| Where: | Tissington, Derbyshire at the Church and the wells around the village |
| When: | Ascension Day |
| Time: | 11 am at the Church |
Well dressing is an ancient Christian custom with its origins lost in the mists of time; what is certain is that it is a thanksgiving for a supply of clean water and that it is most prevalent in the Peak District and surrounding area. The dressings themselves are beautifully crafted pictures made from flower petals and other natural materials pressed into clay on frames; they take many hours to make and in some places visitors can watch them being crafted. When the Dressings are finished they are set up at wells and springs to decorate them and in some cases there will be events through the short display season. There are too many well dressing customs to list all of them on this website (and there’s already an excellent site dedicated to them) so I selected a few of the best known and longest established to illustrate what happens each year. Tissington’s Dressings are erected on the Eve of Ascension Day and a special service takes place on Ascension Day morning itself at the parish church , followed by a procession around the village in which each of the wells are blessed in turn. The dressings stay in place for a week and are taken down on the Wednesday evening following Ascension Day.
Helpful Hints
Ascension Day varies in date each year because it’s linked to the moveable feast of Easter; it’s always the fifth Thursday after Easter.
In 2025 Ascension Day falls on Thursday 29th May and the Dressings should stay up until Wednesday 4th June.
Click here for the village website: http://tissingtonhall.co.uk/tissington-hall-village-well-dressing.html
Click here to find Tissington and more well dressing locations: http://welldressing.com
Thanks to Ross Parish of http://traditionalcustomsandceremonies.wordpress.com for suggesting I write about this event!
210106 Webform message to Tissington Well Dressing Festival
I contact you on behalf of Clitheroe Town Wells Conservation Campaign (CTWCC). We have just relaunched a long running campaign to secure a future for our own three ancient town wells. Part of this campaign is to find out more about other public wells, their history, significance and the traditions that have developed around them. I thing their is much that we could learn from you about these structures and would appreciate the opportunity to speak or correspond with someone in your organisation who would be able to assist.
This is probably not the sort of comment you were looking for so I will close with one that,perhaps is. I am very envious of a community which respects these ancient structures and – in turn benefits from this. As we try to secure a similar status and respect for ‘our’ wells – particularly from our Local Authority you are a beacon for what can, and should be achieved with these ancient heritage assets. A credit to all currently involved with this tradition and all who have gone before you. Details of our owb campaign to date can be viewd at https://clitheroecivicsociety.org.uk/projects/town-wells.html
Finally this ‘discovery’ has just scuppered our claim, twice over it seems, that – ‘to our knowledge no other town in England could boast three extant public town wells. No matter and I am glad that we have now discovered this before others do so.
Best wishes for your 2021 Festival in whatever form it is possible to host it.
Steve Burke
Secretary
Clitheroe Town Wells Conservation Campaign
Dear Steve,
Thanks for your message about well dressing. Here at calendar customs we’re not directly connected to the well dressing events, but if you contact the good people at well dressing.com they’ll be able to help! You can email them from the link at http://www.welldressing.com/feedback.php and there is already a database of sites around the UK with details of where/when/what form their decorations take, which should be a good source of inspiration. I’m sure they’ll be very pleased to add Clitheroe to their list when you dress your wells! There are also pages with the history of the custom and how they make the dressings, and if anyone knows how to secure any aid or funding towards such projects, they’ll be the right people to ask. Some of the wells have been dressed for generations, and there’s a wealth of knowledge out there.
Sorry I can’t be more help personally- though I have admired many wells in my time, I haven’t contributed to the making of them- but I trust that the well dressers of Derbyshire will do a great job!
Best wishes,
Averil.