Tissington Derbyshire
Tissington is one of the most attractive and best-preserved estate villages in the Peak District, a cluster of limestone buildings around a triangular green most celebrated as the origin of the well-dressing tradition. This distinctively Peakland practice of creating large decorated pictures from flower petals, moss, leaves and other natural materials pressed into clay frames around the village wells has been practiced in Tissington on Ascension Day each year for over four hundred years, attracting visitors throughout the dressing season from late spring through summer. The origin of the well-dressings is traditionally attributed to gratitude for the village's clean water supply during the Black Death of 1348 to 1349. Whether this specific origin is accurate or not, the dressings represent a continuation of a very old tradition of venerating water sources that may have pre-Christian roots in the veneration of sacred wells found throughout the British Isles. The village itself is a handsome example of an estate village, its buildings arranged around the green in a composition reflecting the care of the FitzHerbert family who have owned Tissington Hall since the sixteenth century. The Tissington Trail, following the disused railway line through the White Peak limestone country, begins in the village and provides excellent cycling and walking in the surrounding national park landscape.