SNIPPET: In a peaceful rural setting, Woodview House, Ballingale, Co. Wexford, (previously known as Clobemon Hall) has an interesting and varied history that includes a devastating fire May 1798 during the Rebellion, restoration, and owners (as well as a series of tenants) with surnames to include de RINZY, TURNER, LAMBERT, MILNE, and WHELAN. Most recently it has been lovingly and beautifully restored by the Pat MARTIN family. There are many recent photos(and a several-page article about the early history of Wexford and the Rebellion and the early history of Woodview House)in the Nov-Dec 2002 issue of Dublin's "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine. One particularly interesting tenant was Mrs. Hubert LEWIS, who in 1917 established Ballingale Poultry Farm and Gardening School," also known as the "Ballingale School of Industry." The development of such schools in Great Britain and Ireland arose from the movement towards the emancipation of women, which opened up the way to new areas of employment for young ladies. It was a also a consequence of the First World War (1914-1918) when women moved into the work of food production, because so many men had enlisted for the trenches. A 1918 account of the School gives quite a detailed description of the house and grounds. The house was described as old-fashioned, in its own grounds of eleven acres, with a view of the river Slaney. The entrance hall, with its large open hearth, was used as a sitting room and class-room by the students. On the right of the hall was the sitting room used by the LEWISes and, on the left, the dining-room. There were two well-lit rooms with their high ceilings which have remained relatively unchanged to the present today. Upstairs were two four-bedded dormitories and some single rooms. Outside in the yard, the dilapidated outhouses had been converted for various purposes. A former harness room was used as an office. A stable became a dairy with a churn, separator, cheese press and other utensils of dairying. A third outhouse was restored and used for the storage of provisions. A small orchard was planted in the yard and there was also a poultry unit. The walled garden located to the rear of the house was described as the "old fashioned type with straight walks that divide the plots and shadowed by fruit trees, with vegetables of all descriptions, flowers in herbaceous borders and specimen beds and a greenhouse." Sadly, few traces of that garden remain today. The present-day owners were able to save many original features - ornamental plasterwork, the main staircase, relics that include schoolbook which belonged to Nellie and Anne LAMBERT in the 1920s. The course, for female students only, included theoretical and practical horticulture, poultry and rabbit keeping. Students could specialize in poultry-keeping, dairy-work or gardening, or they could take a combination course. Practical gardening included digging, trenching, manuring the soil, seed sowing, cultivation of vegetables and flowers and fruit production. Daily lectures covered botany, chemistry of the soil and the course extended over three terms of 13 weeks each and internal exams were held. Students were also tutored for exams of the Royal Horticultural Society, London. Horticulture was taught by Miss Anne ("Nancy") Lauder BRUNTON, who had studied at Studley College, Warwickshire in England, where she had received a gold medal in 1912. Prior to coming to Co. Wexford, she had been a school gardener at James ALLEN Girls' School, Dulwich, London. She was the younger sister of Alice ("Elsie") HENRY, wife of Augustine HENRY the first professor of Forestry in University College, Dublin, and a plant collector in China whose name is revered in gardening circles. Their father, Sir Lauder BRUNTON, was a well-known London physician. There were two other instructresses for dairying and poultry-keeping, both of whom had worked with the United Irishwomen. Note should be made that the United Irishwomen, a very different type of organization to the United Irishmen, were forerunners of the Irish Countrywomen's Association. They were founded in Bree, Co. Wexford, in 1910, and promoted such areas as cookery, needlework, nursing, poultry keeping, market gardening and charitable work. A Miss SLATTERY, who from 1905-1917 was poultry instructress for Co. Wexford, supervised the flock of birds which included Wyandottes, Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks and Favorelles. Profits came from the sale of chickens and eggs. Another enterprise was rabbit keeping with breeds that included Belgian Hares and Belgian Giants. The yield from the garden must have been plentiful; Anne Lauder BRUNTON said that it had provided for a household of 12-14 people. The school was a short-lived enterprise, likely ceasing to function in 1919 or 1920. It had a similar fate to the four other gardening schools for women in Ireland at the time which all declined in the years after WWI. Woodview became a family home once again, the next tenants being Harry MILNE, his wife and small son, the late King MILNE, the latter an enthusiastic local historian who descended from a Scottish ancestor who became a tenant on the Clobemon estate after the Great Famine of 1845-1849. Also in the article is the Paul KERR painting in tones of fiery red and gray depicting a scene with United Irishmen from the 1798 Rebellion during which the original Woodview House was destroyed by fire and where Francis TURNER, one of the original owners was killed.