Well dressing season is underway and the first festival in South Derbyshire took place in June at Etwall, an event that is now in its 54th year!
In addition to the well dressings, the village hosted a range of events and activities, including live music, a fly by, children’s puppet shows, a craft fair, duck trail, and plenty of good food and drink!
As part of the festivities, visitors to the event were also invited to have a go at making a collaborative well dressing and learn some of the techniques that have been practiced for over a century.
Organisers were on hand to show visitors to the festival how the well dressings are made.
Traditionally, the dressings are created by pressing seasonal flowers, seeds, or berries into clay mounted on a wooden frame. Some of the larger and more complex well dressings can take many hundreds of hours to complete. Dressing wells in this way is a unique Derbyshire tradition and seems to date back to Victorian times.
The next well dressing in South Derbyshire is at Aston-on-Trent and will take place over the weekend of 6th and 7th of July. There will be stalls, entertainment, fair rides, a face painter, and a raffle, too.
