Tissington Well Dressing to return after two

The festival brings around 25,000 people to Tissington each year

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The village of Tissington, nestled within the Peak District National Park, will be holding its annual Well Dressing Festival between May 26 and June 1. The event has been postponed for the past two years due to the Covid pandemic.

Villagers have missed out on the popular festival, which brings thousands of visitors into the beautiful village as they walk around and admire the stunning displays.

Work is now underway to bring the festival back. Designs are being finalised, boards checked over, and clay dug from the estate fields, which will then be trodden - a process similar to treading grapes for wine.

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The displays are then mounted onto wooden boards and plastered with clay designs. The outlines are filled in with coffee beans and the wells dressed in natural materials - including flower petals, leaves, sheep's wool, parsley, grit and tree bark.

Villagers have missed the community feeling that comes with planning and designing their wells. They look forward to the return of the festival.

The eve of ascension day will be the first time the designers of the wells will see their creations put together. The next day, there is a church service where the six wells - the Hall, Yew Tree, Town, Coffin, Hands and Children's Well - will be blessed.

The exact origins of well dressings remains a mystery, but it almost certainly dates back to Pagan times. It is thought it was a way of giving thanks for the pure fresh water flowing through the wells which they believe kept them free of the Plague.

During the week-long festival, Tissington, a village of 100 residents, will welcome over 25,000 visitors. Over the last decade, more than £10,000 has been raised from car parking at the event, with proceeds going to local and national charities.

Sir Richard FitzHerbert, owner of the estate village hopes that the Tissington Well Dressing will continue to grow and thrive. He says they want to continue the festival for 'many years'.

He said: "During the coronavirus pandemic we haven't been able to have our well dressing ceremony for obvious reasons, with it being a large attraction and large gathering. And it really has impacted on the livelihoods of some of the businesses in the village.

"We're missing out on the visitors that we would attract in a week of the well dressing. But also, it's the community aspect of this as well, so we've lost the ability to mix and mingle in a common urge and goal in creating these mystical and marvellous wells."