FAMOUS for its Jersey Royals, honey-coloured cows and international finance industry, Jersey is perhaps less well known for its rich history and distinct culture. Evidence of human activity dates back 250,000 years (the caves at La Cotte de St Brelade are associated with mammoth hunting) and its more recent Norman links give it a very French feel. Electric bikes, available to rent, are an ideal way to explore the landscape, as you lookout for a glimpse of a bottle-nosed dolphin, red squirrel or puffin, or you could simply take to your feet to stroll around the island and drink in the magnificent views.
Seymour Tower
Off La Grande Route des Sablons, Grouville ( facing page)
Completely surrounded by the sea twice a day, this granite tower stands on a rocky outcrop a little more than a mile off the south-eastern corner of the island. Visiting it involves a walk across an almost lunar landscape, although tide times must be consulted —many have been caught out, as the tide rushes in along gullies ‘at the speed of galloping horses’, as the saying goes. The tower was built in 1782 after the Battle of Jersey (when French forces tried to gain control of the island) and is the only square fortification out of the 23 built, five of which are lined up along the coast facing Seymour itself. For the adventurous, it sleeps seven people (plus a guide), who can view the low-water flora and fauna or simply enjoy the solitude before the receding tide once more reconnects civilisation.
La Hougue Bie
La Route de la Hougue Bie, Grouville
Denne historien er fra July 14, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra July 14, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
