History Meeting Minutes - April 2009

Minutes of the Meeting held on Tuesday April 21st 2009 at 5.15pm, Members’ Room, Société Jersiaise

Present:
Frank Falle (Chairman), Jean Arthur, Yvonne Aston, Marie-Louise Backhurst, Mary Billot, Mervyn Billot, Bertram Brée, Guy Dixon, Sue Groves, Stuart Hill (new member), Elizabeth Horne, Nicolas Jouault, George Langlois, Frank Le Blancq, Suzanne Le Feuvre, Georgia Le Maistre, Bob Le Sueur, David Levitt, Pat Maindonald, Alec Podger. Linda Romeril, Doreen Schofield-Fost, Adrian Walton.
  
1. Apologies for absence:
Peter King, Sally Knight, Ian Machin, Danny White.

2. Minutes of the meeting of March 17th 2009, and amendments
4.3 FF advised that long horned sheep are to be grazed in Jersey … It was Charles II who granted 3,300 tods of wool per annum to the CI.
6.3.5.1 and 6.3.5.2 : the minutes have been combined as 6.3.5 so that they follow on as one theme. The book Brahms Waltz was by Monk Gibbon.
6.3.12 John Clarke mentioned the mediaeval event at La Hougue Bie, not Georgia Le Maistre.
 The minutes were then approved as a correct record.
 
3. Matters arising from the minutes not covered by the agenda
4.3 Jean Arthur said that her grandfather was the last farmer to keep multi-horned sheep in Jersey, near Le Col de la Rocque, St Mary. He ceased because the gulls pecked out the eyes of newborn lambs. 
 George Langlois said that he has done a borehole for a flock of (ordinary) sheep in St Lawrence.
 Nick Jouault asked the use of the original sheep; Frank Falle said that they were more important than cows in the 17th century and provided wool, meat and skins. The contribution of the sheep is an under-valued heritage. The new flock will graze on the coastal headlands and get rid of green oak and bracken; however the production of wool will be uneconomic. Alec Podger said that John Speed (1610) recorded that the wool was used for Jersey stockings. One clip from one sheep could provide enough wool for 42 pairs of stockings.
6.3.3.2 Bob Le Sueur asked the destiny of the stone quarried at Plemont. Was it for a nearby structure or loaded onto boats for use elsewhere? Nick Jouault suggested that it was the source of the dressed stone for Grève de Lecq pier.
6.3.8.3 Bob Le Sueur said that the novel Island pre-occupied covered the two and half weeks prior to the arrival of the Germans.
6.3.10.1 Bob Le Sueur asked whether the Langlois family got the boat Little Witch back. George Langlois   said that he did not know.

4. Chairman’s communications
4.1 Frank Falle welcomed Stuart Hill, a new member, to his first meeting. Stuart said that his interests were general. 
4.2 Frank circulated a get well card for Danny White who is recovering from an operation in Southampton Hospital. 
4.3 The Section’s grant for 2009 remains at £200.
4.4 The Autumn Newsletter 2009 will include a flyer for the History Section trip for 2010 (to France or England). The National Trust for Jersey will also circulate it. 
4.5 Mary Billot said that Gareth Syvret has loaded the recent Section minutes onto the website. There are continuing difficulties with the Google host of the website; further links are needed to the SJ website. Mary’s attempts at adding the Section dates via the Google host have so far been unsuccessful. However she has set up a History Section email group under her own email address, but urges members not to broadcast her address indiscriminately.

