It's that time of year when the villages and towns of Derbyshire (and some just outside the border) 'dress', or decorate, their wells. The reasons why aren't certain - they may be related to a village's water never running dry in an extremely dry summer, or the well water supposedly saving the villagers from disease, but the origins are lost. Some wells are still decorated on religious themes, but not all.
This year Tissington's wells depicted Moses in the Bulrushes, The Ascension, and Jonah and the Whale, commemorated moon landings (by Neil Armstrong, and Wallace and Gromit), and Woodstock Festival, and the children's well showed Pooh Bear and his friends.
Visiting Tissington is like stepping back in time. Most of the year it's a sleepy place - with Hall on one side, and church the other, of the 'main road' - though at well-dressing time it can get busier.
The houses are grey stone, looking like they've been there forever,
the lanes are narrow and lined with frothy cow parsley
the fields covered in buttercups.
There's even a pond and a village green for the ducks to visit on an evening stroll
Further welldressings - Tissington 2018
Ashford in the Water 2018
This year - Ashford in the Water
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