Rev. Martin Williams - Well Dressing. Click picture for more.

The Derbyshire custom of well dressing was explained to Barrow Rotary Club members by Methodist minster the Rev Martin Williams.

He told how the activity was conducted in the village of Wirksworth where he served from 1994 to 2006.

He explained how the village, like many in the area, was built on limestone which did not retain water and told how some of his older parishioners could recall water being provided by bowsers pulled by horses. Mr Williams said the tradition was a way of thanking God for the gift of water.

In the early days the dressing of wells would have involved simple arrangements of flowers and other natural materials. But the Derbyshire tradition involved elaborate pictures made up individual flower petals pressed onto clay covered boards.

Mr Williams went into great detail of how puddling clay was put on the boards and how hours were spent designing a picture using non-perishable materials such as bark and twigs, progress through leaves and the like, and finishing off with the delicate materials such as flower petals.

Once the pictures on the boards were completed they were shown off by being paraded through villages at Spring Bank Holiday weekend.