Violet Pinwill’s carvings at Truro Cathedral
A version of this article will be published in by Truro Cathedral as Truro Cathedral monograph No 7.
Background history of the Violet Pinwill studio
Violet Pinwill (Figure 010) was the fifth of seven daughters of the Revd Edmund Pinwill, who became rector of Ermington in Devon in . The church’s woodwork was in dire need of restoration and Mrs Pinwill persuaded the woodcarvers to teach her daughters the craft. Violet and her sisters Mary and Ethel worked first on the construction of the pulpit. Subsequently they decided to form their own business of restoring and creating woodwork in Devon and Cornwall under the name of Rashleigh, Pinwill and Company, moving to Plymouth in . When her sisters left the business, Violet managed the firm herself, recruiting and supervising additional carvers, as well as teaching the craft at Plymouth Technical College. Originally specialising in carvings of animals, flowers, fruits and vegetables, she moved on to the representation of religious figures. She died in aged 83 years and her work, catalogued by Helen Wilson, is to be found in over 100 churches.
Her most well-known contributions to the fixtures and fittings of Truro Cathedral are the thirty-two figurative carvings in the quire stalls, but the studio was responsible for a wide range of work over several decades. Many Pinwill carvings were installed during the episcopate of Walter Frere, the seventh Bishop of Truro (–). At this time the Bishop was also the Dean of Truro.
Sadly the dating of her work for Truro is incomplete so, rather than a chronology, this survey has been grouped under liturgical carvings, decorative carvings, and a final category where modifications were made to existing carved woodwork.
Part 1: Liturgical carvings
This grouping includes all of the Truro Pinwill carvings that serve a liturgical purpose.
Chapel of St Samson and St Boniface
One of Bishop Frere’s innovations was the creation of the Chapel of St Samson and St Boniface from the old Baptistry vestibule. The Pinwill studio made the reredos (Figure 032) for the new chapel and it was installed in .1 The four statues on the reredos depict Saints Paul, Boniface, Samson and the Truro missionary Henry Martyn. This iconography is based on the Master Scheme drawn up by Bishop Benson and Canon Mason in the early 1880s, in which the theme for the imagery of the whole Baptistry area was Christian Mission by using the Gospels, the Cornish saints and modern examples.2 St Paul is shown holding a very large sword, and the original sketch (Figure 040) is still available.3 Samson is holding the model of a church, presumably the parish church of St Samson at Golant. Boniface’s attribute is an axe, and in the adjacent nave window to the Baptistry, dedicated to William Collins, Bishop of Gibraltar and donated by Canon Mason, the first Canon Missioner, St Boniface is depicted felling the pagan oak tree. The final statue is of Henry Martyn, the early nineteenth century missionary to India and Persia. He was born in Truro and his life is shown in the Baptistry windows.
Chapel of St Monica
The carving of the rood group (Figures 050 and 055) of St John, Crucifixion and
the Blessed Virgin Mary was inserted in .
The base of the two individual figures has the signature V. Pinwill
and that of the Crucifixion CARVER PLYMOUTH.
It would appear that she rarely signed the studio’s work, so this group is of special interest.
Walter Frere was the donor of this group of carvings in memory of his predecessor, the fifth Bishop of Truro,
Winfrid Burrows.4
Chapel of All Saints
The sanctuary table (Figures 060 and 065) in the Chapel of All Saints was presented in the following year, .
It was designed by Frank Loughborough Pearson, the architect who completed his father’s design for
Truro Cathedral.5
The table is dedicated to Edward Francis Taylor,
who was the
Diocesan Inspector of Religious Knowledge.6
Jesus Chapel
The communion rails (Figures 110 and 115) in the Jesus Chapel were installed in .
They are dedicated to John Rundle Cornish, Bishop of St Germans,
and were given by his son and
daughter.7
Part 2: Decorative Carvings
This grouping includes all the Pinwill carvings that were intended to have a primarily a decorative function rather than a part in liturgy and worship, although the war memorial is a focal point of the British Legion service on Remembrance Sunday.
