West of England and South Wales Women's History Network Blog

I n this fascinating blog, Helen Wilson tells the story of some truly remarkable women pioneers – the Pinwill sisters, who ran their own ecclesiastical woodcarving business in Devon in the 1900s.   In about 1890, Mary, Ethel and Violet Pinwill took the audacious step of setting up their own professional ecclesiastical woodcarving company, competing for work in an almost entirely male-dominated occupation. The company thrived and by the 1950s Pinwill carvings, in both wood and stone, could be found in over 200 churches across Devon and Cornwall and elsewhere. Mary Rashleigh ( b 1871), Annie Ethel ( b 1872) and Violet Alice ( b 1874) were the middle daughters of seven sisters, children of the Reverend Edmund and Elizabeth Pinwill. In 1880 when Edmund, the newly appointed vicar, and family arrived in Ermington, south Devon, his first challenge was how to deal with a church in dire need of restoration. The resolution lay in the hands of wealthy local landowner, Henry Bingham Mildma...