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by G.R. Balleine and P. Harrison
( from the date of its foundation until 1967)
We must first dismiss from our minds the assertion, made in all the guide-books, that the church was consecrated in 1111, and is therefore the oldest in the island. The only authority for this is a list that falsely claimed to be copied from the Bishop of Rouen in 314, and a Bishop of Coutances in 511, and in that age of Missions, Jersey would not have been left to remain pagan.
The earliest churches, like the houses, were probably of wood. So, if burnt or found too small, they could quickly be replaced. When Norse pirates began to raid the Channel, Jersey no doubt suffered, and some churches may have been destroyed. But, unless the whole native population was exterminated (which is highly improbable), the island would have remained Christian, and the Churches would have been rebuilt. Then in 912 the Norman invaders accepted Christianity, and moreover became enthusiastic church-builders.
At some unknown date in the early Norman days two little stone Chapels were built side by side in what is now St Brelade's Churchyard. Each was probably a Chantry Chapel, in which Masses were said for the souls of the founder's family. (It is possible that two Norman Knights had divided the parish between them).
The Oratory, now called the Fishermen's Chapel, remained strictly private. The owners evidently took pride in it. During the 14th and 15th centuries the walls were covered with layers of mural paintings. (Do not call them frescoes, please). As one set faded or tastes changed, others were superimposed. We can still detect traces of the Annunciation, Herod and the Innocents, Palm Sunday, the Scourging, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Last Judgement. But no one outside the family attended this chapel. The parish took no interest in it; and in time it grew neglected. The very name of the Saint to which it was dedicated is forgotten. For three hundred years it was a stone-house for the parish cannon. When these were removed in 1844, it became a mere lumber room. The Jersey Independent wrote in 1861:— "This Chapel deserves better treatment from the old harridan who extorts a fee for its exhibition. This interesting relic of the past has been suffered to be encumbered with old ladders, faggots, and beanstalks, a crab-pot, and a three-legged stool, while this still life is enlivened by some lively bantams and a motherly cat in the straw." In 1883 the Parish gave permission for the Chapel to be renovated, on condition that no money was asked for from the rates: and it was used for subsequent meetings of the Assemblee. Early in the present century the late Rector thoroughly restored it; an old altar-stone found in the walls of Mont Orgueil was re-erected as an altar; stained glass depicting legends of St Brendan was inserted in the windows (according to one theory St Brelade is St Brendan), and in 1935, the Chapel was re-dedicated by the Bishop of Winchester.
But our main interest is the neighbouring Chapel of St Brelade. The owner did not keep this private, but welcomed his neighbours to the services, and gradually it grew into the Parish Church. The original Chapel is now the Chancel, and stretched as far as the window by the pulpit. An outside buttress of its north wall can be seen inside the present Lady Chapel. The horse-shoe arch is no proof that its builder was a Crusader returned from the East, for by the 10th century fer-de-cheval arches had become common in France, copied from the Moors in Spain. The stone altar was built like a tomb, for it contained a tiny fragment of one of St Brelade's bones. (No altar without a relic could be consecrated, and we know that bones of St Brelade could be bought, probably from the Breton church where he was said to be buried, for they are found in altars both in France and England).
There was no large east window, but two narrow slits in the wall, like those high up in the Lady Chapel, purposely narrow to exclude wind and rain: for in those early days windows were seldom glazed.
The later stages in the church's growth can be briefly tabulated. (1) Two Side Chapels were built (the present North and South Transepts), each containing the altar of some special Saint. The entrance was through the Norman arch in the east wall of what is now the Vestry. (2) A Nave was added, reaching to the last of the present windows. The outline of its northern windows can still be traced, and so can the doorstep of its entrance near the end of the south wall. The Church now had the shape of a cross. (3) A Belfry was erected with a turret leading to it, which blocked the entrance to the South Chapel. Its five bells, cast on the spot by a Normandy bell-founder, were rung from the floor of the Church. (4) The north wall of the Chancel was pulled down, and a Lady Chapel (La Chapelle de Ste Marie) built alongside of it. (5) Lastly in 1537 an act of the Assemblee Paroissiale reads:—
"Because our Parish Church greatly needs enlarging, we have begun a Chapel beside the Nave (i.e., the Present North Aisle) at the expense of divers of our number, and we have goods which should be sufficient to complete the work." The goods proved more than sufficient, for not only was the Aisle built, but the Nave was lengthened ten feet and the west porch added."
