Description: In pre-Reformation times people would have shown their gratitude for the healing waters by leaving their own offerings at shrines or wells. Buxton had a chapel or shrine dedicated to the tutelary saint Anne (the patron of cripples) which some of the healed chose to decorate with their crutches. The early Christians saw this practice as water worship - and put a stop to it - instead believing the waters derived their curative properties through priestly intervention. The custom was revived at different times in different places though many took up 'tap dressing' when piped water first came to town. Buxton well dressing in its present form began in 1840 at the Market Place Fountain, where the 6th Duke of Devonshire provided that area with its first public supply of water. The Higher Buxton towns people expressed their delight by decorating the fountain and holding a parade and a street party. From then on, the fountain (Higher Buxton Well) and St Anne's Well have been dressed, spasmodically before 1923 and annually since as the Town Council elected a committee to organise matters. (extracted from the informative website www.buckinghamhotel.co.uk)