'I've dressed Peak District wells for 40 years'

A floral artist is celebrating her 40th year designing and making well dressings, an ancient countryside custom giving thanks for fresh water springs.

The tradition is thought to have been started by the Romans or the Celts, and is still honoured by more than 80 towns and villages across the Peak District and Derbyshire.

Wendy Greatorex's display over Hands Well is one of six in her birthplace of Tissington - a well originally designed by her great-great-great uncle in the late 1800s.

"I love to keep the tradition going," she said. "I've now got children and grandchildren who join in and will carry that tradition on."

Greatorex dressed her first well in Tissington at the age of 19, compelled to do so because of the long history of the event in her family.

"I have a picture from 1860 of my two-times-great-grandad and my great-grandma as a baby, and they were involved in the well dressing then," she said.

Each year, Greatorex takes inspiration from a bible verse, as has been the tradition in the village, but also likes to celebrate notable anniversaries.

This year, those included 100 years of Winnie the Pooh, and the 75th anniversary of the Peak District National Park, which she has incorporated into her design.

The finance director explained that creating the dressing is a three-day process, starting from drawing the design on to a 12ft picture board and pricking holes through the material.

"We then go over the outline with black knobs made from alder cones and coffee beans," she said.

"Once that's done, we start infilling with various flowers. We can't really choose the colours until we actually do it, because we don't know what we're going to get," she said.

Her 2026 design included rhododendrons, bluebells, spruce, chrysanthemums, corn, catkins and parsley.

"It's not just me, I've got a whole back up," Greatorex said. "My lovely family and friends come to help pick the flowers and put it up. I couldn't do it without them."

Tissington Well Dressings event took place from 14 - 20 May, and has raised more than £60,000 for local and national charities in recent years.

Donations are made by the hundreds of visitors to the village, including Louise Stevenson, who travelled from south Derby with her friend to explore the trail.

"We're having a great time," she said. "We just wanted to come and see what it was all about. We'd seen pictures of the wells, but they look really vibrant in person."

Emma Perkins confirmed that the event was the busiest week on the calendar at Herbert's Tea Rooms in the centre of the village.

"It's wonderful to have this event in Tissington," said Perkins. "It's a great thing that we have every year, and the lovely people that come out to visit us."

The event committee will decide where this year's donations will go in July, having taken suggestions from the floral artists.

Other upcoming well dressing events include Bollington, Wirksworth and Moneyash.

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