Well dressing

[watervole]

My friend Selenak just posted some photos of Easter well-dressing in Germany.  The wells look lovely.

English well-dressing is mainly a Derbyshire tradition and isn't necessarily attached to Easter - Whistun is a popular date. 

I remember when I was in my teens I went walking in the Pennines and just happened by good fortune to hit a week when many villages were dressing their wells.  It's a lovely tradition and actively carried on today.

Comments

[keris]

One might call it "well dressed" *g*...

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

It is good that they still keep up this lovely tradition. I am sure there used to be something similar but it must be long forgotten where I live.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Most people down here look at me blankly when I talk about well dressings.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

People don't know their own heritage. Drag 'em up to Derbyshire!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I suspect well-related traditions are better known in limestone areas than clay areas. I don't think I've ever even seen a well in Essex, although I guess there must have been some at some point.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

They're really springs rather than wells. There tends to be a large stone bowl to catch the water as it comes out of the ground.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Interesting -- I am aware of a few springs in Essex, but not actually in villages, just out in remote bits of countryside. Perhaps the ready availability of groundwater meant villages didn't have to be located around springs. (And we couldn't have had stone bowls, but I guess brick could have worked almost as well…)