Jerseyfi -
There's a huge amount of information about St. Helier harbor on the
Internet and there are some sources for additional detailed histories.
The Channel Islands have a history dating back to the Neolithic
period, when the islands were connected to the mainland because of
lower ocean levels during the ice ages. There are a series of
excellent history pages here:
JaynesJersey
http://www.jaynesjersey.com/history1.htm
http://www.jaynesjersey.com/history2.htm
http://www.jaynesjersey.com/history3.htm
St. Helier's history really starts on July 16, 555, when Helier was
martyred by Viking pirates approaching the town. Helier was a Belgian
hermit monk, who had picked L'Islet Isle in St. Aubin's harbor for his
refuge. This is the current site of Elizabeth Castle:
Jersey Heritage Trust
"Holy Man and Holy Days" (undated)
http://www.jerseyheritagetrust.org/fazers/Holy%20man%20and%20Holy%20days.htm
A very strong collection of Channel Island history is held at the
Jersey Heritage Trust. Their museum and collections are open to the
public and widely acclaimed. When doing an Internet search, if you
use Google's site search capability and enter "St. Helier" you'll find
68 pages with information of interest on the town:
Jersey Heritage Trust
Home Page
www.jerseyheritagetrust.org
The Jersey Heritage trust site notes that improvements to defense of
the harbor began in the 1500s:
"Elizabeth Castle History"
http://www.jerseyheritagetrust.org/sites/elizabeth/history.html
A second source for detailed history information (again, using the
Google site search capabilities) is La Société Jersiaise site, which
has more than 380 pages with information about St. Helier, including a
serious historical look at whether St. Helier was a real or fictional
character:
La Société Jersiaise
Home page
http://www.societe-jersiaise.org/pages/english.html
"St. Helier : The Man and the Myth " (Bellows, undated)
http://www.societe-jersiaise.org/whitsco/sthelier4.htm
It also includes dozens of pages of extracts from Reverend Alban
Ragg's "A Popular History of Jersey," published in 1896. This
includes detailed notes on harbor improvements and financing:
"Extracts from "A Popular History of Jersey"" (undated)
http://www.societe-jersiaise.org/whitsco/wragg0.htm
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the island once had the
Jersey Railway from St. Helier from St. Helier to St. Aubin and
Corbière; also the Jersey Eastern Railway to Gorey. The former ended
service in 1937; the latter in 1929.
There is a detailed harbor history that's been printed in the Journal
of the Channel Islands Family Historical Society. The society's web
pages have both e-mail contact and instructions on using archives at
the Jersey Heritage Trust to get more detailed information:
Channel Islands Family Historical Society
Index, 1996-2003
http://user.itl.net/~glen/CIFHSJournal.html
The 3 references below are not on the web but contain the kind of
concise information that you're seeking:
No. 94 Spring Issue April 2002
"The Development of St Helier Harbour Part I 1587-1728" and "Part II
1729 - 1749," VIC GEARY
No. 95 Summer Issue July 2002
"Development of St Helier Harbour Part III 1749 - 1750," VIC GEARY
Also worth noting is this Channel Islands history, which has an
excellent bibliographic reference:
Rootsweb
"Channel Islands History" (Elizabeth Greef, undated)
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~egreef/channelislandshistory.htm
The Google search strategy used was the following. And don’t forget
to use Google’s advanced search for a site search on the Jersey Trust
and La Société Jersiaise sites:
"St. Helier" + "Channel Islands" + history
"St. Helier" + Jersey + history
"St. Helier harbour" + history
This search is one instance where it's important to follow English
spelling conventions - "St. Helier harbour" returns many linked pages,
but "St. Helier harbor" returns only 1.
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA |
