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...

"As Told to Julia Neville" is a series of imagined conversations between Julia Neville and some of the women who she ‘meets’ in the course of her researches. The conversations are based on items originally featured in archives and local newspapers. It doesn’t get any easier on the feet. Canvassing, I mean. This council election will be my fourth, and of course I’ve been canvassing for many years for my husband George, and for myself at Guardians’ elections. I am a very old hand at it! Now we have quite a system, and a stalwart team of helpers - the St Budeaux Amazons they call us. They’re a bit of a chore, the elections this year. Nothing like the excitement we’ll have next year with the new Equal Franchise Act in place and a General Election to use it in, as well as the council elections. I only wish we could get more women to stand in council elections. We need more women there – it should be half and half, but there are still only seven of us. We don’t always stick toget...