Endon Well Dressing                         Click here to view images of well dressing

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A Brief History                                                                                                                    Back to main page

Before the era of taps and piped water supplies, Endon’s villagers drew their water from a spring situated about 100 yards behind the site of the present well. 

In 1843, North Staffordshire experienced one of the most severe droughts ever recorded in this area; one by one springs and wells dried up except for the spring at Endon which continued to flow throughout the drought. 

As a mark of thanksgiving for the unfailing supply of clean water during 1843, a local gentleman, Mr. Thomas Heaton, had a stone edifice erected, at his own expense, in the centre of the village. Water was then carried by pipes from the site of the original spring to the new stone well. This is the structure that still stands in the village at the present day and which is decorated annually at the Well Dressing Festival. 

When the construction of the well was completed in 1845, Mr. Heaton donated it to the people of Endon under the care of a body of trustees. 

The dressing of the well originated when the well was officially handed over to the village on May 29^th 1845 (Oak Apple day). On this day, the local shoemaker, Philip Rogers, decorated the well with oak branches in honour of the occasion. Since that time, Philip Rogers’ simple act has evolved, over more than 160 years, into the elaborate well dressing with its accompanying festival week-end which is what we have currently. 

The fine, wrought-iron weather vane which tops the well was repaired at Endon smithy in the 1970s when the centre column was shortened by some five feet.