Channel Islands Part 1: St Helier, Jersey

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St Helier bench, one of several near the Marina called after old ships

In April we went on a short trip to the Channel Islands. Situated in the English Channel, these islands are closer to France than England and, indeed, originally came with the Norman Conquest of 1066, when they formed part of the Duchy of Normandy. However, they have never been part of the United Kingdom – their status is that of Crown Dependencies, where the UK is responsible for defence and international relations only, and they are administered according to local laws. They don’t even form one jurisdiction, being grouped into the two Bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey, with differing constitutions. (Map attribution at Wikimedia).

Channel Islands

Our purpose was coastal walking, but I’ll come to that later. We started in Jersey (population approximately 63,000) where we were based in its largest town, St Helier, for three nights. Then followed four nights in Guernsey with two nights back in Jersey at the end, mainly because there are no direct flights from Guernsey to Glasgow. I’ll come back to travel problems too. However, in this post I’ll show you St Helier.

St Helier Marina
St Aubin’s Bay

One thing we noticed about it was its public art. We liked the herd of Jersey cows, by John McKenna, which we found on our first evening. We didn’t notice that the calf on the left was looking at a small toad on the ground and had to go back later to check after we found the toad sculpture and learned of its significance. Apparently the French at one time called residents of Jersey les crapauds, meaning toads. Rather than be insulted, the people of Jersey have adopted the toad as a symbol for the island and Gordon Young’s sculpture has sat on a nine-foot column since 2004. Jersey is the only island in the English Channel that has a population of native toads, a species which evolved in southern Europe over 9 million years ago. As sea levels rose and fell over the millennia the toad made it as far as Jersey when it was still attached to the mainland but Guernsey was an island.

Cows by John McKenna
Toad by Gordon Young

The Channel Islands were occupied by the Germans in the Second World War and the next two sculptures relate to the ending of that occupation: the Freedom Tree (Richard Perry and Linda Rose Parkes) and The Liberation Sculpture by Philip Henry Christopher Jackson, the centrepiece of Liberation Square.

Freedom Tree by Perry and Parkes
Liberation Sculpture by Philip Jackson

Check the captions in the gallery for titles of the sculptures below.

Swimmers by Philip Jackson
Unknown, by marina
Golden Jubilee Needle by Richard Perry (2004)
Steam clock
Jersey Girl by Rowan Gillespie
Water feature at Millennium Park
King George II, Royal Square
The Docker (Colin Miller 1999)

We also liked the old-fashioned signs (some original, some not) of which the old Military Police Station on Royal Square was a good example with its Victorian lamp. The beautifully painted gates to the Market Hall were also attractive.

Reid’s Chemist
F. Foot Gramophone Dealer
De Faye’s Chemist
11 David Place
Old military police station
Old military police station
Victorian police light
Sundial on old police station
Market Hall
Market Hall gates

When we returned home we had a late afternoon flight, so had time in the morning to visit Jersey Museum and Art Gallery which we found impressive –  as usual I honed in on my areas of special interest.

The two sculptures below caught my eye. On the left is Passing Threads by Margarido Lourenco Olivier and Karen Le Roy Harris. For many generations, Jersey has attracted workers in search of better opportunities for themselves and their families:

Passing Threads weaves Jersey’s immigration narrative through delicately suspended body casts and personal artefacts. Symbolising diverse experiences, it challenges perceptions of migration and identity, inviting reflection on the way individuals and communities have shaped Jersey’s social and cultural landscape.

Passing Threads by Margarido Lourenco Olivier and Karen Le Roy Harris
Our Hands by Adam Perchard

On the right above is Our Hands by Adam Perchard:

Featuring the cast hands of present day islanders, this piece remembers the 65 people tried for witchcraft in Jersey. Sea-worn limpet shells mark the hands of those who were killed or banished – an ancient Jersey symbol of healing.

Finally, I was interested in this 1924 petition for women’s political rights, shown with photographs of some of the nearly 700 women who signed it. In 1919 some women over 30 in Jersey had got the vote but they still could not stand for election. The petition in 1924 called for the same rights “now enjoyed by women in Great Britain and Guernsey”. It was partially successful in that it did lead to women standing for election, but no woman was accepted as a candidate until 1928 and no woman successfully elected until 1945. Also, although the voting age for women was lowered to 21 in 1930 there remained differences between men and women in terms of the property qualification for voting. Only in 1945 were men and women permitted to vote in Jersey on an equal basis.

1924 petition on women’s political rights
Some of the women who signed the petition

I admit that my knowledge of Jersey was scanty before we visited, so all these pieces, and the museum as a whole, added to my understanding of the place.

After the museum, we set off for the airport where we made an unusual air-side purchase!

Jersey Royals Honesty Shop
Jersey Royals Honesty Shop

I can report that they were delicious. However, that is not the end of my Jersey tales. Next up, the walks we did.

