Well dressing

Many of the villages in Derbyshire are renowned for their well dressing  where very elaborate pictures are made using mainly flower petals and also leaves, moss but also beans, seeds and small cones, which are then stuck on clay.
On the way to visit friends we went to see some of the well dressings around Eyam in Derbyshire.  Eyam is frequently described as The Plague Village after the villagers quarantined themselves to prevent the disease spreading elsewhere after many of the villagers were killed after cloth contaminated by flees which carried the plague was bought by a local tailor.  One of the wells depicts Elizabeth Hancock who, in the space of eight days, buried her husband and six children after they had all caught the plague in 1665.  The detail is absolutely amazing with the cloth made of tiny chrysanthemum petals and much of the border is made with pink and blue hydrangea petals. The song ring a ring a roses represents the disease.
The extras are of two other wells.   It is 150 years since Alice in Wonderland was written and the other one at Foolow is to illustrate the importance of butterflies, moths and bees to the environment.