Outside
Derbyshire well dressing is certainly
a mystery. Tissington Well Dressings
take place on Ascension Day each year
and the wells are left decorated until
after the following weekend. Tissington
was the first village to dress its wells
but now many villages in the county have
followed suit. Some say that the event
started during the Black Death in the
14th Centuary when the inhabitants of
the village escaped because of the purity
of the water which issued from five wells.
By way of thanksgiving the wells have
been dressed ever since. However some
say that the custom goes much further
back in time and almost certainly originated
in pagan sacrifices to water-gods. The
dressing of the wells takes the form
of creating elaborate tableaux ornamented
with some biblical or topographical scene
depicted in terms of thousands of flower
petals. It is a skilful art and the results
are startlingly beautiful. The Tissington
Well Dressings are estimated to attract
50,000 visitors each year in the week
that the wells are dressed.
