Ban on thatch, 1816
18th September 2020
From the Gazette de Guernesey, 2 November 1816. The appearance of wider St Peter Port would be changed by this Order of the Royal Court.
Buildings & Houses
Guernsey Houses
3rd September 2020
A list of the houses (photographs 1953-1955 from the Guernsey Star) in the cuttings book Guernsey Houses. Please ask a member of staff.
New use for old arch
10th July 2019
From the Guernsey Press, June 1970.
Victor Hugo and Guernsey: The conservatory at Hauteville House
25th April 2019
Hennet de Kesler and Victor Hugo dans le jardin d’hiver/in the conservatory, by Edmond Bacot (between 1858-1862), from the collection of Paris Musées, Maison de Victor Hugo, Hauteville HouseBy Dinah Bott.
Manuscripts belonging to Captain Le Messurier des Fontaines
11th January 2019
Transcribed by De Guérin in one of his black-bound notebooks (Staff): 'Various MSS 1500-1606.'
Victor Hugo and Guernsey: Lost things: La Marcherie
7th November 2018
Once a magnificent farm house with 15 bedrooms, made of the best blue granite, said to be haunted, the old house of the [de] La Marche family in St Martin's saw highs and lows. Its story ended with demolition by the Occupying Forces in 1944, and the memory of the house itself and a reputed connection with Victor Hugo became shrouded in mystery. It is quite possible that Victor Hugo admired the house - he certainly would have admired its wonderful situation, and is quoted as saying (in the advertisement above from a 1915 tourist brochure), 'Live at Icart, live forever!,' but there is no evidence he ever set foot in it. His family, however, were indeed intimately connected with it. [By Dinah Bott]
St Peter's Mill
10th February 2017
'Guernsey's unvisited valley, where a water mill is working.' From Victor Coysh's scrapbook, and probably written by him, 1931. The wheel was demolished during the Occupation, but has since been restored by the National Trust of Guernsey.
38, High Street
20th November 2015
From the Star 9 December 1904. 'Cohu's new establishment in High Street.' What is now Burton's and Townhouse was once a very grand residence.
Jacquine de Saumarez petitions the Privy Council, 1715
9th October 2015
A printed account of the defendants' response to an appeal to the Privy Council, March 1715, concerning the retrait lignager of a house at the Tourgand. From Petitions and trials, in the Library. For Mr. James de Havilland, Mrs. Rachel Briard, Represented by Mr. Henry de Saumarez, her Son, Defendants. Versus. Mrs. Jacquina de Saumarez, Appellant.
Forts, 1850
8th October 2015
From the Gazette de Guernesey, 16 February 1850. 'We thought it would be useful to list here, for the benefit of our readers, those forts and fortresses, built by the States for the defence of this Island in time of war, which have been handed over to the Government, as very few people are aware of them all.' The photograph is of Fort Hommet, by S M Henry, in the Library Collection. For further details on the individual sites see the Billet d'Etat for March 1908 in the Library Collection.