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Alice Maud Tippett at the young age of 11 years stitched an adorable little sampler using a scrap of Penelope canvas and a beautiful palette of nine colours. The colours harmonise so well!
Alice records on her sampler that she attended St Ervan’s Board School. When the Elementary Education Act of 1870 came into force, school boards, public bodies in England and Wales, established and administered elementary schools in England between 1870 and 1902. Education was not free but the fees of the poorest children were paid by the parish. The schools were non-denominational and were not to impose any religious education, other than simple Bible reading.
We know that when Alice attended the Board School the headmistress was a Miss M M Winsor, and her assistant was Miss Dora Rowe who taught the infants. We suspect that it was Miss Winsor who taught Alice needlework.
Alice was born to William Tippett, a stone mason and his wife Mary Jane, née Parsons. Her birth was registered in the first quarter of 1883; however, she was not baptised until July 23 at the Bible Christian Church in the village of Penrose. The village is in the parish of St Ervan which can be found a short distance inland on the North Cornish coast. Tippetts can be found living in this beautiful part of Cornwall today and all the way back to the early 1600s.
William and his brother James built the chapel, and the foundation service was held on 24 May 1861.
The Bible Christian Church was a Methodist denomination founded by William O’Bryan, a local Wesleyan Methodist preacher, on 18 October 1815 in North Cornwall. Members of the Church were sometimes known as Bryanites, after their founder.
William died in 1893, and sadly, three years later, on 13 June 1896 Alice died at the very young age of 13 years. Her death certificate records the cause of death as diphtheria. In the 1800s diphtheria was a major cause of death. Though mostly a disease associated with the poor and a particular threat to children, diphtheria did not discriminate by class and age. Its cause, spread and a cure remained a mystery until the last part of the 19th century.
Hands Across the Sea Samplers are honoured to be able to reproduce Alice’s sampler and make her available for you to stitch.
Alice’s sampler was reproduced using a very pretty palette of nine colours from Au Ver à Soie’s range of Soie 100. We have provided conversions for Soie d’Alger and DMC.
The sampler is stitched with cross stitch over two threads of linen and has been rated as suitable for needleworkers of all abilities.
At the very core of Hands Across the Sea Samplers there is a team of needleworkers who are passionate about antique samplers and being able to share those samplers with you.
“Home sweet home. This is the place to find happiness. If one doesn’t find it here, one doesn’t find it anywhere.”
