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St Helier's Church

by G.R. Balleine and P. Harrison

THOSE who drive down Hill Street past the Town Church and offices to the Weighbridge and Harbour, might be forgiven for doubting that the Church was built on the seashore. Yet for many hundreds of years the fishermen of St Helier moored their boats to the wall of the Churchyard where the sea lapped at high tide.

St Helier came to Jersey in 540 A.D. as a missionary. He brought Christianity to Jersey some years before St Augustine landed in Britain. He took up his abode on a rock surrounded by the sea but connected with the land by a natural causeway. Elizabeth Castle now stands on the rock known as "I'lslet". After 15 years of preaching, the Island was invaded by Saxon pirates and St Helier was slain by the axe of the pirate chief—hence the crossed axes of the parish emblem. The pirates are said to have fled, and their ship foundered off Noirmont Point. The body of St Helier is believed to rest at Baubec, near Rouen, and his day, July 16th, is still observed at Coutanches Cathedral.

St Helier's Parish Church has been developed over nine centuries and there has been a place of worship on its site since early in the 11th century, although there is reason to believe that already there were chapels in various parts of the Island. The walls of the chancel are the oldest section and are of rough boulders from the beach, but there is also quarried stone from blocks from local sources. Parts of the early Norman building disappeared long ago, but two round-headed arches are still to be seen on the north wall, evidently being made when the roof of the chancel was raised. These led into a place with a slanting roof and which may have been a mortuary chapel.

There was a little sister chapel known as the Chapel de la Madeleine in the north-west corner of the present churchyard. It received tithes as the parish church before 1066. Another chapter shows that before 1090 the appointment of its rectors had been the prerogative of the Abbot of St Saveur-le-Vicomte and after that it was mentioned several times in public documents. The first name to be recorded as rector is that of Nicholas Du Pont in 1294 while Robert de Carteret is mentioned in 1295. In 1371 Roger Walden became rector and he later ascended to the lofty office of Archbishop of Canterbury. But as far back as 1120 the Bishop of Coutanches settled a dispute between the Abbot and the Rector, and the church is named again in a charter of Henry II in 1160, and in a Bull of Pope Innocent IV in 1250. At the Reformation the Church in the Channel Islands was transferred from Coutanches to Salisbury and, finally to Winchester in 1568.

We cannot treat of all the alterations down the centuries, but special mention must be made of the great restoration undertaken by the last Vice-Dean, the Reverend Philip Filleuil, Rector from 1850—1875. Seven galleries that had been built to provide extra seating were done away with. and west and south galleries were made to accommodate evicted pewholders. The old high box-pews, each with a locked door, were replaced by uniform seating. A communion table was placed at the east end, choir stalls in the chancel and a new font— the original is presumed to be in Grouville Parish Church. Ivy which covered almost the entire building was removed. Most of the stained glass windows were put in.

Bells first pealed out in the 14th century when the tower was built to house them. The bell announced the opening of the Market held in the Square, and summoned people for the defence of their homes against enemy attack, or to put out a fire. Parish assemblies for such things as rating, road widening and drainage were held in church until 1830, while elections for Jurats and Constables took place in the church porch after morning service until 1831. Cannons for the Militia were stored in the church until 1844. The stocks were in the churchyard.

The first clock was put in in 1777 and can still be seen in the Museum. It was replaced a little more than a century ago. The clock was relied upon by all the townsfolk before the advent of radio, being set by the noon cannon fired from Elizabeth Castle.

The oldest memorial still to be found is that to Maximilian Norreys, who died of wounds in France in 1591 while fighting there in a force sent by Queen Elizabeth the First. The most famous is Major Peirson's. He fell in the Royal Square at the moment of victory on January 6th, 1781, winning the Battle of Jersey in sight of the church. He lies in the church while his adversary, Baron de Rullecourt who also died in the battle, has to be content with the churchyard.

There have been only three inductions at St Helier's Church this century. The first was in 1906 when Samuel Falle succeeded George Orange Balleine; in 1937 Matthew Le Marinel came from St Matthew's Church, Oakley Square, St Pancras; in 1959 our present Dean Alan Giles, sometime Chaplain-in-Chief

Royal Air Force and Honorary Chaplain to the Queen, took office. All three have made notable improvements and additions, and it is safe to say that at no time in its history of nearly a thousand years has the church looked more beautiful, and been in such an excellent overall state of repair both inside and out.

Dean Falle had the chancel floor raised to the pre-Reformation level and put in new choir stalls, a new altar and a new organ. The chancel screen and canopies over the clergy stalls are to his memory. Dean Le Marinel is remembered especially for his work and example throughout the Occupation. The candlesticks on the altar were given to the Island by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth (now the Queen Mother) as a thankoffering for the Liberation and for the faithful witness of laity and clergy during the German Occupation. In 1963 she attended service then being the first Royal personage to do so since Charles II in 1649.

The Lady Chapel was created by Dean Le Marinel in 1952 and has been completely refurnished by Dean Giles, who also had the whole church cleaned when he took office The Bailiff's Chair, a beautiful processions cross and, soon, a granite pulpit from the Diocese of New Jersey, are among recent gifts .