The River Path

Well Dressing

We throw coins into wells and make wishes, as our ancestors more seriously threw in offerings to appease the spirits and ensure continuance of the water. Swords found in the Thames and other rivers are thought to be votive offerings as are the golden Roman pins found in the pin or pen wells into which people now drop bent pins.

In the limestone area of Derbyshire well-dressing persists. This may be very old since in ancient Rome at Fontinalia flowers were scattered into the fountains, Tissington, it is said, was fortunate to have flowing water throughout the drought of 1615 and thereafter celebrated its wells on Ascension Day. Another story has it that its well dressings began in 1348-9 when the villagers escaped Black Death and credited their sweet water. In other villages the tradition of creating floral pictures around the wells may be a Victorian creation. Certainly the dressing of taps in Wirksworth and Youlgreave trace back to the first piped water supplies in the 1820s. In Eyam the custom was restored or created for the Festival of Britain in 1951. Variously on Easter Sunday (Tideswell, Bradwell) or Whit Monday (Chapel en le Frith), Bottle Day was celebrated, children concocting a liquorice and spring water mix and carrying it in a bottle around their necks. Taddington (between Bakewell & Buxton) dresses its well in mid-August.

Are there areas in Devon and elsewhere where well dressing is remembered?

For current well dressing dates, look at the Derbyshire tourism web-site

From Rivers Rhynes and Running Brooks -
Local Distinctiveness and the water in our lives
Common Ground, 2000.

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See our publication pages for details.

The Nature of Rivers