Tissington Well Dressing

The Hands Well

Tissington is a beautiful, unspoilt village in Derbyshire .

The well dressing event dates back 1348 and runs for the 7 days of assentation week.

The ritual of dressing the wells in floral decoration dates back to the time of the black death where the villages gave thanks for the purity of their water supply and credited it for saving them from disease.

It is a Christian event and the theme of the decoration is often biblical or marking local anniversaries and people of note.

There are 6 wells in the village;

The Hall Well

The children's Well

The Hands Well

The Yew Well

The Town Well

The Coffin Well

Named for their locations within the village

Though a Christian event the act of ritual and thanks giving for this natural phenomenon and the idea of appeasing nature through ritual is a very pagan and primitive. A lot of my project is really about reconnecting or deepening that human connection to nature and what could be more essential in that connection than fresh water

I love that this is an event the involves the whole community. Its a labour of love and a great example of folk art and living tradition.

The process involves covering huge boards in clay and soaking them overnight in the local pond. This acts as a canvass to hold the organic materials and also keep the fresh petals and leaves that make up the design from drying out and looking vibrant for the duration of the celebration.

Its very late in the project for research, however this event has been on my list since my early research stage, its a beautiful story book place to visit. The main pull for this event in terms of my practice was to think about trying this type of process within my own art. I also have been practicing with the college cameras so was an opportunity to take photographs. I found the experience of using a camera as opposed to using my phone camera to be a much more focusing act.

My favourite images were these simple blooms as I was able to zoom in ang get really nice detail. Its such a pretty village that I was inspired to take hundreds of photographs, it brought out my inner photographer. I'm inspired by environment and wanting to capture the atmosphere of the place as I experienced it.