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Well Dressed Chesterfield


Wednesday 15th September 2010

Reviving a tradition dating back to 1864, Chesterfield this week celebrates Well Dressing. Two sites - the Town Pump in the Market Place, and the Crooked Spire will be dressed.

Well Dressed ChesterfieldThe custom itself is unique to Derbyshire, but returned to Chesterfield in 1991 after a break of many years. Next year will see the twentieth year of Well Dressing in the town.

This year's design on the Town Pump is Hanna Barbera, a fun theme, chosen because it has the widest range of Cartoon Characters to choose from. It will feature the Flintstones, Scooby Doo and Shaggy with Dastardly and Mutley along for the ride too.

The Church will feature a design based on one of the stained glass windows in the church, and will depict the Madonna and Child.

Labour of Love

If you're like me you'll have often seen these around the County and wondered how they're formed.

Thankfully, the team behind the dressings spend a week beforehand preparing them in the Pavements, showing off the art to the public.

It's an arduous process with layers of flower petals being pressed onto wet clay by hand - the theory being that the water in the clay will keep the flowers fresh.

Alison Barnes, from the Tourist Information Centre is the creative force behind the project and she said "Preparing the well dressings in public is something visitors are interested in, seeing how they're put together ... it's a long process from start to finish - we start talking about the design around May. It normally takes about a week to put together and the well dressings should last a week. The dirtiest job is filling the frames with clay, it’s a filthy job, with the clay needing to be about an inch deep .The petals are added by hand, using a variety of flowers of the right colours. As the top layer dries, it hardens around the petal so too much shouldn't fall off, and hopefully the weather won't be too brutal - heavy rain or high wind will fetch off the top layer. The petals are overlapped so any rain should hit it and run off."

The dressings are up now at the Pump and the Church, where they'll be till Sat the 18th. All donations raised are in aid of The Mayor's Appeal, in support of Fairplay and The Samaritans .

 



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