The Hay Wain The Hay Wain The Hay Wain is a painting by John Constable, finished in 1821, which depicts a rural scene on the River Stour between the English counties of Suffolk and Essex. It hangs in the National Gallery in London and is regarded as "Constable's most famous image" and one of the greatest and most popular English paintings. Painted in oils on canvas, the work depicts as its central feature three horses pulling what in fact appears to be a wood wain or large farm cart across the river. Willy Lott's Cottage, also the subject of an eponymous painting by
Flatford Mill of his most iconic paintings, "Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River)", and mentioned in the title or is the subject of several others including: "Flatford Mill from a lock on the river Stour"; "Flatford Mill from the lock (A water mill)"; "The Lock". "The Hay Wain", which features Willy Lott's Cottage, was painted from the front of the mill. The mill is located downstream from Bridge Cottage which, along with neighbouring Valley Farm and Willy Lott's Cottage, are leased to the Field Studies Council, a group that uses them as locations for arts, ecology and natural history based courses.