We could have spent all day in the Occupation Museum. However, the owner and operator of the museum, Mr Richard Lefensty Heaume, throws open his doors from just 10am until 1pm, strictly cash only, for seven days a week. Whilst it is heart breakingly hard to observe and reflect on the relics and left behind remnants of an era that weighs heavily on our collective consciousness, what shines through is an expertly curated monument to the Occupation of the Channel Islands. My recently graduated preschooler is becoming a keen historian whose interest in war, tanks, guns and warships in particular, was fascinated by the museum and equally frustrated by trying to convey what it all means. This museum is just up the road from us and every visit turns up something new.
It has been a good while since I started this blog. I now have two small people under the age of five and we continue to explore the island, often as tourists on our own doorstep. Onwards and upwards!
Betwixt the Fermain Beach Cafe and Fort George, there be a Bluebell Woods in the middle of April and early May. It is beautiful and filled with birdsong, a very soothing tonic to a busy and hectic life. A cruise ship visited Guernsey for the first time since October 2019. The Hanseatic Spirit stopped by and passengers made it to the woods to frolic amidst the birdsong and bluebells.
Hot, toasted Senners Hot Cross Buns smothered in golden Alderney Butter oh my! What a lovely Easter treat. The weather has been glorious, for Jesus, and we have enjoyed one or too many of these hot cross buns. The butter is from Forest Road Stores and costs about fifty quid a gram but it’s truly divine.
This French, 10 tonne, 22cm gun was restored by Guernsey Armouries in 1997 and sits in Gun Pit No. 3 of a German Coastal Artillery Battery, Batterie Dollmann. Its the last of its type in Europe.
When the project of restoring this German Coastal Artillery Battery was started, initial inspection showed the bunkers to be remarkably intact with armoured doors and a bunker telephone still in situ.
An estimated 1,000 tons of spoil was removed using an excavator although many tons had to be shovelled out by hand. Work could now begin on restoring the bunkers and pit. All steelwork was shot-blasted and repainted, the original wiring in the bunkers replaced and walls repainted. Externally, the camouflage has been replaced as original. All work has been carried out as authentically as possible to return the site to its wartime appearance.
Following the successful recovery of a 22cm K532 (f) barrel from the base of cliffs at Les Landes, Jersey, an enquiry to the French Ministry of Defence revealed that the original blue prints of the cannon de 220L MLE 1917 were held at the Centre d’Archives de l’Armement in Chatellerault and copies of the relevant plans were obtained so that work could commence.
There’s a car park at the bottom of a steep and winding hill, where there be sex litter. Or could this be the detritus of a business frisson? The boundaries are so blurred these days. When is it a picnic or a business meal? Does crisps with sandwiches make it a meal? Does Special Brew make business meetings finish on time? I wonder what Sue Gray would make of Guernsey’s ‘Gatland-Gate?’ The Private Eye was not impressed:
To be fair, there hasn’t been much sex litter in these chilly months before and after Christmess and New Year. Raspberry wrappers are the harbinger of dogging season?
A few yards away from the dogging littered car park at the bottom of Petit Bot hill you’ll find St Clair Battery. These buildings are dotted around the island. St Clair Battery, previously known as Boufresse Battery, has an associated magazine. In 1816 this battery mounted two 24 pounder guns and would have been associated to Tower No. 13.
At one time, there were over 60 gun batteries in operation around the island.
They were constructed in strategic positions to protect the coastline from possible landings by the French. Typically they consist of a sloping paved stone platform to carry the ordnance, together with a brick or stone lined barrier as defence against oncoming fire. A number of batteries have been cleared of overgrowth in recent years and restored as historic sites.
