Throughout late spring and summer, villages across the Peak District are filled with wondrous, colourful  displays created by local communities in praise of the area’s everlasting natural springs.

Created from flower petals, seeds, foliage, grasses, bark, moss and any manner of natural materials, intricate depictions of biblical and historical events are the centrepieces of annual well dressing festivals in the Staffordshire and Derbyshire Peak.

A team of locals traditionally build a display by pressing petals and flowers into boards of puddled clay, often soaked in the village stream. It takes hours of work and dedication and these days artists and schoolchildren are now often involved, adding a real creative community effort to these stunning endeavours.

Most villages decorate a single well, some a main well and a smaller spring, but the White Peak village of Tissington near Ashbourne decorates seven each year! Some communities have a children’s well too, as in the North Staffordshire village of Endon.

They really are works of art and we love making a special visit to see them each year. The colour and intricacy of the designs never fails to impress me. Better still, the well dressings are often accompanied by a church blessing, fete, maypole dancing and traditional country events like tug-of-war, so there’s always lots of lovely things to see and do. Essentially it’s a time to celebrate the everlasting waters, the coming of summer and the beauty of this part of the country.

Images courtesy of Phil Richards and JR P on Flickr