Library Document Collection

Guernsey - The Pick of the Bunch: a tourist brochure from 1934

The Priaulx Library has a great deal of ephemera amongst its collection, including tourist brochures. This is a particularly attractive example, from 1934, produced by the 'States' of Guernsey Advertising Committee' and printed by the Guernsey Press Co., Ltd. This 168-page brochure seems to have been written as a guide to Guernsey for both the potential holidaymaker and prospective resident.A full week in Guernsey, including return travel from London, seven nights accommodation, and three Motor Tours—£6-8-6!

Jerbourg Signal Station and the Saumarez Tower

The story of a picture in our collection, rather than a book; a black-and-white photograph of a watercolour showing Jerbourg Signal Station. Behind the signal-post is Saumarez Tower, the only known representation of this short-lived landmark. A copy of this watercolour is in the possession of the Guernsey Museum. In that picture, the roofs and the small cylindrical tower are shown as red. The photograph, taken at the behest of Captain Philip de Saumarez, was lent a century ago to local historian Edith Carey by Mrs Ozanne, the artist's descendant, and placed in one of Miss Carey's scrapbooks, now at the Library.

Letters and fashion plates from the time of Jane Austen

Some fascinating letters from a young Caroline Guille Le Marchant to her friends in Bath and London, from Edith Carey's Scrapbook, and some contemporary winter ladies costumes for Christmas, from two bound volumes of fashion-plates, entitled in French Figures. The plates are hand-coloured; some are from The Fashions of London and Paris, a monthly magazine that began publication in 1798, published by Richard Phillips.

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