Maker: Lynda Brocklehurst

Panel number: 263

Petition sheet number: 320

Person honouring: Phoebe Winstanley

Relationship to maker: Great-great-grandmother

Tantalising prospective customers with wool, Fife lace yarn, hosiery yarn, travel bags, fringe silks, and ‘celebrated self-threading needles’, Phoebe Winstanley ran a successful business selling fabrics and haberdashery items during the 1880s and 1890s – in Nelson and later in Blenheim.

She entered local shows where she won prizes for her scones and knitting.

Phoebe Cannell was born in Norfolk, England in 1839. Her mother Ann Cannell was in trade and father David Cannell was a farrier.

She married Thomas Winstanley in 1857, before they came to New Zealand on the William Miles in November 1862 with their first two sons. They had a further six children, five more boys and lastly a girl. Two of the boys died as children. 

After some time on the West Coast and in Nelson, the family moved to Blenheim, where Thomas was the postmaster. Phoebe was an accomplished needlewoman who ran a business importing and selling needlework supplies in Walter Street, Blenheim (now Scott St), and offered needlework classes. 

Phoebe died in February 1914, aged 75. She was buried with two of her sons at Omaka in Marlborough.

Panel materials: Recycled cotton sheeting, printed cotton fabric (new), recycled antique lace, silk ribbon, vintage knitting cotton, beads.