A magazine building would originally have stood nearby to store powder and shot. In some cases the magazines still survive though the battery has been lost. In dark times like this, monuments to the past become like bright lighthouse beams on the hazy dream horizons. They take us back to a time when a gun battery was simply that, and nothing else. Certainly, back in time, nobody could have accused the St Clair battery masquerading as a floating gin palace or a finger buffet that thinks its a Board meeting. I think that we will lean on history even harder, to give us gravity in these post-Trumpian times of fake news and trumping science with a meme. We have lost so much, let’s hope that truth does not fall any further or sink any lower.
It feels like the island is getting smaller. When this happens it is best to avoid places that make you feel like a giant. However, lighting a candle at the Little Chapel and whispering a little prayer for loved ones lost helps.
By Herbert Bird Tourtel, from The Coming of Ragnarök, Guernsey, F B Guerin, 1895.
Dark gray hills, as guardians keeping Faithful watch, tower to the skies; And the valley, safely sleeping, Silently between them lies.
Thence on either hand extending Loom the cliffs mysteriously, As a giant slowly bending, Half unwilling, to the Sea.
On the beach, the musing ocean To the unresponsive sand Treasured wealth of deep emotion Casts with free and lavish hand;
Till the twilight air seems laden With the song of sylph on wave, With the song of sad sea-maiden Pensive in her lonely cave.
And I hear the strange sweeet stories Of its ancient legend lore— Hear of vanished lands the glories Weird and wondrous—now no more.
And the shades of evening falling Slowly steal about the bay, Star to sister star is calling, Sweet voiced subtile zephyrs play.
We ventured down the winding, hairpin bend hills to Petit Bot bay. A mysterious, brooding bay. A murderous way to the sea by recent events and accounts after a smoking car was found with ashen skeletal remains. The tearooms were closed and we watched a couple of bobble hat swimmers bob in the bay. What a beautiful poem about Petit Bot bay, ever more true today as it were yesterday.
The Guernsey Government have sounded off the ‘WEAR YOUR MASKS’ klaxon at a gently inviting volume to the masses due to spiralling case numbers. Some do, some don’t. I have seen people driving alone wearing a mask, people pulling down their mask to smoke outside, and one numpty with a pulled down mask eating a sanger in the supermarket (just an owl’s hoot from the exit…). I think we should legislate to curb everybody’s enthusiasm for being stupid?! ‘The Stupid Law, Guernsey (2021)’ looks fine in the big lights print, no? The government are not sounding any loud klaxons for exercise, eating more local hedge veg or taking your vitamins! (vitamin fresh air is a good one, and it’s free, ruined only if you are wearing a single use plastic face mask). That is a shame and a missed opportunity.
As we were leaving Petit Bot a few single occupancy cars arrived… and that left me wondering if it could be a secret d*gging hotspot? We should have gone back to the car park this morning with a black light and CSI St Peter Port crime lab toolkit to see if it would light up like a Christmas tree with a little amateur scrutiny! We didn’t see any sex litter, always on the look out! Perhaps the al fresco sex scene withers when the weather gets colder.
We went along to Le Hechet Farm, a working Guernsey Dairy farm, for a mooch about the pumpkins! It’s a working farm so immediately a super massive hit with the toddler! There were pumpkins available in all shapes, colours and sizes. However, you may need a pick up truck to take home some of the giant sizes. We saw little piggy wiggies wiggling their bums about, moo moo cows and some sparkling tractors that we could have a ride on! The farm also make their own ice cream which is delish! There is often a hefty debate on local social media about why this part of the island isn’t as densely populated with rabbit hutch sized new builds. Often people fail to see how important and precious our Guernsey Dairy farms are. There is no dairy milk imported to the island. Whilst getting some food shopping today I wondered how much exactly of everything on the conveyor belt would end up in a black food caddy? The way we live and our perceptions about how we live are so distorted, that if everything were de-fogged and demystified we might be in a brave new world sooner rather than too late? Pumpkins, they were amazing at Le Hechet Farm. It’s good to let your feet sink into the mud mulch of working farm! My toddler can sing the chorus of ‘Old Macdonald Had a Farm’ and we belted it out in the car ride home.
