A Bloody Entertaining History of Jersey #1
Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands presenting 9 miles by 5 of beautiful landscapes, secret treasures, fine beers, amazing cycles and of course… Bergerac! But Jersey was not always even an island!! Let’s first go way way back to the very beginning, well before Jersey Royal potatoes were boiled and even before Jersey Black Butter was spread, and then explore just how much blood has been spilt across this beautiful island ever since.
Palaeolithic Jersey (250,000 BC — 10,000 BC, roughly speaking)
250,000 odd years ago the landscape looked somewhat different. Jersey was a peninsula from what we now affectionately refer to as “France” and Guernsey was just a walk away, not a Condor Ferry ride away. Neanderthals would hunt down their woolly mammoth-sized meals across it and, in fact, Jersey has Neanderthal fossils dating back 48,000 years. You can see these for yourselves at La Cotte de St. Brelade (Cotte means “cave” in Jèrriais speak) and this demonstrates that Neanderthals were on Jersey for a quarter of a million years.
Jersey became an island at around 6000 BC.
Stone Age Jersey (10,000 BC — 2,000 BC, give or take)
Possibly, at warmer times (ice can melt), Neolithic Jersey was already an island, because the water between it and the mainland does not get that deep and you really appreciate just how close France is when you stop in Rozel or Gorey for a beer. But it took an Ice Age to create Jersey for us properly, and around 12,000 years ago a lot of ice melted and the business model for Condor Ferries materialised.
By around 4,000 BC, Jersey had an established Neolithic community. La Hougue Bie in Grouville is one of the oldest buildings in the world — far older than the Pyramids and even older than The Old Smugglers Inn. It’s a little scary when you first enter the low tunnel to get into it! And much fun exploring the grounds around it.
You can actually find Dolems from this period all over Jersey, one of which I discovered purely by chance cycling a coastal path around Rozel Bay; it was not on the actual path and took some curiosity to get to it. Not knowing what they were at the time, it’s possible I was jumping around on them…
Bronze Age Jersey (2500 BC — 600 BC, more or less)
Very little is known about this period beyond the bronze artefacts Jersey Heritage continue to discover and share with us, such as spearheads, axes, chisels and swords; no one took the time to blog or vlog anything for us.
Iron Age Jersey (1200 BC — 550 BC, in the ball-park of)
Similar to the Bronze Age, but with much more treasure! However, we also know a lot more. Celts began to occupy Jersey from around 300 BC and these islands were part of the Brittany and Normandy (which the Romans referred to as Armorica and the people as Gauls) that we know today.
The tribe of The Coriosolites were forced to flee to Jersey in around 50 BC and other Gaulian tribes were likely to have settled and used Jersey as a trading post.
Medieval Jersey (500 AD— 1400 AD, or thereabouts)
Now, we know far more about Jersey’s history from this point onwards and indeed we can start with a brutal axe murder that has lasting implications to even this day.
In 555 AD a tiny hermitage existed on a rock island off of what is now the main Jersey town of St. Helier, and its occupant then was a Christian called… St. Helier (you see!). Unknown raiders stormed the 1-man island and beheaded St. Helier, ending his Christian missionary career there and then.
The raiding soon became a regular thing as in the 8th Century (701 AD — 800 AD) raids became a very popular pastime for the Vikings. There is also evidence of Gauls and Romans still in the area up until the 9th Century.
It is in this period that the French side of the Channel stamped its authority on Jersey when in 933 AD the 2nd “Duke” of Normandy, William Longsword (amusingly enough, most probably born in England!), took the island for the Duchy of Normandy.
And it was not long after this, on that fateful day in 1066 for King Harold II, that the rest of England fell under the Duchy. The 4-long line of Norman Kings lasted until 1154, and after some further family bickering, we have an English King again (!!) ruling just England (having lost Normandy to the French): John, King of England!
For Jersey, the suffering endured for 300 years in total, up until 1204. “Enough is enough” said the Islanders and they swore their allegiance to King John of England. And they all lived happily ever after…
Nope!
For more bloodshed, continue to A Bloody Entertaining History of Jersey #2.
Thank you for reading so far!
