West Hallam - Well Dressing Festival
w/e 21 July 2013
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
The banner fixed to the railings outside the Village
Hall advertised the well dressings taking place on Saturday 13th
July but the Festival lasted for most of the following week too.
Apparently on Saturday afternoon on what was then the hottest
day of the year, the village was heaving with visitors. As we
had already been to the Midsummer Happening in Victoria Park
on Saturday we decided to leave our look at the Well Dressing
Festival this year until Sunday when it was much easier to get
around and up close to the well dressings.
There were still a fair few people about as we made our way to
School Square to see the centrepiece there which had been prepared
by the Friends of West Hallam White Rose Cricket Club.
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Each well dressing was accompanied by a collection box and a
notice and this one stated that the the club which was founded
in 1880 "is striving to become an integral part of the community.
Friends of the club are doing this well for the first time to
raise awareness of the cricket club and link with a community
activity." The notice went on to give brief details of the
teams for different age groups and welcomed "members and
non-members to a variety of organised social activities."
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The Festival in recent years has also incorporated a Scarecrow
Trail and as we moved into the main road we spotted a number
of the said scarecrows at the house that has become know as "Scarecrow
HQ". Leaflets detailing the locations of all the scarecrows
that were spread far and wide through both the old part of the
village and the surrounding development were on sale and again
were raising funds for charity.
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Among those on display at the HQ were "Robin" (left),
a scarecrow of a traditional design with a notice giving details
of where the leaflets about the Trail could be purchased and
another more modern incarnation that went by the name "Crow
Compare" and bore more than a passing resemblance to that
annoying man from the insurance adverts!
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All the while we were wandering around the village we could hear
easy listening music played by the Derwent Valley Wind Band and
in the old school yard where they were performing, it was standing
room only as a large number of people had gathered and taken
all the seats to listen to the Sunday afternoon concert.
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As we paused to listen to the band, I also managed a couple of
shots of the Scargill C of E Primary School's contribution (including
the information notice) to the Festival adjacent to the school
yard.
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There were a number of displays in front of the Village Hall
including the large "Personality Well" which this year
had been prepared by friends of Pat Gregory and Tim Ainsworth,
two villagers to whom it was dedicated with the message "Both
are sadly missed". They had titled their well dressing "Scarecrow
and Friends" whilst to the left the smaller square dressing
by the Stanley Village Ladies depicted "Stanley St Andrew's
Church".
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At the end of the drive to St Wilfrid's Church the well dressing
panel showed "St Wilfrid's Children" with the notice
informing about the Tuesday Tots.
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In previous years there have been well dressings in the churchyard
but none were to be seen this year. Instead, although wells in
the village are no longer commonplace anymore, one has appeared
near the church with an invitation to "Throw a coin in the
well!"
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There were several more well dressing panels in the village and
many more contributions to the Scarecrow Trail of which we saw
a number on the way home. This one for example sitting in a garden
on St Wilfrid's Road was large enough to scare the natives let
alone the crows but despite its appearance it was based on Roald
Dahl's BFG - the Big Friendly Giant.
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