History Alive! and Jersey Military Tours Website launch

It has been a little while coming, but I am excited to have just signed off the new website for History Alive! and Jersey Military Tours and pushed the button to make it live!

My “team” – Switch.je (creative web services), Mallet Crane (branding) and BookingHound (online booking software) – have been working hard to pull everything together and putting up with my many questions as to what was possible and what was not. I am pleased with the result and I hope that you will find the content interesting, and then perhaps book a tour.

I am a proud Jerseyman and have been interested in the Island’s history for as long as I can really remember. I suppose that it might have been my grandfather, with a twinkle in his eye, who delighted me and my siblings with tales from the past, perhaps some of them being a bit taller than they should have been!

As I have learnt more, I realised that there were some great stories of the different ages of Jersey’s history that could not only, but also deserved to be told. I am fascinated by the fact that, to a very large extent, the Jersey that we all know and enjoy now, was born out of its military and strategic position on what was the front line in six centuries of war between England and France.

Even prior history has a military defensive theme, with the need for inhabitants to defend themselves  from raiders and pirates by building refuges, and of course in the twentieth century, tables were turned, and it was the invaders who fortified the Island against an expected Allied attack to recapture it. So there we have nearly 3000 years of military history all in one place which must be pretty unique anywhere.

And it that isn’t enough, in more recent years, it is clear that Jersey is home to several world class ancient world discoveries and sites from the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic eras, as well as Bronze and Iron Ages. La Cotte as a 250,000 year old Neanderthal site should be right up there as a world heritage site, and the recent discovery of the Celtic coin and treasure hoard is the world’s largest.

For quite some time, I have felt that Jersey needed a different bus and coach tour – something more than just sightseeing – one which would stimulate and entertain. And that is why History Alive! and Jersey Military Tours have come to be born!

I am planning to use technology from the outset to tell the story and I will be adding to this with some further ideas as they are developed. We are all used to technology on a daily basis, so my view is that my tours have to use it too.

Finally, in closing, I still believe that some good old fashioned props also really bring the past to life. So you see me in the photo above with a medieval long sword and Sallet helmet as examples of some of the props that you will see and handle on my tours.

Hope to see you soon!

Marc