South Nave aisle
The memorial to the fallen of the First World War (Figure 120) is modest compared with the monumental commemorative memorial for the Boer War designed by Frank Loughborough Pearson at the end of the south nave aisle. The First World War memorial and desk were made by the Pinwill studio in , the same year as the civic war memorial that dominates Boscawen Street.
The Pinwill memorial in the cathedral was made in oak that originated from the old St Mary’s church,
Truro.8
It was donated by Miss Daubiz
in memory of John Claude Daubiz
, Deputy Lieutenant of the County
and a member of the original Building Committee for the cathedral in the 1880s.
This same family also donated stained glass windows in
–
to the old St Mary’s church and which are still in St Mary’s Aisle.9
The memorial was subsequently adapted after the Second World War to include victims of the later conflict.
Quire stall statues
There are twenty-six stalls in the quire, twenty-four of which are Canons’ stalls named after Cornish saints. In most cases, each stall has a statue of the appropriate saint, whilst the remainder are from the Gospels or later Christian history. They were inserted over three decades, from the making of the first canopies of to the last in , and paid for by donations. The statues were subsequently gilded and coloured circa from a legacy left to the Dean and Chapter by Miss Patience Du Boulay10, the youngest daughter of the Revd Henry DuBoulay, Archdeacon of Bodmin – and Honorary Canon of the Cathedral, who occupied the stall of St Samson.
Cathedral Archive sources include a photograph (Figure 140) of twelve of the statues displayed on two shelves, probably taken in the Pinwill Plymouth studio.12 As these statues were inserted over a period of twenty years it is possible that they were clay models that Pinwill often made as a guide for the final carving. They also reveal extra details that show the extent of the damage that the statues have suffered. The archive also contains the original sketches for eleven of the statues, with written comments by Violet Pinwill.13 Reference is made below to differences between the sketches and the final product. The sketches obviously pre-date the production of the clay models which must have been made by at the latest.
South quire stall statues
From east to west:
North quire stall statues
From east to west:
Some final conclusions on the portrayal of the Cornish saints
It was Bishop Benson’s intention that the early missionary saints who came to Cornwall from the 6th century onwards would have a prominent place in his new cathedral for Cornwall. He, along with others, had a problem in the last decades of the 19th century in reconciling Celtic and Roman Christianity.27 It is significant that by the early 1920s Pinwill was consistently portraying the Cornish saints in the vestments and attire of the Church of Rome.
It is notable how Pinwill uses the attributes from medieval Cornish saints’ legends like pastoral staffs and bells which, besides being symbols of authority and presence of the supernatural, were also practical aids to travelling and preaching. It is also notable how often models of the actual Cornish church buildings are used to identify individual saints.
Part 3: Modified Carvings
Finally, there are two products of the Pinwill studio that fulfil neither liturgical nor decorative functions.
St Endelienta Quire stall
On the rear panel of this stall an added inscription (Figure 470) was carved by the Pinwill studio in
.28
It consists of an armorial with mottos, and inscription dedicated to Emily Glynn Grylls .
The altar candle holders29
Originally these were four whole candle holders by the Pinwill studio for the Sanctuary, and had a defined liturgical purpose in the quire and sanctuary. Later each holder was divided into two parts. The upper parts including the central boss were inverted and provided with an added base for stability. They are now used as ‘bollards’ to hold the ropes round the podium. The lower parts have been modified with new candle holders and are still used for funerals. They are otherwise stored in the Canons’ vestry.
Conclusions
There are over fifty individual carvings from the Pinwill studio at Truro cathedral. Inserted over more than three decades, they are of significant interest not only in the context of the evolution of the fixtures and fittings of the cathedral, but also the way they reflect changes in artistic styles.
Until the commencement of the First World War, the evolution of the cathedral and its fixtures and fittings was dominated by the Gothic Revival vision of John Loughborough Pearson and Bishop Benson. Although both died before , this vision was shared by the key individuals who were responsible for the ultimate conclusion of the building in . Frank Loughborough Pearson continued his father’s architectural designs with very little alteration, whilst the development of the cathedral’s interior was in the hands of Chancellor Arthur Worlledge and Canon Arthur James Mason, who might be regarded as Bishop Benson’s disciples.
