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Well Dressing

Well Dressing is believed to have originated in pagan times. The church banned it as water worship but the tradition refused to die. In 1349 Tissington revived the art of Well Dressing and it now flourishes throughout the region.

The custom is almost exclusive to Derbyshire and is only found either in or very near to the county. In its' simplest form Well Dressing can be described as the art of decorating springs and wells with pictures made from local plant life such as petals, flowers, berries and leaves.

The process starts with a wooden board soaked in the local river for a few days. The board is then covered in soft, wet clay and the outline of the picture is applied to the clay. The outline is then filled in with either alder cones, known locally as 'blacks', berries or even small white haricot beans.

Next comes the painstaking work of filling in the picture using a whole variety of growing things including bark, mosses, lichens, petals and, in some cases, whole flower heads. A Well Dressing takes hours to complete, and villagers often work through the night to finish in the early hours of the first festival morning. Some wells are dressed in secret whilst many are now more open and visitors can watch how the picture develops. The Wirksworth Heritage Centre hosts a permanent display detailing the history and practice of this ancient custom and visitors can see the various stages in the dressing of a well.

Dressings can take a team of people up to seven days to complete, but the picture only lasts about a week before the clay cracks and the flowers fade. Pictures are seen to their best advantage in the first few days after they have gone up and before the sun or wind has cracked the clay.

The well dressing season starts in May and runs through to late September each year. The Tourist Information Centres distribute a Well Dressing leaflet each year which includes details of all dates and venues as well as locations where visitors can see pictures being made.

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