The Jersey History Tour

This is the tour if you want an entertaining and qualified guide to take you around Jersey with a bit of everything included or just cannot pick one a theme from one of my other tours! Jersey is blessed with fabulous scenery and a history to die for! Did you know that the Channel Islands are effectively the original part of what became the British Isles after William the Conqueror successfully claimed the English throne in 1066 and the component countries of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland were united. The islands are the remnant of Normandy which the English Crown managed to retain and whilst they appear to be very much British, they retain lots of their Norman roots and are quite different from the rest of the United Kingdom!

This tour is available as a half day or a full day tour. Like all my tours, it is private to you, and you are not joining a larger group. 

The emphasis of this tour is simply “Jersey”. It is Jersey’s scenery, its history, its laws, customs and traditions which make Jersey what it is today.

We will talk about our huge tides which can rise and fall up to 12 metres twice a day and nearly tripling the size of Jersey and its offshore reefs at low tide.

We will also touch upon its geology, the rocks which form the dramatic northern coastal cliffs, the beaches of golden quartz sand, and which have provided the building material of mainly pink / red granite with which many local houses are built, as well as the ancient Neolithic structures which are older than the pyramids and that great pre-historic Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England.

Neanderthal people were visiting here during a period of two hundred thousand years before the last ice age which started about forty thousand years ago. During that ice age, the Channel Islands were not islands but hill tops in a vast plain which stretched all the way out to beyond the west coast of France and the English Channel was dry! After that ice age, Mesolithic (middle stone age) people came to the islands and by the late stone age and sea-level has risen so that we were islands again, the Neolithic people were settled here. As the first farmers, they cleared the islands of trees to grow crops and for domestic animal pasture and built their megalithic structures.

Every single later era through the metal ages is represented by archaeological finds and sites, we have the influence of the Romans for over four hundred years before the early medieval period, the Vikings and then the Normans who shaped English history, culture, laws and language as we know it today.

For the Channel Islands, the late medieval period brings not only prosperity through trade but also conflict as England and France war on and off for nearly 650 years following King John’s loss of continental Normandy in 1204. The impact of this military history has been a significant factor in shaping the Channel Islands in all ways and ultimately is the reason why we speak English here rather than French – and that change from French to English is not that long ago as you will find out if you come on the tour.

Please see the separate Places section below to see some of the locations which are included in these tours.

You can also Click the Map icon (below main image in grey bar to the right) to view locations and see further information

Our tours are devised in a way to give our guests an overall and enjoyable experience which means that we won’t always follow the same route or stop at all the above locations. This also gives us the ability to make changes either to take advantage of, or to mitigate against, factors such as weather or other delays which might affect timing. On full day tours, we stop at lunch times where refreshments/food can be purchased, and on all tours, we will stop as necessary for refreshments and comfort breaks.

Level of Fitness required for tour  Our Tours are a combination of a coach tour and exploring the sites on foot, so please refer to the Level of Fitness required to enjoy these Tours. It should be noted that any tour involving bunker and fortification sites will invariably involve walking over some rough ground, climbing up and down slopes and steps. A moderate level of fitness is therefore required. For that, and for what’s included in these Tours and Prices, as well as Pick-Up points for the Tours, please see Information below.

Places in The Jersey History Tour

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Information

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Articles

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Inaugural Jersey Military History Forum 2018

28th February 2018, 2pm to 5.30pm The Ouless Room, Jersey Museum   Invitation All persons and organisations with an interest in Jersey military history are cordially invited to attend the Inaugural Jersey Military History Forum Please see the Jersey Military History Forum Invitation for further details and reply as requested if you are interested in attending. Places are limited. Reasons …

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One hundred years on at Passchendaele – ZERO HOUR

In 2017, the weather has been wet and the night air has had a chill to it. Having got up early, I headed out of Ypres north-eastwards towards Passchendaele and ZERO HOUR. Making my way along the small roads which crisscross the fields which were the battlefield, it is only too apparent that this place is wet! Even with working …

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Nazi Germany occupies part of the British Isles – (The German Occupation of the Channel Islands Part 2)

The British government hoped that as open towns, the islands would be spared a German attack which would be costly in civilian lives as well as property damage. Indeed they even naively considered that the Germans would not even bother occupying the undefended islands, which might be able to sit out the war in isolation. For the Germans, victoriously sitting in Normandy …

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