Description:Endon has the the longest tradition of well dressing in Staffordshire, beginning when the stone well head was built in 1845 at the expense of Thomas Heaton, a local landowner. The well dressing formerly took place on 29th May, 'Oak Apple Day'. The vicar added the crowning of a May Queen to the ceremony in 1868, together with a Church Service and maypole dancing. By 1906 the Endon Well Dressing had become a weekend-long event. The celebrations still thrive and nowadays take place over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend.
The decoration shown here consists of a framework onto which are worked thousands of different coloured wild flowers and other materials to form a pictorial design. Windsor Castle is represented here with a banner headed "Our Empire".
The ceremony of well dressing is peculiar to Derbyshire and neighbouring areas, such as the Staffordshire Moorlands. It takes place in many different villages between April and September, but many, including Newborough near Burton-upon-Trent, take place on or around May Day. Other Staffordshire villages with well dressing celebrations include Mayfield and Longnor.