Tissington

Tissington is a fabulous estate village with picture postcard pretty cottages, a duck pond and a stunning stately hall with an established pedigree of the FitzHerbert family that dates back for many generations to 1465. Tissington is a model village, totally unspoilt and unique with a wealth of history and an appeal that draws many visitors throughout the year.

Tissington can be approached from the west through a spectacular ford which becomes impassable to cars after heavy rain, or off the A515 through the narrow entrance of Tissington gates. Although there is a lovely tearoom which sells excellent refreshments, the village is ‘dry’, the nearest pub being about a mile away.

Tissington Hall has a wonderful armorial crest on its gates to the FitzHerbert family, and sits within a semi-circular arbour of tress that were planted in 1610 by Francis FitzHerbert who acquired the estate in 1590 when Elizabeth I was Queen of England. An earlier manor house was sited on the remains of an Iron Age fort next to the church on the opposite side of the road from Tissington hall.

In the Civil War, Tissington Hall was a Royalist garrison, the resident FitzHerbert at the time equipped a small force to resist the Cromwellians. When a fight began near Ashbourne which went badly wrong for the King’s men, they retreated fighting to Tissington but were beaten and 170 captives taken.

The house is only open to the public by special arrangement, but from time to time there are  tours of the grounds and village by Sir Richard FitzHerbert.

Tissington is famous for its Derbyshire tradition of well dressing, and is the first village in the county to erect its floral displays on Ascension Day in early May beside five wells dotted around the village. Hall Well with its stone hood and shelter is one of the most impressive, but also adorned are Hand Well, Goodwin Well also known as Yew Tree Well, Town Well and Coffin Well. The latter takes its name from the shape of the well but was previously known in the 1800’s as Frith Well. The custom of well dressing is thought by some to be a relic of paganism or early religion of country folk. Records of well dressings date from at least 1350, although it is also known that in Roman times flowers were thrown into fountains and wells were wreathed with garlands every year in the festival of Fontinalia. Milton wrote: “And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream of pansies, pinks and gaudy daffodils”.

It is also thought the well dressing ceremony is a custom derived here either from a terrible drought that at one time affected the county or as a thanksgiving for the purity of water when in the 14th century Black Death swept over the land and Tissington was spared the dreadful mortality. An early entry in the church register regarding the drought records that “there was no rayne fell upon the earth from 25th March till the end of May, and then there was but one shower. Two more showers fell between then and 4th August, so that the greatest part of the land was burnt up, both corne and hay”. However it is known that throughout this time the wells never failed.

St Mary’s Church in Tissington has a Norman doorway with two carved figures either side, hands on hips. There are also deep grooves on the door jambs dating back to a time when archers sharpened their arrows here. In the graveyard is said to be a stone to James Allsop who was ‘drownded’ when the Titanic sank in 1912.
Running around the outskirts of the village is the famous Tissington Trail, at one time a busy railway line running through the heart of the Midlands, but now popular as a scenic route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders.

There are lovely walks across fields and stiles from Tissington to the picturesque village of Parwich, but for a short walk with lots of appeal, there is nothing quite like a circuit of the road within the village.