Only a heartbeat ago I wash pushing my little one around this field, looking at many rabbits in cages in a tent, and cooing at the big diggers! This year we ran riot around the show and loved every minute of it. I love that we can have afternoons out like this in Guernsey. Can’t remember what this show was called but it happens near a large dolmen in St Peter’s. There are so many dolmen dotted around the island it’s easy to forget that there are so many small pockets of interest to be found.
For 63 years (1611 – 1674) Sark’s remarkable minister Elie Brevint kept his flock Presbyterian – through the Civil War and Commonwealth, long past the restoration of the King. In 1675 Sark was given a new constitution and came further into the Anglican fold. To mark the new era, Seigneur de Carteret, newly restored to his Fief by Parliament and the King, donated a chalice and plate for Holy Communion. However, Sark continued to prefer its old style of worship. Under the Le Pelley Seigneurs (1730 – 1852) the ministers continued to be French or Swiss Calvinists. They were appointed by the Seigneur as his chaplains and largely at his expense. (In fact, it was not until 1934 that Sark became a vicariate.) By the time of the French Revolution, church attendance had lapsed and the tavern seems to have stayed open most of the Sabbath. Working people in Sark were looking to the Methodists for moral leadership and in 1796 a Methodist Chapel was built at La Ville Roussel. The plan of a Sark Parish Church was conceived as a means of re-establishing the authority of Anglicanism in Sark.
History of the Church building
By midsummer 1821 a plain rectangular building was complete – this is the present nave, measuring 68ft by 35ft, and 20ft high at the eaves. The east wall, which was demolished in 1877 to build the chancel, had two arched windows and a ‘round’ above, matching the west end. Originally the square bell tower was quite small. Foundations for the new church were dug by Sark workmen and the walls were built 2ft 6ins thick. Cartloads of schistic and slate stone were hauled up from Port du Moulin and granite was quarried from L’Eperquerie. Outside, the dark granite quoins that mark each 12-inch course of stonework, were brought from a quarry at L’Ancresse in Guernsey.
The floor is of Purbeck flagstones shipped from Swanage. Carpentry work – framing the fir roof beams and rafters, fixing laths to bear glazed roof tiles and to support the ceiling of hair and lime plaster – was planned by Jean Tardif of Jersey and carried out by Guernsey carpenters. On 7th August 1821 the Bishop of Winchester licensed ‘the new erected chapel’ according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, but it wasn’t until 1829 that he finally crossed the sea to consecrate ‘Saint Peter’s’. Both Le Pelley Seigneurs who were its patrons and worked so hard to bring it into existence were named Peter.
The interior of the original Church as it used to be
Inside the original church, the east end was dominated by the three-tiered pulpit. This was octagonal and centrally placed between the two arched windows. It stood on a platform six feet above the pavement and was reached by a staircase rising from the minister’s pew in the southeast corner (where the organ now is). Below the pulpit, three feet above the pavement were square stalls with desks for the clerk (‘Greffe’) and the reader (‘Lecteur’) who made public proclamations. To the left, on a six-inch wooden stage, a plain communion table was enclosed by a wooden rail 6ft 6ins by 5ft.
Victorian Alterations: Chancel and Tower
Much of the Victorian look of the church is due to Seigneur William T Collings, whose mother bought the Fief of Sark in 1852. He was a clergyman with a keen interest in contemporary Gothic architecture. In 1877, Collings designed and paid £200 for extending the east end, to form a chancel with choir, sanctuary and altar steps, and to provide a vestry. The style and building materials are eclectic; quoins, arch stones and sills are in the ‘grey and red’ Guernsey granite, so that they match the extensions which Collings had earlier made at Le Seigneurie. Inside the chancel, notice the decorative pebble panels, the use of Guernsey brick for ‘romanesque’ window arches, the stained glass and the glazed medieval-style floor tiles. The oval ‘brooch stone’ between two arches in the wall south of the altar is said to have been placed there by Seigneur W.T. Collings in memory of his daughter Wilhelmine, who died aged 8. The original high-backed public benches were replaced and new stalls were added for a choir. A harmonium was brought in beside the minister’s pew.
