Hayfield Well Dressings 2014

The War Horse was our favourite of the Well Dressings we saw in Hayfield this afternoon.

The theme for 2014 is Children's Books so also featured in the village are The Secret Garden, The hungry caterpillar, Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Poo, The Gruffalo, The Cat in the Hat, The mixed up Chameleon.

There are two outside the village so we will have to go back tomorrow to check them out as well.

Well Dressings are almost exclusively found in the County of Derbyshire. They date back to the Celts as far as 600BC ( I read!) and bless or give thanks for the local water supply. In Victorian times they became more elaborate and the practice spread from village to village. Many villages have long standing traditions but in fact Hayfield only revived the idea 10 years ago.

The base is clay and the picture is built with natural materials many flower petals but also grain all built up one item overlapping the last from the top so rain will run down and flow off the picture.

I'll put some more on flickr starting with the Secret Garden