History Section
La Société Jersiaise

The History Section

La Section d'l'Histouaithe

 

Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday February 17th 2004 at 5.15pm
Members' Room
1.         Members present :
Frank Falle (Chairman), Jean Arthur, Marie-Louise Backhurst, Don & Jean Bell, Tony Bellows (visitor), Mary Billot (Secretary), Mervyn Billot, Gavin Booth, Bertram Brée, Francis & Anne Corbet, Guy Dixon, Roy Dobin, Mary Gibb, Arthur Griffiths (new member), Sue Groves, Douglas Hooke, Nick Jouault, Sally Knight, George Langlois, Frank Le Blancq, Suzanne Le Feuvre, Georgia Le Maistre, David Levitt, Kenneth & Elinor McFadden, Damer & Joan Waddington.
Apologies :
Caroline Easterbrook, Sue Hardy, Sarah Jordan, David Le Maistre, Bob Le Sueur, Ian Machin.


2.        Minutes of the meeting of January 20th 2004 and amendments
The minutes were accepted as a correct record.


3.         Matters arising from the minutes not covered by the agenda
  1. 5The Variety Club Three Bells walk on Christmas Eve raised a total of £1138 for the Great Ormond Street Hospital appeal.

  3. Chairman's communications
  4. 1Frank said that the Section lunch with Mme Catherine Laurent, President of SHAB, on February 12th at the Pomme d'Or Hotel was a great success, with 15 members present. Marie-Louise Backhurst said that SHAB might hold its Congrès in St Malo in 2006 on the subject of the islands in the bay of St Malo, and include a day trip to Jersey.
  5. 2The Porter bequest – there was unanimous agreement that the £200 be spent on books for the Library from the Ian Monins collection; Roger Long and Angela Underwood can get together to identify volumes relating to Jersey's history which the Library needs.
  6. 3Environment & Public Services Committee supplementary planning guidance – the historic environment. (Draft 9, October 2003). Oxford Archaeology prepared the draft, with Paul Drury. It covers the built environment, fields, place names and the shoreline. The documents are detailed, technical and densely worded. The provisions will apply to the States of Jersey as well as private owners. It includes a recommendation to appoint a States Archaeological Officer and elaborates on the concept that the developer is responsible for any investigations or recording required in respect of a planning or SSI application.
  7. Mervyn Billot said that it was similar to the Planning document of 1986/87 with the establishment of SSIs etc.
  8. Mary Gibb thought that it would be difficult to police, particularly for interiors, eg. staircases. The States building has lost two fine staircases in its recent renovation.
  9. Francis Corbet said that its practicality was in doubt given the fate of Hemery Row and Commercial Buildings. Both are mere facades with modern offices behind.
  10. Marie-Louise said that it was based on English practice with no adaptation for Jersey. It presupposes that there is sufficient extant information on which to base decisions. Buildings on the cusp will be most in danger.
  11. Frank said that the proposals were a move in the right direction. There is a need to list special sites.
  12. 4History Section display case in Museum – the timetable has slipped by about six months to Autumn 2004. Contents will be discussed at the March meeting – perhaps Jersey towers, mills?
  13. 5The Section's annual report 2003 for 2004 Bulletin – David Levitt has written on sundials. Frank will write up the Morlaix trip, lunch time lectures 2003, the Pitcher VC, Mervyn's research on agricultural machinery.
  14. 6Frank will undertake the Millennium standing stones sponsored walk on March 27th (23 miles through the six western parishes). He welcomes sponsorship from members.
  15. 7The SJ annual dinner is on Saturday April 17th at the Greenhills Country Hotel (tickets £30.00 each).


  18. Members' contributions
  19. 1Jean Arthur circulated photos of a garden chair made of pottery; she will take the photos to Garden History as well. Arthur Griffiths suggested that she send the photos to The countryman magazine, which lists items to be identified.
  20. 2Frank Le Blancq will contribute photos to a new book on storms to be published by MSP Publishing (part of the Guiton Group). Frank Falle said that his father, J.P. Falle, had a question about a storm (date to be verified). Mervyn Billot recalled an extreme snowstorm in 1929 and Jean Arthur concurred.
  21. 3Georgia Le Maistre circulated two illustrated cuttings from the Illustrated London News - the opening of the CI telegraph and laying the foundation stone of the Elizabeth Castle breakwater.
  22. 4Gavin Booth said that James Boielle, founder member of the SJ, was the French master at Victoria College who wrote several French text and phrase books.
  23. 5Mary Gibb is still pursuing the location of the local Midland Bank German Occupation archives and has been given another contact name.
  24. 6Marie-Louise circulated a new 1204 leaflet for the CI written by Chris Aubin, Darryl Ogier and others, published by the Maison de Normandie. It is much more accurate than previous flyers.
She circulated Hidden gardens, which includes La Chaire garden.
She commented on National Archives (ex-PRO) documents online, including pre-1858 wills. She had printed out the will of Moses Corbet, who died in Wrington, Somerset in 1817 (cost £5.00)        .
She said that the sister of the late Robin Cox was aware of the research significance of his papers; negotiations were ongoing.
  1. 7Guy Dixon has analysed his notes through a couple of months of illness and found the exercise very helpful.
  2. His mother wrote poetry; one referred to the car dump in St Peter's Valley in the 1930s. A JEP photo in January 2004 placed it near the Victoria Hotel. Gavin Booth said that there was another one near the Atlantic Hotel, now La Parcq de l'Oeillière, St Brelade.
  3. Guy is considering publishing his mother's wartime journal of the London Blitz, with her poems written in exile. However they are mixed with favourite poems by other poets, which she copied out; he has the task of filtering them out. He has identified 80% but has to do more investigation. Damer Waddington suggested trawling through the Internet for first lines of poetry.
  4. 8Nick Jouault asked about purple dye, much prized by the Romans -
    where did the Romans get their dye?
    could they have used the purple sea hare, a type of slug?
    what was used locally?
    is there any connection with the Violet Bank? [Details in Minutes file]
  5. 9Bertram Brée has translated into English the report of the foundation of the SJ, for George Langlois.
Avranches tour September 18/19, 2004. He reported that he has 15 Section names so far and that he has booked the Sunday visit to Mont-St-Michel. It will be announced to ll SJ members in the Spring newsletter.
  1. 10Frank Falle reported on his research topics –
    Mont Orgueil nomenclature. The 'Tudor Hall' space will be called St George's Hall (1755 map). The chapel in the Middle Ward will be St George's Chapel. The mediaeval great hall housed a chapel during the Calvinist period, when Amyas Paulet brought over Canon Arthur Wake from Christ Church Oxford
    the Pitcher VC is held by the family; tentative auction value £40,000. Lt Henry William Pitcher also went to Christ's Hospital School, Horsham, Sussex, as well as Victoria College.
    Lloyds TSB has given a further £1,000 sponsorship for 2003. The Green Island bones will go to the Oxford laboratory for analysis; they should provide more DNA on the invader gene of Danes, Saxons and Angles. Frank will give more information at his SJ Members' talk on October 20    th 2004.
5.11 Damer Waddington showed some more recently discovered lantern slides of Gorey Castle and the adjacent area. Some had been located in England and three others were from his own collection. Frank thanked Joan and Damer for taking the trouble to show them to Section members.
Date of next meeting
Tuesday March 18th 2004 5.15pm, in the Members' Room if available, otherwise in the Arthur Mourant Room.
Sarah Jordan has kindly volunteered to take the minutes as Mary Billot cannot be present.