The great Laxey wheel proved to be a talking point in the unlikely setting of a north Derbyshire village when it was the star attraction in an annual village tradition.

A giant representation of the Lady Isabella was the focal point for this year’s annual well dressing in the Derbyshire village of Tideswell.

Elaine Chapman, of the Tideswell well dressers, said the Pagan tradition of decorating the village well with flowers probaby dates back to the time of the Black Death, which killed 1.5 million of England’s population between 1348 and 1350.

The earliest recorded well dressing in Derbyshire was at Tissington, in 1349 - possibly a celebration by the surviving villagers. The tradition still persists today.

Mrs Chapman said the Laxey Wheel theme came up after a conversation with a friend at his 80th birthday party.

’We got talking about the Isle of Man and the Laxey Wheel came up. He had been there on a cycling holiday in the 1950s. I had been taken on holiday there by my parents in the early 1960s and visited the Wheel. My father loved the Isle of Man, having worked on a farm there in the late 1930s.

’I thought the Wheel could make an interesting feature for the design, with the connection of water, and decided to do it this year to remember my father on the centenary of his birth,’ she said.

Well dressing happens in about 70 towns and villages around Derbyshire and the word ’well’ is loosely interpreted, perhaps meaning a spring or even a tap.

’Each dressing is a real co-operative effort, taking teams of as many as 25 workers seven days to create a work of art that will be exhibited for only a week,’ Mrs Chapman said.

’Local schools keep the tradition alive by teaching children to make their own well dressings.

’In Tideswell for our main well dressing we only use natural vegetation and on this design there are at least 53 different types. These include petals, whole flower heads and leaves, either fresh or dried, reeds, wheat stems and many different types of seeds and bark.

’We use cocktail sticks to prick out the design through the paper pattern into the clay.

’Making our main welldressing, which is 10ft high by 7ft 6ins wide, involves many from the community , including six people to dig the clay, and 12 people to lift the boards that support the design. More than 25 people are involved in making the actual well dressing then a further eight are needed to erect then dismantle it.

’The local primary school has every child in the school involved in making their well dressing.’

Transferring the design onto the clay and putting in the materials takes six days, she said.

’I have a wonderful team who are very creative and find working on the well dressing quite addictive. This year we had five new workers to welldressing join us and are planning on making sure they reserve the whole welldressing week in June next year to come and join us again.’

One of the outstanding featurees of the piece was, she said, the 3D effect on the Manx cats.

’The two people who made the cats did an amazing job of making the cats 3D and visitors who came to see us making the welldressing wanted to stroke the cats,’ she said.

The well dressing is displayed in the village centre near to the site of The Fountain, a small building that housed a tap for the first piped water into the village in 1849. It is on display for a full week in June.

More information about welldressing can be found at www.welldressing.com and Tideswell’s creations can be seen by clicking Tideswell under the venue list.