All but the last of these building operations are impossible to date. Whether St Brelade's is really our oldest church no one can say. It is first mentioned in a charter of William the Conqueror, which is older than 1066, for he calls himself 'Duke of the Normans', not 'King of England'. In this he names "eight of the churches in Jersey," among them St Broladrius, but by that date it had at least seven companions. We next hear of it in 1136, when Roger de Sotevast gave the church with all its tithes to the Abbey of St Sauveur Le Visconte for the soul of his father who was buried in the Abbey. The de Sotevasts were once an important family in Jersey. There was a Fief de Sotevast at St Lawrence. If Roger could dispose of the church as his private property, it looks as though it had been founded by one of his ancestors. The mention of tithes shows that it was now a Parish Church.
A Rood Loft across the Chancel arch to bear the great Crucifix with the Virgin on one side and St John on the other. The corbels on which it rested remain, and the door through which the Sacristan passed to trim the lamp before the Cross. The narrow windows above the Altar were replaced by one with decorated tracery. The architect who supervised the last restoration believed that originally the walls were bare. as they are to-day: but very soon they must have been plastered and covered with mural paintings. There were of course no seats. A 15th century book of Instructions for Parish Priests says, "Teach the people not to lean against pillars, but to kneel on the floor on their knees." One addition can be dated approximately. In the 12th century the custom began of making a Piscina or small sink in the Sanctuary wall, at which the Priest could wash the vessels after the Communion. In the 13th century however a second Piscina became needed, for the Priest was ordered to wash his hands before celebrating. But in the 14th century the Priest drank the water in which he washed the vessels; so then again only one Piscina was required. At St Brelade's the main Altar has two, but the Lady Chapel Altar one only.
We have now brought the story of the church to the eve of the Reformation:—
The work of building the new North Aisle was hardly completed, when in 1546 Thomas Bertram became Rector. He had been trained in the Bishop's Seminary at Coutances, and ordained into the Catholic Priesthood, but like many theological students at that time he had imbibed the new theology which Calvin was teaching in Geneva. The death of Henry VIII, the installation of a Protestant Governor in Jersey enabled him to transform his church into a Huguenot Temple. The new teaching must have made much secret progress in the island, for apparently this was done without any protest from the parish. The altars were demolished, and the chancel filled with seats facing the pulpit. The rood-loft was sawn down. The stained glass and images and all that recalled the worship of Saints was destroyed. Everything was done to obliterate memories of the old way of worship; and the pulpit became the focus of all things. Here the Rector in his black Geneva gown conducted the Services and four times a year a table was set in front of it for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. In 1550 a Royal Commission seized four of the five bells, and confiscated the endowments of the Fraternities as well as those for Masses and Orbits.
This is not the place to tell the story of the introduction of Anglicanism into the island, which was largely the work of Bandinelli, who became the first Anglican Dean. (Previous Deans had been Commissaries of the Bishops of Coutances). This, however, made little difference to the Services at St Brelade's. The Huguenot Prayer Book was dropped, and a French translation of the Anglican Prayer Book substituted, which met a certain amount of passive resistance from the people, who refused to join in the responses. A table was still set in front of the pulpit, for the Quarterly Communion, and it was many years before any Rector dared to wear a surplice.
An impressive Service was started toward the close of the Calvinist Regime. In 1611 the Colloquy passed an Act:
"Whereas a petition has been received from those who sail for the Newfoundland Fisheries, pointing out that they are unable to attend the Lord's Supper at the usual date, and asking that it may be made possible for them to communicate before their departure, permission is granted to the Church of St Brelade to put forward the date of its April Communion, so that all who are about to make the voyage, whatever may be their parish, can join in the Lord's Supper before they sail." This Communion des Terreneuviers became a notable annual event. The fishing-fleet sailed from St Aubin's, and before it weighed anchor, the fishermen with their wives and sweethearts from all parts of the island came to St Brelade's in numbers far too great for the old church to hold, and sang psalms in the churchyard, while
waiting their turn to go in to receive the Bread and Wine.
