Well dressing

The well dressing is probably the biggest event on the Aston-on-Trent calendar.  I'm often surprised by how far people come to go to the well dressing.  People from as far away as Nottingham have heard of it and are willing to travel the distance to come.  I've also seen it advertised in a what's on in Derbyshire guide.  In case anyone was wondering what a well dressing is, it's one of these:-

It's made with all natural materials such as petals, seeds etc stuck into clay.  People from village come in and stick a few bits in each.  That one was made by the well dressing commitee.  Other groups make them such as brownies, and the local schools.

There were also stalls and people performing music and drama.  There was a puppet show and a teacup ride.  The church had several displays in it.  There were the old stocks and historical records of the market.  Also a display of what school was like in the Victorian times.  They had some finger stocks to put the fingers in of children who fidget too much in school.

The Malt shovel got the barbecue on.  They did some very good chips.  My only complaint was that there wasn't enough of them.  It wouldn't have hurt to fill the box to the top instead of half full.  My son had a burger and that disappeared very quickly, so I guess that means he enjoyed it. The church people made some really nice cakes to sell and  they'd put out chairs and tables in the church yard.  It was very pleasant sitting out in the warm sun eating cake and chatting.  The weather was perfect the whole weekend.  Sunshine all the way.  Well some people might have complained that it was too hot, but that's very British.  We like to complain about the weather whatever it's doing.

In the evening the pubs put on live bands so the well dressing festivities continued in the evening too.

Well dressing

I walked around the village with the children and we looked at the well dressings and pointed out the bits we had done on each one. I wish I'd got a photo of the Charles Dickens one too, as that was really good.

The post office were giving away free ice tea, which was very kind of them.





We saw the black pig morris dancers outside the white hart.  They are morris dancers who do the traditional dances in non-traditional clothes.  The costumes were fantastic.  The photo doesn't really do it justice.  It was the attention to detail with the costumes that I was particularly impressed with, things like the flowers and feathers in the hats, the pig in the baby carrier and the bag with the vote monster raving loony party rosette sewn to it.  I overheard a young woman saying she wanted to be a morris dancer after watching a performance and that's not something you hear very often from anyone under 50.

Some youth workers had been working on a well dressing with the youth in the area and at the same time working out what the youth in the are need.  They heard a lot of complaints from locals about them hanging around in the lych gate so they have plans in place for this amazing pod thing that they can sit in.  Apparently it has a handle they can wind up and it generates power for some lights.  Also it's blue tooth compatible so they can play music from their phone in there.  It sounds great but the only problem I can foresee its that it will be on the rec which is right on the edge of Aston and maybe some people won't be bothered to walk there and still hang around the lych gate.  I guess time will tell.


The weather managed to stay mostly dry apart from a few quick downpours towards the afternoon.  We sheltered in a phone box and it's a credit to Aston that it didn't smell of wee, as most phone boxes do.

There were loads of other things happening, but that's enough writing for one day.

Build up to the well dressing

The well dressing is probably the biggest event on Aston's calendar and it starts tomorrow.  People come from all over Derbyshire to see it.  It seems a bit bizarre that Aston would have a well dressing when it doesn't even have a well and more bizarre that it isn't something that has been happening for years and years which started when there was a well, but was revived in the late 1990s (I think).  Anyway not that I'm complaining, as it's a great event and fun for all the family.  There are several stalls and also shows from magicians, pinxton puppets, black pig border morris dancers as well as well dressings made by several local organisations.  There are many local organisations and in fact it's a standing joke in the village that if you see 2 people talking in the street, they're probably talking about forming a committee.

The bunting went up a couple of weeks ago and the all the groups in the area have been working on them this week.  They have to be made completely from natural materials, so there's no leisurely making them over a long period of time, they're worked on intensively the week before or else stuff will go off.  Any flower petals used are put in a day or 2 before the event.  It never ceases to amaze me the variety of things people use to make a well dressing, anything from leaves to coconut to curry powder to berries, wool and stones.  The church has also been decorated by various groups doing little displays all around it.  The whole village has been a buzz with preparation and I'm sure many people will be up early in the morning to set things up.

Lets just hope the weather is ok and there's no rain left in the clouds after we had a whole months worth of rain in one day today.