Well Dressing in Derbyshire

We were clog dancing at Cutthorpe and Heath (both in Derbyshire) on Saturday at their Well Dressing celebrations. I think this tradition is unique to Derbyshire (well it certainly originated in Derbyshire) but other places may now have adopted it - the purpose was originally to give thanks for the water which brought a good crop and sustained life. Very simplistic explanation but dancing (in clogs or not!) was one of the ways to celebrate this. Good excuse for a party now (as ever I suspect). Our team is Chesterfield Garland Dancers and we have a website and flickr site, links below:
http://www.chesterfieldgarland.org.uk/index.htm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chesterfield_garland_dancers
We'd just arrived in Heath when we heard an almighty roaring sound and to my great amazement and excitement a Lancaster bomber passed directly above us. It's the first time I've seen one for real in the air (I think there's only one still airborne) but my husband is a great Lancaster follower so I've heard plenty about them - hence the excitement. I'm sure this wasn't a flypast to celebrate Heath Well Dressings, but I think we were in the right place at the right time as it flew from one event to another. Anyway, I enjoyed that!