Over the last week we've had a chance to see some well dressings in our surrounding area. A well dressing is a decoration for a well, usually consisting of wood and clay adorned with flowers, seeds, rice, and other natural materials, in a mosaic fashion. Many well dressings are biblically themed, but many are also themed after artists, stories, etc. The first set of well dressings I went to were in Tissington, which I was told were not to be missed. One theory of how the tradition began in Tissington was after the Black Death of 1348-9. Although the population in the rest of England were ravaged by the plague, in Tissington all escaped, and the immunity was ascribed to the purity of the water supply. It became the custom to decorate the wells in thanksgiving. Another story about the Tissington wells comes from the severe drought of 1615. Despite the severity of the drought, when thousands of cattle perished and crops were lost, the five wells of Tissington flowed freely and the surrounding district had cause to be grateful for the unending supply of water from the village.
I found Tissington to be a lovely little village, and the well dressings were moving with their beauty and messages.
Last weekend, we took the kids to the well dressings in Etwall. Most of these dressings didn't seem to be actually decorating wells (as far as I could see), and they were primarily secular in nature. The girls got to try their hand at pressing the flowers into the clay, which was a lot of fun. Here are a few that we saw in Etwall.
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