Crowning of Wakes royalty

A trip over to Tideswell to see friends P and A, who had bought us tickets for an organ concert at the parish church of St John. Jonathan Scott is one of the country’s best organists.

I hadn’t realised that it is also the first day of Tideswell’s Wakes Week. That meant that early afternoon we walked down into the centre of the village for the Tideswell Wells Blessing Service. That involved a procession, brass bands, a huge puppet St John the Baptist, words from new vicar Fiona, hymns, the crowning of the 2025 Wakes Queen Rowan and Junior Princess Robyn, and a lovely well dressing featuring Haddon Hall. Lots of Derbyshire villages dress their wells, with a traditional wet clay base and then all sorts of natural materials (petals, leaves, bark, egg shells, seeds etc) being used to build up the design. Some images in extras.

The concert was great. Someone had had the idea of putting up a screen so that we could all see Jonathan playing. I am always in awe of organists. It’s a masterclass in coordination and musicality and involving all four limbs looks like a real workout.