5. Military History Group
5.1 No report.
 
6. Members’ contributions
6.1 Linda Romeril said that the Archive continues to open on the third Saturday of each month from 9am to 1pm. The series of talks will resume on September 19th 2009.
6.2 Doreen Schofield-Fost will arrange a Section supper for about 20, after the walk around the Tunnell Street area on Tuesday July 21st; this date has been confirmed with Marie-Louise Backhurst. Suggested venues are the Mary Rose, Gio’s or Mino’s; Doreen favours Mino’s at present.
6.3 Alec Podger circulated a rubber stamp with the impress ‘JLA School Ticket’ and asked for information. Frank Le Blancq suggested ‘Jersey Library Annex School Ticket’.
6.4 George Langlois circulated photographs of the Mont de la Ville dolmen, now at Temple Combe (formerly part of Park Place), near Henley on Thames. It is an English Heritage Grade 2 listed building. A long discussion followed at which the following points were made –
• Frank Falle said that a scheme for a granite replica to be sited on the glacis field had been mooted.  This would complete the set of seven types of dolmens in Jersey. There is a need to register the island’s interest in the dolmen with English Heritage,
• Bob Le Sueur asked whether this fell within the remit of the Archaeology Section.
• Nick Jouault said that some years ago Ronez Quarries offered to give stones for a full size replica; a contractor had been arranged. The Fort Regent administration had been keen; however nothing happened. Planning permission, political support and finance would be required for any scheme.
• There was inconclusive debate as to whether the current structure at Temple Combe bears close resemblance to the original recorded by General Conway. Elizabeth Horne is a member of the Society of Antiquaries and could research its archives.
Frank Falle asked for support for the idea; Marie-Louise Backhurst, David Levitt and Georgia Le Maistre spoke against. The location on the sloping glacis field was considered to be unsuitable; any archaeological or educational value had been lost once the structure had been removed from its context and the documentation at the time was cursory and possibly inaccurate.
It was agreed that no further action would be taken, other than encouraging the Archaeology Section to contact English Heritage to register Jersey’s interest.
6.5 George Langlois circulated his three St Aubin school certificates for good attendance in 1940-1941.
6.6 Adrian Walton said that there was a chapel dedicated to St Blaize at Bonne Nuit; he was the patron saint of wool combing.
6.7 Yvonne Aston said that David Gainsborough Roberts is giving a talk on Marilyn Monroe every Wednesday at 12 noon whilst the Marilyn Monroe exhibition is open at the Jersey Museum. She also said that sheep graze whilst goats browse. 
6.8 Frank Le Blancq has been scanning the Chronique de Jersey, 1849. Nicolas Le Vesconte received a silver government medal in recognition of his service on HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar; a cricket match was played on the New Ground in Guernsey between the Union Club in Jersey and the club in Guernsey; a regatta was held at Grève de Lecq, watched by 4,000 (sic) people. [For details see file of Official Minutes].
6.9 Marie-Louise Backhurst reported on the Vernacular Architecture Group study tour, April 15-17th 2009. They visited 35 houses, all of which were recorded on the Richmond Map (1795). Elizabeth Horne said that the visits were very good, especially to the mediaeval houses, and that John McCormack and Dr John Renouf were excellent guides. The number and quality of surviving stone houses in Jersey overwhelmed the participants, of which they were unaware.
Marie-Louise has been researching the Richmond Map; The National Archives has the original drawings. The British Library sheets record the houses in St Helier omitted from the engraved version. She will get copies on CD.
6.10 Mervyn Billot reported that he now has a website www.fromsticksandstones.je> for the sale of his book. He has found an invitation from Croad, the undertakers, to attend his grandmother’s funeral in 1933 (Anne Billot, née Renouf). 
6.11 Bob Le Sueur and Elizabeth Horne suggested a day trip to Sark via Manche Iles to visit an archaeological site documented recently by Prof. Barry Cunliffe (Oxford University) in the Royal Archaeological Society Institute newsletter. Bob will check dates and times on a Saturday.
6.12 Bertram Brée will continue to plan a trip to Normandy for 2010, probably based at Caen.

7. Date of next meeting
Tuesday May 19th 2009, at 5.15pm in the Members’ Room if available, otherwise in the Arthur Mourant Room.

Day trip to Sark

In Minute 6.11 of the attached minutes, Bob Le Sueur and Elizabeth Horne suggested a day trip to Sark.  Bob has contacted Mr Richard Axton of the Société Sercquiaise.

Suggested date : Saturday July 18th 2009
Departure from the Albert Pier at 09.00 via Manche Iles Express. Journey time is about 75 minutes.
Return from Sark at 17.40 arriving Jersey at about 19.00.

Object : to visit the Sark Museum and to look at different places of historical and archaeological interest.  The dig on Little Sark being undertaken by Prof. Barry Cunliffe will not be on the itinerary.  The sites could include the seigneurial mill, which still has its early Victorian machinery, and Le Manoir, Helier de Carteret’s 16th century seigneurial house. 

Ferry cost per person : £39.00 per person. If there is a minimum group of twenty, the cost will be £35.10 per person (10% group reduction).    Bicycle hire, carriage tours and meals would be extra.

Bob will also alert the SJ Archaeology Section about this trip.

If you wish to be added to Bob’s list of those interested in such an excursion, please contact him direct.  No money necessary at this stage.

Bob Le Sueur   Phone no. 852079   (Bob is not on e-mail)
L’Eclon
Pontac Common
St Clement, JE2 6SX