The Pew Scheme
The cost of building the church came to about £1,000. The plot was given by Seigneur Peter le Pelley from his manor lands. Part of the cost was borne by the Society for Promoting the Enlargement and Building of Churches and Chapels. Part came from the forty tenants who subscribed for closed family pews, to be attached for ever to their tenements. Pew rents secured nearly £300 before building started and ensured a perpetual income (now minuscule) for maintenance. The Society insisted that at least half the total of 333 seats be ‘open’ to the public. Unfortunately the Seigneur died before his plan materialised, and it was his son Peter le Pelley III who laid the foundation stone in Spring 1820.
The pew arrangement for St Peters Church, Sark.
St Peters Church Furnishings
The present pulpit was installed in 1883 in memory of the Reverend J.L.V. Cachemaille (minister 1835-77) and the brass eagle lectern in 1896 for his successor Charles Vermeil. Stained glass windows in the nave were made in London by Moore & Son in 1926, gift of various benefactors. Most celebrated is that of St. Magloire, who is said to have brought Christianity to Sark in 565 A.D. and to have founded a monastery (at La Moinerie). In recent years, members of the congregation have contributed by building choir stalls and working tapestried cushions and kneelers.
St Peters Church Tapestries
In 1977 the Wardens of St. Peters church suggested that a Ladies Committee be formed to organise the re-covering of the pew seats and kneelers in the church. With kind permission of the Seigneur and Mrs Beaumont, the cushions of the choir stalls were begun, incorporating a pattern traced from the floor tiles of the chancel. This became known as the ‘Seigneur’s Tile Pattern’ and may not be used by other churches without permission. Members of the congregation worked it in shades of russet and cream on a dark blue background.
In 1978 the Ladies Committee asked the owners of the pews whether they would finance the cost of materials to re-cover their pew seats and kneelers, and the Committee volunteered to do the work. There was an immediate response and the owners were given a choice of designs, incorporating motifs from Tenement crests and coats of arms, with the name of the Tenement worked into the seats. People from all over the Island came forward to do the work, nearly a fifth of the population being involved. A weekly meeting was set up to give out wools and help beginners with the designs. Ladies made up the majority of the workers, but some men joined in, and classes were also held to teach the schoolchildren tapestry. Visitors hearing of the project also offered to take work home, returning it the following year when they visited the island again.
Once the tapestries for the chancel seats and the main body of the church were completed, the public seating at the rear of the church was begun and designs were evolved using the remains of the wool. Funds were raised to purchase wool for the background and foam rubber and canvas for the cushions. During this time a new Priest in Charge was appointed, who suggested that kneelers be provided for all the pews, and 84 kneelers were worked in tapestry and sold to people who wished to commemorate a person or occasion.
On the completion of this work, the Committee became the Ladies Guild of St. Peters church which, in addition to repair and maintenance of the tapestries, made articles of knitting, sewing, tapestry, embroidery, soft toys and Christmas cards for orders or sale at the Church Fete in the summer.
History about the bell of St Peters Church, Sark
The first tower housed the ‘island bell’. This ancient bell was given to the settlers in 1580 by Philippe de Carteret, future Seigneur. It used to hang from a wooden belfry on a mound in the Clos de la Tour de la Cloche, just to the east of the church site, and was rung to raise the alarm in cases of fire or shipwreck. By 1883 the raising of the tower was complete, again using much dark grey Guernsey granite, and the belfry strengthened. A new deep-toned bell was cast from ‘two old six-pounders’, brass cannon which had provided Sark’s defence since Elizabethan times. The old ‘island bell’ was mounted on the schoolhouse, where it still is.
Article by Mr David Godwin on the history of the bell in St Peter’s Church
The Bardo Retreat 