I could already hear the noises of appreciation as I walked up the lane towards St Martin’s church. “Oh yes,” I heard a woman say. “That’s lovely.” Turning before the lych gate, I spotted a small knot of people standing in front of a small and apparently ancient stone basin on which rested the white frame of this year’s well dressing.
The tradition of well dressing, strong in the Peak District, gives thanks for a community’s supply of safe water and is currently celebrated in more than a dozen villages across Derbyshire and Staffordshire. Given how the drought has left pastures surrounding Stoney Middleton brown and exhausted, this annual event seems more pertinent than ever.
In the remote past, villagers would simply arrange a few flowers around the well, and the stone basin at Stoney does have some flowerpots placed near it. The main event now, though, is an elaborate design fashioned largely from stones and flower petals pressed into clay, all supported by a substantial wooden frame – an Anglican riff on a Tibetan Buddhist mandala.
Well dressings often take a religious theme, but last year Stoney Middleton honoured the conservation campaigner Ethel Haythornthwaite. This year the image featured a barn owl perched in a tree with the full moon behind its spectral form. The night sky, I could see, was made from hydrangea petals, with feathers and wisps of wool filling out the owl’s body. And yes, it was lovely; all credit to the designers Joy Mason and Amanda Grimes, and their team of volunteers.
Stepping back, I noticed another well dressing off to one side. This was the work of the village’s children and featured nine images of animals, including a monkey, pandas giant and red, and a penguin. In the right-hand bottom corner was the figure of a man lying down, with what appeared to be a gorilla looming over him, and the text alongside explained that this dressing was themed for the 100th birthday of David Attenborough. It’s only a guess, but I think he’d like it.
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