POTTERING IN THE PEAK DISTRICT

Weather has changed but no good waiting for the weather in England so we've come to Hope in the Peak District for 5 nights, stopping at Laneside Farm Campsite.
The last time I was in this area was when I was a teenager and I'm sure we stayed here then. It has changed dramatically.
We had a short walk the first day climbing up to Win Hill from the campsite and returning via Hope for Roy's obligatory ice cream! Rain was forecast but we were back at the van before it arrived.
A pretty walk, through some woods then up on to the open moor, full of sweet smelling heather, gorse and bracken, beautiful!

LADYBOWER RESERVOIR 

WIN HILL SUMMIT

WIN HILL SUMMIT PANORAMAS

MAM TOR AND LOSE HILL

HOPE CHURCH

The rain stopped and we drove the short distance to Bradwell to see some well dressings

The origins of the tradition are obscure. It has been speculated that it began as a pagan custom of offering thanks to gods for a reliable water supply; other suggested explanations include villagers celebrating the purity of their water supply after surviving the Black Death in 1348, or alternatively celebrating their water's constancy during a prolonged drought in 1615. The practice of well dressing using clay boards at Tissington is not recorded before 1818, however, and the earliest record for the wells being adorned by simple garlands occurs in 1758

BRADWELL CHURCH