This is the third annual village well dressing to take place as part of the Asby Fun Day which also included clog dancing, a duck race, a nursery rhyme trail around the village, tractors on the green, home made cakes and cream teas.

St Helen's well is a spring which runs with fresh water all year round even through drought and has been a place of traditional gathering for centuries.

Working with local volunteer Sue Maddocks, children from the local Asby Endowed Primary School created beautifully decorated plaques containing petals, seeds and beans using local flowers collected from the greens along the beck in Asby. Many of the flowers had been planted just last year by pupils and volunteers eager to see the tradition of well dressing reenacted in their village. The plaques were used to decorate the entrance to the well, and children scattered petals and sugar water in the well as part of the well dressing ceremony.

Although the well is only dressed for a short period of time this year the designs which are vibrant block colour patterns are permanently preserved in the newly produced felt pew runner that you can see in the village church of St Peter's.

The well dressing is a celebration of all the hard work the community has put into researching the history of their village, protecting the biodiversity of their green spaces, and developing activities within the village, including an oral history project and photographic history displays and interpretation, as part of the Our Green Space project.

The Heritage Lottery funded project is run by Friends of the Lake District with Action for Communities in Cumbria, to work with local communities to look after and celebrate the open green spaces of Cumbria's towns and villages. It has helped local volunteers to research and document the history of both Great and Little Asby and to survey and plant the six registered village greens in the village with native wild flowers, and to develop group felt making led by local felt maker Debbie Lucas and the annual well dressing festival as part of their cultural heritage. The project began in January 2008 and runs until December this year.

Project officer Roe Baker said: "The Asby well dressing is a very moving event which brings the community together and creates a new cultural heritage that children will remember as a part of their upbringing - it instills a powerful sense of place and belonging.
The community has worked so hard and should be very proud of their achievements in bringing everyone together to celebrate what is a beautiful village with a wealth of hidden history and tradition."

For more information on 'Our Green Space' visit www.ourgreenspace.org.uk or contact Roe Baker This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it telephone: 01539 720788.