Wells Dressing was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the social distancing measures introduced to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, and in 2001 due to the Foot and Mouth epidemic.
We’re still trying to plug the holes in our collection of Wells Dressing photos. Thanks to the generosity of Glyn Williams, who runs the Derbyshire Well Dressing website (Monyash section here), we’ve been able to complete our sets for every year from 1992 onwards. If you wish to use or copy any of his photos, please contact him via https://welldressing.com/feedback.php
The only other photo we have is from 1978. We have discovered that our well dressing was probably started in the 1970s, by a Chapel Street resident. If you can tell us anything more about our Well Dressing history or of you have photos which you’d be prepared to let us use, please get in touch.
Dressing and blessing wells is an important tradition in many Derbyshire villages, originally started as a thanksgiving for the gift of water, especially in times of drought. Three dressings are erected close to wells in Monyash during the Spring Bank Holiday week at the end of May. Wells Dressings are intricate pictures depicting inspiring scenes created from local natural materials such as flower petals, mosses, leaves, twigs and small stones, which are pressed into a clay base within a wooden frame. The dressings, ranging from two feet high to six feet high, are painstakingly created over several days. The two children’s wells are made by the pupils of Monyash Primary School and the adult well dressing is created by the adults with help from friends, relatives and even the occasional passer-by!
Wells Dressing photographs
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1978