After , the shadow of Benson and Pearson faded, especially under Bishop Frere, whose reordering brought a new interpretation to the functions of the building and its artistic expression. This was particularly shown in the creation of new Chapels (the Jesus chapel and the chapel of St Samson and St Boniface) and the progressive completion of the canopies to the quire stalls.30 The dominance of the Gothic Revival style gradually merged into that of the Arts and Crafts, led by the products of the Pinwill studio. As has been shown, the Pinwill carvings played an important part in defining the manner in which the Celtic Revival and the Cornish saints were interpreted.
In one further respect Violet Pinwill led the way in the artistic development of the cathedral. With the commissioning of so many items from the Pinwill studio, the cathedral was for the first time using a female artist and designer. This trend towards female artists had already started before when the Pinwill studio produced the outstanding carvings for Father George Metford Parson’s restoration of his church at Crantock.31 Female Arts and Crafts designers were also achieving prominence in stained glass, witness the fine window by Mary Lowndes at St Erme of . Mary Lowndes was, like Violet Pinwill, a highly successful entrepreneur running her own stained glass business in London.32 Another important example of this trend towards female arts and crafts was Anne Walke’s reredos for the new Jesus Chapel. It is within this context that the Pinwill carvings at Truro cathedral can now be seen as a significant historical and artistic development.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the generous help and advice given by Dr Helen Wilson in the preparation of this monograph, and the information given by Elizabeth Ellis, née Stewart, on the Cornish Grylls motto.
References
- Truro Cathedral Inventory (TCI) record 343. Death of Lady Mary Trefusis on , reported in . Forthcoming installation of reredos in memory of Lady Mary Trefusis, reported in .
- MG Swift, Canon P Lambert, JM Whitehouse. Truro Cathedral Baptistery. Truro Cathedral occasional monograph No 3. .
- In addition are sketches of John Wesley and St Bartholomew, neither of which was commissioned, and with no indication of their possible location.
- TCI record 375 and inscription.
- TCI record 302.
- TCI and inscription. Canon Taylor died on , reported in .
- TCI record 790 and inscription.
- TCI record 1534. John Claude Daubuz died ( ). The Book of Remembrance and carved desk were lodged in the Cathedral during the Armistice Day service on ( ). The Daubuz memorial was dedicated on ( ).
-
The window inscriptions list the family as
Daubuz
. - TCI records 1392–1422.
- .
- Devon County Records (Plymouth). Back shelf:- Winwaloe, Constantine, Buriana, Conan, Ia, Piran. Lower shelf:- Germoe, Aldhelm, Meriodocus, Nectan, Germanus, Carantoc.
- .
- TCI record 22.
- TCI record 51.
- TCI record 50.
- TCI record 49.
- Mattingly J, Swift MG, Pre-Dissolution stained glass in Cornwall—a gazetteer, St Neot, (originally published in Vidimus Vol 31, ) Fully shown in panels in window n7 of .
- Mattingly J, Swift MG, ibid. Also fully shown in panels in window n7.
- This figure is not included in TCI.
- TCI record 46.
- TCI record 45.
- Mattingly J, Swift MG, ibid. Window n6 of .
- TCI record 37.
- Framed in the Canons’ Vestry.
- TCI record 35
-
EW Benson,
The Cathedral: its necessary place in the life and work of the Church,
p 159, London, .
On his intention to name the Canons’ stalls at Truro Cathedral after the Cornish saints
to read into a record of our own past, and of our connection with the other antient [sic] churches prior to the Romish usurpations.
- Emily Glynn Grylls died (Hag y Matern ha y Pobel and Robert Morton Nance writes, around the same time, Ha’y Maghtern ha’y Bobel. ). Insertion of carving reported in the . Quoted from a newspaper article: information kindly supplied by Helen Wilson. Old Cornwall magazine in gives the Cornish motto as
- TCI records 1773–6 and 1786–9.
- Donors were sought for £150 per canopy.
- MG Swift and J Stewart-Smith, The stained glass windows of St Carantoc, Cornwall.
- Establishment of The House of Glass in Fulham in by Mary Lowndes and Alfred Drury, preceded by Sarah Purser’s Tower of Glass (An Túr Gloine) in Dublin in .