The Reverend Bill Howes writes:

June 2008

Something different for Ascension Day

On Ascension Day Carol and I set off with some friends to visit Tissington in Derbyshire.  We went specifically to join in the Well Dressing celebrations.  The well dressing season runs from early May until late August, when all the towns with wells “dress” them and give thanks for the water.  Tissington is one of the largest with six wells.  It also takes place on Ascension Day every year.

No one is really sure when or where the custom arose, there is some suggestion that it was, in fact, a Pagan ceremony later adopted by the Christian faith.  The ceremony in Tissington as it is today derives from the Black Death of 1348-9.  When all around were falling like flies, the people of Tissington escaped untouched.  It was assumed that the purity of the water in the wells accounted for the amazing escape.

There is another tradition in Tissington dating back to a severe drought in 1615.   A report of the time reads:  “There was no rayne fell upon the earth from the 25^th of March until the end of Maye, and then there was but one shower.  Two more showers fell between then and the 4^th of August, so that the greater part of the land was burnt up, both corn and haye.”

The people of Tissington and surrounding villages had good cause for their celebrations, in that throughout the time of drought the wells continued to flow in an unending supply.

The making of the dressings is a real labour of love.  It is very involved and would take up too much space to explain here.  Suffice it to say that each of them involves the preparation of the frames by soaking, the mixing of local clay.  Flowers are picked, the picture traced in the clay and produced from hundreds of flower petals, berries and other natural materials.  The pictures always depict a biblical scene, apart from this year when the children decorated theirs with the message promoting breast cancer awareness.  They produced a picture of a pink Dalek and round it the words “Exterminate Breast Cancer”. (If you would like to read the process in full, we do have a booklet explaining it.  Please ask Carol or me.  We also have some pictures).

The day in Tissington begins with a service of thanksgiving in the estate church of St Mary’s.  The packed celebration was led by the vicar, and local school children sang and played their instruments (a young lad who struggled manfully with his trumpet was given the biggest round of applause of the day).  The Right Reverend Humphrey Southern, Bishop of Repton, gave the address.  Also present was The Right Reverend Hilary Adeba, Bishop of Yei, Sudan.  He spoke movingly of the effect of lack of drinking water was having on his people – thousands of children dying daily from drinking contaminated water and even to the extent of open warfare.  He reminded us how lucky we were to turn on a tap and have an instant supply of clean, palatable drinking water.   

We then processed around the six wells, Hall Well, Yew Tree Well, Town Well, Coffin Well, Hands Well and Children’s Well.  Individual wells are dressed by various residents of the estate.  At each point one of the interdenominational ministers taking part in the ceremony gave a short address, said a prayer and we sung a hymn.   It took about 90 minutes to visit all the wells, but it was well worth it just to marvel at the skill of the dressing producers, and, of course God’s part in His beautiful creation.   We had eventually walked the bounds of the small village, and were blessed with beautiful weather.

Afterwards, we retired to the estate restaurant for a very welcome cup of coffee and lunch – the ladies healthy home-made soup, the men sausage baps with delicious locally made onion chutney! 

The event goes on from Ascension Day to the following Wednesday.  If any of you fancy something different next Ascension Day, you could do worse than pay Tissington a visit.  (Be there by 10.00 to get a seat!)

 Fr Bill  

picture: Children's Well Dressing: ‘Exterminate Breast Cancer' photo by Fr Bill Howes.