The soaring church tower of St. Mary's in its old reddish brick appears on the skyline of many a painting by the artist John Constable (1776-1837) who was born at nearby East Bergholt.  Inside the church at Stoke by Nayland are memorials to the Tendring family.  Alice Tendring who was born in 1365 in Stoke by Nayland  married  John Howard and from this union well over a century later came Catherine Howard who was the fifth wife of King Henry VIII of England. Unfortunately as history tells Catherine Howard did not live to ripe old age as she was beheaded by her husband whilst still very young.  What many people forget is that Catherine Howard was also cousin to Ann Boleyn, Henry's second wife also beheaded. 

The village is situated on a hill in the Stour Valley close to the borders of Essex in the area known as Constable Country. A mix of traditional Suffolk pink cottages rub shoulders with lovely medieval Tudor timbered buildings, all little changed from Constables day. Near the lych-gate in School Street is where the village lock up once stood. A lovely are for walking and cycling or just drinking in the scenery that inspired our great British painters.

Stoke by Nayland is regarded by many as the heart of the area for Constable's Suffolk landscapes.  Here he found inspiration for many of his masterpieces as he once wrote "I associate my careless boyhood with all that lies on the banks of the Stour; those scenes made me a painter".

Nearby is the Stoke by Nayland 18 hole championship Golf Club  and fitness centre is situated in 300 acres of undulating Suffolk countryside, on the edge of the Dedham Vale. If you continue north west you will come to the larger town of Sudbury with its connections to Thomas Gainsborough another famous painter who said that portraiture was his profession, landscape painting was his pleasure.