23 October 1660: Lightning destroys the Moulin des Monts

From the notebook of Pierre Le Roy, as printed in The Guernsey Magazine of 1874. With notes from the Library MS Peter Mollet's Notebook; and an eyewitness account from the Reverend Thomas Le Marchant. The illustration is from an engraving by Baillie based on a watercolour by Joshua Gosselin of five companies of the 83rd Royal Glasgow Volunteers encamped on the Moulin des Monts. Gosselin also painted another view of the Moulin des Monts, which is in the Guernsey Museum collection.

Sark, 1890: A photographer's holiday

Sark, 1890: A photographer's holiday
This description of a holiday in Sark was written by a well known Methodist minister, Reverend Nehemiah Curnock, for the Methodist Recorder, of which he was the editor. It was reprinted in the Star in December, 1890. Curnock was taking photographs with a 'Kodak instantaneous' camera; he was in the forefront of technology, for Eastman had only patented it in September, 1889. The box camera took a 100-exposure film; the whole camera could be returned to the company for the photographs to be developed, or equipment could be bought to develop the pictures at home without a darkroom. The photograph is from the Library Colletion and shows La Collinette in 1936.

December 23, 1803: The loss of the Grappler and the sufferings of its captain and crew

Chaussey, or Choye, is a group of islets lying off the coast of Normandy, about twenty miles from Jersey, and nine from Granville. They stretch north, east, and west, and cover a space of nearly twelve miles. The principal of them is called the MaÎtre Isle, and is the resort of a few French fishermen during the summer, but being only a rock, and totally devoid of vegetation, its inhabitants are entirely dependent on the neighbouring shores for all the necessaries of life, excepting what their nets may produce. At the time of which we are writing, the winter of 1803, this group of islets was in the hands of the English, and was the scene of the wreck of the Grappler in that year.

30 December 1672: Castle Cornet explodes

Richard Godfrey 1779 print of Castle Cornet before 1672
Reminiscences, from The Star, Tuesday December 9,  1890. The reaction of the population to the shocking event: a translation of an Ordinance of the Royal Court of 11 January, 1673; and an account from Roger North's Life of Dr John North, a 17th century Cambridge academic who was related to the Hattons. The illustration of the Castle before the explosion is a print published by Richard Godfrey in 1779, taken from a painting then in the possession of a [Mr] Carey.

Pages

Categories