As Tissington and Bisley prepare for their famous Ascension Day well dressings, it is worth examining other Midlands well dressings and Welton just outside of Lincoln had one which has been largely forgotten. The curiously named Old Man’s Spring and five wells in the village were the source of a local well dressing custom which has been largely forgotten and unknown outside of the county. I discovered some information for my Holy wells and healing Springs of Lincolnshire and thanks to correspondence with the parish council and research in an number of books some details can be made. A correspondent of Sutton (1996) in her Lincolnshire Calendar a resident of Welton notes:
“The custom of well dressing was an annual event which took place on Ascension day. Five wells in the village were dressed including one in the churchyard, one in the grounds of the vicarage, two in West Carr and one in spring cottage in Sudbeck Lane. The origin of the source being ‘old man’s head spring’ in Welton Cliffe (Westhall Farm) The dressing of the wells took a different format to that of neighbouring counties, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. In Welton each area surrounding the well was marked with an arch formed from a tree branch and decorated with lilac and laburnum. A linen, white calico cloth on which was depicted a text taken from the bible was put into each arch; this was put up by the men in the village early on Ascension Day morning. The ceremony began with a service in Saint Mary’s Church followed by a parade to the decorated beck in the churchyard. Each well was then dressed in turn and a prayer said and a hymn sung. The local Sunday school children took part in the ceremony by placing wild flowers at each well.”
It is unclear how old the custom was when described but details lend to the idea that it was probably brought to the village by the incumbent vicar. However, well dressing is not unknown in the county and two notable springs were dressed on Ascension Day in Louth, particularly that of St. Helen’s Well which according to Gutch and Peacock (1908) was:
“formerly ornamented with flowers and branches on Holy Thursday… It still took place in the first three decades of the eighteenth century, but the oldest inhabitants of the town have now no traditional recollection of it.”
The earliest record that can be found is in Sutton (1996) records two references in the local parish magazine, one in 1910 which reads:
“On Ascension Day we again propose to continue the custom of ‘Well dressing’ as an act of thanks-giving to Almighty God for the blessing of bountiful supply of pure water to Welton. Celebration of Holy Communion 8 am; Well dressing service 2pm; Procession to the wells 3pm; Public and Day school Tea 4.30pm; Children’s concert and Prize distribution 6.30 pm We pray to God to favour us with fine weather for the festival”.
Clearly the event was a busy and popular one but sadly, the colourful and last survivor of a more widespread Lincolnshire tradition ended in 1924, perhaps when the vicar moved on! One wonders why the spring head itself was not dressed until it reached the church yard; perhaps this was a conscious attempt to Christianize the site, does the Old Man have a pagan connotation? Alternatively, it may have been that the spring head was too inaccessible! There do not appear to be any direct traditions associated by this spring head. But I was told that during a whooping cough epidemic in the village in the 1900s, mothers took their prams containing the infants and stood them in the beck, believing that the germs would be carried away, with the flow of the fresh water! Perhaps this suggests a healing tradition. Today the spring itself arises around a large concrete culvert and indeed appears to bubble up more around it through some stones to the side than this channel. The spring quickly forms a pool and flows downwards towards the village and Ascension Day goes by without note for its wells and springs.
East Midlands folklore 