Bollington, Cheshire Well Dressings July 2016

Derbyshire has been the traditional place for Summer Well Dressings but in the last few years, the idea has spread to the East Cheshire villages. Yesterday I was at Bollington just outside Macclesfield. This year the wells were dressed according to anniversaries ; as it is 2016 all 6 wells were dedicated to years ending with  6  for 2016.

The first well was on Flash Lane outside the Cock and Peasant pub which is dated on its date post as being built in 1753. We parked at this old English pub and walked about 30 feet to where the Mayor of Bollington was doing the official opening where the wells receive a Christian blessing. This being the North of England Summer, it was a soaking wet day.

The dressing/ flowering was all made out of flower petals, seeds and natural materials.

Each well, spring or fountain was decorated with flowers to give a gift to the water gods for the gift of water.

The dressings are all made out of natural materials from round about....sheep wool, flower petals twigs, egg shells etc. They are then mounted close to water.

The Shakespeare well above, for Shakespeare's  anniversary has used seeds, coffee beans, corn kernels, egg shells  and flower petals. These are stuck into clay which has been soaked for about 48 hours.

Pictures are drawn onto paper, and then the picture is pinned onto the wet clay. That is when a massive community activity takes place and the flower pictures are assembled. The petals  and everything else are stuck into the wet clay. They are then erected near water.

I was delighted to see a children's well; Yes indeed the children of the village have started learning these old craft skills, a new generation to preserve our customs and culture for the future. They had made a Roald Dahl anniversary board.

The Somme anniversary this weekend had a beautiful and poignant commemorative Flowering Board. The villagers used camomile leaves, coffee beans, leaves and poppy petals, Beautiful.

From Flash Lane we walked into the village. The village children did the Dressing below. It is ion the main street through Bollington.

The Queen's 90th Birthday got a Commemorative board. Again the board below was made entirely out of seeds, corn kernels, petals  and twigs. I loved how they did the Tower of London Beefeaters!

The Winnie The Pooh board was beautifully made with Winnie The Pooh done in corn kernals and Christopher Robin was made out single hydrangea petals. Eyeore the donkey was made out of lavender seeds.

The water under the bridge in the Winnie the Pooh pictures is made out of wafer thin leeks.

This was a masterpiece. It had a 3D quality to it the artistry was so good. The clouds were from sheep wool, the fire was made out of petals, the houses were made from twigs and flowers.

The child's bonnet, hair and family's clothes had been re-created in flowers in perfect 17thC detail.

Simply marvellous.

The flames in this Flowering feel almost real,  the artistry is of such quality. And it's all done with individual flower petals.

Visit Bollington if you can this week. It's beautiful in itself but especially beautiful with the Well Flowerings. Maps of the Well Dressing trail are available in shops.

The Well Dressings stand for a week as the soaking wet clay keeps them fresh for up to seven days. It is then taken down. Then other villages open their displays and so it continues around here for all summer.