Well Dressings in North East Derbyshire
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What is Well Dressing?
Quite simply it is the art of decorating springs or wells with pictures made from growing things.
Amongst the old customs and all but unique to Derbyshire, perhaps the best known, most colourful and popular one is that of Well Dressing or, as it was once known, 'Well Flowering'. This ancient and once pagan custom has long since had Christian associations, though the exact origins are unknown.
The thanksgiving for the gift of water is today celebrated by the blessing of the wells and a festival for the whole village. The actual dressing of the well is done by the villagers.
However it began, well dressing can only be seen in or around the borders of Derbyshire. Many towns and villages, including Dronfield Woodhouse, invite people to come and watch them work - by far the best way of discovering the fascinating technique of well dressing.
How is the Well dressed?
Imagine a wooden tray of about six feet high, four feet wide and one and a half inches deep. It's left to soak for a few days in the local pond or river to get the wood really wet, then it's hauled out and filled with soft, wet clay.
The artist brings the design, drawn full size on thin paper, smoothes it over the clay - and so the work begins. Each village has its own method of marking out the design. Some use small pieces of bark pressed through the paper. Others use a knife to cut along the outline, or a knitting needle to make marks in the clay along each line. The picture is outlined with straw, black wood, alder cones, peppercorns or seeds. Only when the outline is clearly marked on the clay can the pictures be 'coloured-in'. Some call this stage 'petalling', others call it 'flowering'.
Whatever method and materials used, a well dressing takes up to 7 days of work, by a whole team of people, to finish. And it will only last about a week before the clay dries and cracks, and the flowers fade. Then it is taken down and the boards stored away until next year.
Every year well dressing takes place at North East Derbyshire villages/towns including:
Brackenfield
Coal Aston
Dronfield Woodhouse
Cutthorpe
Millthorpe
Cowley
Heath
Holmesfield
Barlow
Holymoorside
Coal Aston
Dronfield Woodhouse
Cutthorpe
Millthorpe
Cowley
Heath
Holmesfield
Barlow
Holymoorside
The well dressing season is from early May to early September each year.
Please use the relevant link in the navigation list on the left-hand side of the page to find out more about the dates and times of this year's Well Dressings.
If you would like more information about well dressings in the area, please contact Chesterfield Tourist Information Centre.
