West Hallam - Too Late Was The Cry
w/e 19 July 2026
All of this week's pictures were
taken with a Nikon D3300 camera.
West Hallam Well Dressing Festival opened on Saturday
11th July but we'd been invited to a birthday barbecue so we
didn't get to see the dressings and scarecrows until the following
Friday morning.
And as we arrived in the village a cry of "Too late"
went up. The hot weather had taken its toll on the flowers and
leaves on most of the well dressings and some were already being
dismantled including the large circular one in front of the Village
Hall.
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The same was true in School Square where ladies were busy dismantling
the West Hallam W.I. dressing that had featured Beatrix Potter.
Well dressings are formed by pressing flowers, leaves, seeds
and other natural products into a clay base to form a picture
and here the results of the hot dry weather was evident in the
cracked clay base.
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Also in School Square in front of this cottage, the
well dressing here had not fared too badly and was positioned
next to one of the scarecrows in the Scarecrow Trail that accompanies
the Well Dressing Festival every year.
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This dressing where again cracks were visible was by the West
Hallam Minors Club and money raised during the Festival was in
aid of the Mid Derbyshire Badger Group.
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The Village Pre-School's contribution to the Festival had been
inspired by The Scarecrows' Wedding, a favourite story, and was
in aid of the West Hallam Methodist Foodbank. There were originally
three panels to the display but the two side panels had been
removed before Friday.
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The Community Pre School's contribution to the Festival was inspired
by the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty and funds raised were in aid
of Group Strep B Support, a UK charity dedicated to preventing
group B strep infections in babies.
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At the Village Hall, Scargill School chose "Our Community"
as its theme. The School Council decided to celebrate 'the people,
places, and partnerships that inspire us to care for others and
make a positive difference.' Their charity was Cancer Research.
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Attached to the railings around the Village Hall were a number
of mini scarecrows on the theme of Kings, Queens and Castles
and the label indicated they had been made by "Juniors"which
presumably means the younger members of the village school.
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Another mini scarecrow stood at no. 26 The Village whilst at
no. 6 were two larger versions.
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Scarecrows were scattered at
various other places throughout the village and although the
Football World Cup is coming to a close it was another sport
that was featured here. But with a pitch like that, it's just
not cricket!
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So we'd missed the opening day
of the Festival and we were almost too late to see any of the
well dressings at all.
We hadn't seen the large circular
dressing at the Village Hall but as we chatted to the ladies
dismantling it, one of them offered to send me
a photo. In fact she sent me three and so it's
with a big thank you to Jill Croft that I'm able
to reproduce them here.
This tribute to Sir David Attenborough
celebrating the centenary of his birth was by
the Friends of Stanley Common.
The Festival will return in July 2027.
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