Ecclesiastical discipline was still strictly enforced. One Sunday in 1708 the congregation heard the Constable excommunicated from the pulpit, "cut off from the Body of Christ as a septic limb." "As St Paul hath ordered us, we must shun his company, lest we share his sin; nevertheless let us pray that he may recognise his wretchedness, repent of his wickedness, and turn again to God."' His offence was that, when presiding over the Civil Assembly of the Parish, which in those days was held in church, he had lost his temper and sworn. One result of his excommunication was that he could no longer attend a Parish Assembly, for no excommunicated person could enter a church.
During the 18th century the population of the parish increased and additional seating accommodation had to be provided. The only way to do this, short of building a new aisle was to put up galleries, and these were erected wherever there was a wall to hold one. There was a long gallery on the north wall running the whole length of the Nave, a west gallery, and a gallery over each transept, one of which was La Galerie des Fumeurs. As late as 1819 the Assembly ordered a "gallery for the officers of police" to be built "against the north wall in the north-west chapel to the west of the little gallery."
At some date the entrance to the west porch was walled up, perhaps to exclude draughts, and the porch itself became a depository for junk thrown out of the church, until 1830 when it was cleared and made a vestry.
At the end of the eighteenth century class distinctions were still rampant. The Sunday was long remembered, when Mrs Pipon, the lady of Noirmont, looked round from her pew, and saw a farmer's wife wearing a bonnet, instead of the white peasant's cap which all but the aristocrats wore. She strode down the aisle, tore the offending headgear from her tenant's head, flung it across the church, and then returned to her devotion.
In 1843 a move was made to restore the church. The Smokers' Gallery was removed, and an attempt was made to get rid of the Long Gallery, but some seatholders objected so strongly, that a compromise had to be arranged. The old gallery was pulled down, but a short one erected for the objectors. The south windows were enlarged; but then the assembly narrowly escaped making a grave blunder. It ordered the removal of the central pillar of the church, and the throwing of two arches into one, in order that seatholders in the north aisle might have a better view of the pulpit. This would have been a quite preposterous architectural disfigurement.
Fortunately Sir Jean Le Couteur, who was a leading parishioner, returned from England in time to persuade the Assembly to rescind its decision.
Then in 1892 John A. Balleine was appointed Rector. He at once planned a drastic transformation of the whole building. He foresaw that it would be an endless task to have every point debated at the Parish Meetings; so he struck a bargain with the Assembly. He would raise all the money needed, if they would give him a free hand. And they agreed. He had undertaken a tremendous task, for the work eventually cost over £6,000. He called on his richest parishioner hoping to get a fat cheque to start the fund off well. The old man seemed interested, and cross-examined the young Rector about his plans for more than two hours, and ended by saying, "Ah well! you may put me down for five shillings!"
But Balleine persevered, and to him we owe the church as it is to-day. He underpinned walls which were threatening to collapse. He removed the plaster from the inside walls, which in some parts was twelve inches thick. The one remaining gallery was pulled down. The wooden sash-windows, which in time were filled with stained glass, were the work of the Jersey artist, H. T. Bosdet. The church was reseated throughout with modern pews. But the most radical change was the transference of the main body of the church from north to south. A west door was remade in the porch, which became the main entrance. The Chancel, which was still filled with pews facing west, was restored to its ancient use, an altar and choirstalls placed there, and a chancel-screen erected. It is hard to realise to-day that less than fifty years ago the only altar was the one in the Lady Chapel, and the main entrance the one in the north aisle.
In 1933 the lych-gate at the west corner of the churchyard was placed there by Lady Trent in memory of her husband. During the German Occupation the church was used every Sunday by the Roman Catholic Military Chaplain for Services for the troops, but this did not interfere with the usual Parish Services. In 1942 the Germans commandeered the north-east corner of the churchyard as a military cemetery for their dead, and a new churchyard had to be made on the further side of the Mont-des-Croix. In 1961, the bodies of all the Germans, both from the 1914 and 1939 Wars were disinterred and reburied in a French Cemetery near St Lo.
A few years ago, the present Rector (William Tabb) found another Altar Stone lying on the floor of the Sanctuary. From this 15 cwt. slab, the present stone Altar was erected. The Fishermen's Chapel has been furnished, and regular services are now held in it during the Summer months. The silver cross, candle sticks, together with a new Chalice and Paten are a recent gift to the Church, which already possesses much silver. The bronze-beaten Processional Cross is a memorial to the late Revd. J. A. Balleine, Rector of St Brelade's for over fifty years.