| Where: | Mainly villages in Derbyshire and the Peak District |
| When: | Throughout May, June, July & into August |
| Time: | All day |
Well dressing is a beautiful and popular custom, particularly in Derbyshire and the Peak District, in which springs and wells are decorated with panels worked in flower petals and other natural materials to form a design. Religious scenes are common but not exclusively so. The custom seems to date back to the eighteenth century at least, though it has become much more widespread in modern times.Many villages take part and the season lasts from early May into August so there are plenty of opportunities to visit though the period for each village is short (usually a week or less) because of the nature of the materials used. With over 100 Well Dressings through the season, it isn’t possible to list them all on this site – and the Welldressing link below already does that admirably! However a selection of the major festivals are listed here (see separate entries for Wirksworth, Buxton,Bisley, Tissington, Youlgrave, Eyam Plague Sunday and Calderdale Spaw Sunday) to give a flavour of the events.In addition, at Bakewell in recent times additional dressings have been made to mark Remembrance Day, particularly around the centenary anniversaries.
Photo by Crossboy.
For schedules/venues click here : http://www.welldressing.com/
hello Averil,
having lived here for nigh on 40 years i thought it about time i went to a well dressing. I thought I’d missed them all again. So I was very pleased when I found well dressings listed in June’s customs. I clicked on the link http://www.welldressings.com and was very surprised to find not only are there lots but also some are practically on my doorstep. (3 miles) away.And I had never realised that they run from May to mid September.
I went to one at Hoylandswaine which included a Scarecrow Trail and spent a happy couple of hours scarecrow hunting, the village was busy with young families and oldies like myself doing the same.The well dressing was really quite pretty I believe it’s only been going for a few years
The link lists all the well dressings, new and old, times and dedications and is printable offable . I’m planning to go to some more over the summer. Many thanks again for your inspiring site
Hi Annie,
Always a pleasure to hear from you, and I’m pleased you’re enjoying the welldressings. We’re off to a reenactment of the Battle of Waterloo today – I’ll be in touch properly soon,
Averil