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TISSINGTON VILLAGE - 21/09/08

This latest update to the website marks a return to more local scenery with a visit to the village of Tissington in the Peak District for a short walk. Most of the photos on this page were taken on the 21st September 2008 but a few date from earlier in the year including the annual well dressing festival in May.

The unspoilt estate village is located just off the A515 road between Buxton and Ashbourne in Derbyshire. At the heart of the village is Tissington Hall dating from 1609 and home to the Fitzherbert family for over 400 years; the mansion is only open on selected days each year to visitors, for further details of opening arrangements visit the official website: www.tissington-hall.com
There is lots more to see and do at the village along with the hall, (right photo) including a candle workshop, trekking centre, gift shop, butchers and the old coach house to the hall which has been converted to a tea room.
St Mary's church, (centre photo) opposite the hall overlooks the village with its imposing Norman tower. The village is also a good starting point for the Tissington Trail, an old railway line that closed in 1963 that is now a popular route for walkers and cyclists.
The first week of May was the annual well dressing event in Tissington when six wells were dressed with thousands of flower petals depicting biblical and local themes. The event is thought to attract up to 50,000 people during the week with visitors from all over the world. The now widespread custom of well dressing is thought to have begun in the village in the 1340s to celebrate the village's escape from the Black Death and give thanks for the purity of its water.
More photographs of Tissington Hall in the late summer sunshine and the entrance to the gift shop. All of the views on this page can be seen on a short circular walk of the village starting at the hall following the circuit in a clockwise direction, turn right opposite the gift shop following Chapel Lane until approaching another junction where you also bear right and follow the road past the Butcher, before turning right again onto The Avenue and then back towards the hall on Rakes Lane. As mentioned before there is also the Tissington Trail for longer walks and a pay and display car park next to the trail in the village.