Channel Islands , , ,

71 Comments »

  1. I’ve seen your many posts on the Channel Islands and have been meaning to make time for a visit. Thanks for introducing me to Helier, Jersey and for the information about the islands’ relationship to the U.K. Do they pay taxes to the U.K., I wonder? My dear friend Jayne, who lives most of the time in Tahoe, California, spent most of her youth in Jersey and just spent the month of June there. She said she may go back next year for the entire summer because she knows many people and loves the summer weather there. I would love to go sometime. I love the art you show and the public statues and the info about the toads. How interesting! I look forward to reading the rest of this series. 🙂

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  4. Pingback: This week’s small pleasures #445 – Thistles and Kiwis

  6. Dear Anabel
    Thank you very much to take us to Jersey. We learned a lot about Jersey we
    didn’t know before. We like that there seems to be art everywhere.
    Now you made us want to go the Jersey too.
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  8. I’ve been to all the Channel Islands to walk the coast but also a few times before that, one of my favourite places to visit. I hope you enjoyed your visit and the coast walks as it sounds like you did get to all of the islands. Sorry to hear you had a few travel problems. I know Blue Islands aren’t particularly good and can leave you stranded (and aren’t subject to EU261) and the ferries are now a bit of a mess since the islands decided to contract the service to different companies a year or so ago.

    Still the coast is fantastic and all the islands are quite different I found.

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    • We did enjoy it, but I wouldn’t try to visit Jersey and Guernsey at the same time again. The ferries had dwindled to nothing and we got put on a flight instead – Blue Islands, as you say, were a problem and wasted a whole day as will become apparent in a later post. It will probably seem weedy to you, but I found all the ups and downs of the coast quite hard with my arthritic feet!

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  11. I always like to see a Philip Jackson sculpture. I first became aware of his work at an exhibition in the grounds of Chichester cathedral.

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  12. Anabel, you have great timing. On the weekend we saw an episode of Escape to the Country which took place in Guernsey. We’ve talked before about visiting the Channel Islands, having seen Bergerac and also read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society and watched the movie and the TV show rekindled our enthusiasm. Your posts might just be the impetus we need to investigate further. We would enjoy the history and the scenery.

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  13. The Jersey architecture doesn’t look very aged and looks clean compared to many UK cities/towns buildings. I have never been to Jersey so I’ve got me interested in where you walked. Nothing quite like new potatoes dripping in butter.

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  14. The Channel Islands are now on my Must-Travel-To List. I’ve never given them much thought, only have seen the odd refers tei in the British mysteries I read, and had no idea about their governance or rich history. You brought them to life! You don’t just gallivant, you teach. 😊❤️

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  18. I love the public art works in your post. I’ve been intrigued by islands like the Channel Islands but usually find the logistics of getting there and back challenging. I look forward to hearing more.

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  19. I don’t know anyone who’s been to Jersey and the Channel Islands and not enjoyed it, Anabel. It was somewhere we might have gone, in different circumstances. Highly improbable now, but I’ll enjoy looking over your shoulder xx

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  23. Somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit and now you have taken me there! Thank you. It looks as though there’s a great deal of interesting things to see and to find out. I like the street art, the steam clock and the blue sky! Good to see the photos of the ladies -a great record of interesting faces, hair styles and fighting spirits.

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  24. I had a couple of weeks work in St Helier around 1994 and don’t remember seeing any of this! Of course I was working during the day so didn’t really look around. I keep saying I would like to go back and also visit Guernsey and the other islands.

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  26. Interesting stuff. I don’t know why, but the Channel Islands have never been on my radar, but you have made Jersey seem full of interest. How much, if any French inflence is there? Or is it True Blue British to the core? I’d have definitely had some of those spuds!

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  27. Thanks Anabel for this virtual tour. I was looking forward to your series on the Channel Islands. I remember that we look into going while we lived in Paris but it turned out to be a bit complicated (if my memory serves me right) and didn’t go. But I have always been intrigued by these islands. So looking forward to the rest of the series.

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  29. You’ve found more examples of public art than we did in a short visit to St Helier a few years ago, although I do remember the toad and the Liberation Square sculpture. I had come up against this separate jurisdiction thing. My mother’s bank savings account had put some of her money into a Jersey-based fund and they don’t recognise probate granted in the UK so I had to get it over there too. My options were to pay a Jersey solicitor £500 to access the money for me or go over and do it myself and I chose the latter as it cost less to have a couple of nights there plus the flight AND only took ten minutes. I resented the idea of paying £500 for ten minutes work 😀

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  30. Enjoyed the toad story and sculptures. I decided to pass on the CI during my coast walk but may revisit that in search of sun. Currently in a cafe in Tayvallich. Cold and wet, as it has been for several days. What happened to summer in Scotland? 🤷🏻‍♂️😂

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  31. What an interesting post Anabel. I’ve never been to the Channel Islands and always thought they were part of the UK so thanks for enlightening me. I love all the artworks, especially the steam clock – does it work?

    Back in the late 1980s/early 90s my cousin David lived and worked on Jersey, he was head porter at the St. Brelades Bay Hotel and his wife Hilda appeared in one of the later episodes of Bergerac. They moved to North Wales in the 90s and he became (and as far as I know still is) bar manager at Caernarfon Golf Club.

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    • The Channel Islands seem to have a very complicated status! Or maybe it’s simple, they just look after themselves. As for the clock, it’s not even very old and no longer steam. According to that fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia:

      The Jersey steam clock is a full-scale replica of the centre section of a paddle steam boat named the Ariadne. The clock was commissioned by the Jersey Waterfront Board in 1996, and built by Smith of Derby Group. Although once powered by steam, according to a Jersey government document “the steam workings have been replaced with electrical fittings designed to provide the same functionality including the blowing of ‘steam’ at the appropriate times of the day.”

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