West Hallam - Well
Dressings & Much More
w/e 19 July 2015
All of this week's pictures were
taken with a Kodak DX6490
This year's Well Dressing Festival at West Hallam
ran for almost a week until the flower petals that decorated
the tableaux began to deteriorate but it opened on Saturday afternoon,
11th July with a full programme of events.
Opened by Councillor Carol Hart, the wells were blessed by Rev.
Gill Turner-Callis before the afternoon's events got into full
swing and quoting from the programme, those events included "Traditionally
Decorated Wells - Arts Market - Scarecrow Trail - Dance Acts
- Live Music - Morris Dancing - Magic .... and much more".
So let's have a look at those events in reverse order starting
with "Magic".
The "Magic" was provided by Geoffrey Jumper, seen here
in the bottom right hand corner of this image, performing to
an enraptured young audience in School Square. Many adults were
watching too and the crowded Square adds weight to the argument
that the West Hallam Well Dressing Festival is becoming more
and more popular year on year.
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The "Morris Dancing" was performed by the Ripley Morris
Men who could also be seen later in School Square but are seen
here opposite The Dales car park entrance.
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"Live Music" was presented at several places in the
village centre by various groups. Pigeon Pie, a folk group, performed
two sets during the afternoon in front of the Village Hall opposite
the Punchbowl pub.
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On the drive leading up to St Wilfrid's Church more live music
could be heard by The Greenwood Ensemble led by Ruth Bedford
with contributions from a collection going to the NSPCC.
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The Imari Chorus sang at the opening and blessing of the wells
and also performed twice in St Wilfrid's during the course of
the afternoon. Here they were singing and getting everyone "In
The Mood" for a great afternoon's entertainment.
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Several "Dance Acts" took part in the festival and
back outside the Punchbowl the Jetsets Linedance group drew a
big audience.
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Another big audience assembled at the end of School Square to
watch a group of young girls from the Dance Doctors group perform
a "Flintstones" routine.
Slightly older girls from the same group showed the versatility
of the Dance Doctors with ballet dancing, whilst a young admirer
(far right) upstaged all of the dancers by joining in and copying
all of their moves, whatever the style.
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The "Scarecrow Trail" is becoming as much a part of
the festival as the well dressings themselves and although all
of these examples were in the village centre, the trail leads
far and wide to all corners of West Hallam.
Villagers were invited to create scarecrows with prizes awarded
in three categories, namely Film Characters, a Traditional Scarecrow
and an Open Category so presumably this entrant standing outside
the Village Hall commemorating the centenary of the Women's Institute
was in the Open Category.
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Behind the Village Hall an "Arts Market" was staged
with a whole host of different arts and crafts on display. These
included glassware, handmade cards, sweets, water colour paintings,
pencil portraits, quilting, jewellery knitted items and mosaics
among others.
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On opening day with all the other events taking place, the well
dressings could easily be overlooked but they are the main reason
for the festival and a lot of hard work by volunteers from different
groups and organisations goes into producing them. The ladies
of St Wilfrid's Church are just one group who got together in
a room at the rear of the Punchbowl for most of the week prior
to the festival to transfer a small drawing to a full size line
drawing. This was placed over a clay filled tray and all the
lines pin-pricked to transfer the design to the clay which were
then delineated with a thin strand of wool. Finally the picture
was coloured in with flower petals and other natural materials.
The result of the ladies' hard work to commemorate the 800th
anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 was prominently
displayed at the end of the drive to the church throughout the
following week. This was just one of the "Traditionally
Decorated Wells" which just leaves the ".... and much
more" from the programme. That included abseiling teddies
from the church tower, charity stalls, a prize draw, face painting
and .... well, much more!.
See the West Hallam Well Dressings website for more
information.
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