left across and out of that photo towards the main tower and out towards the sea and estuary, which  you can see more of in the last shot.