Latest news with #JerseyHeritage
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Community art sessions hosted to reimagine Occupation tapestry
Islanders are being invited to paint or colour in their own version of a tapestry marking the Heritage said it was taking its Occupation Tapestry back out into the community in the form of colouring sheets and a large original, hung at the Maritime Museum, was unveiled in 1995 to mark the 50th Liberation Day - with 12 panels of hand-embroidered pictures to depict island life. In 2015, a 13th panel was added to the collection mark Liberation Rodrigues, JH Outreach Curator, said the designs of the original 12 panels had been made into canvases. She said: "We have 12 different panels which represent each parish and they all tell a very interesting story of the Occupation. "It's an opportunity for people to come in and learn a bit about the tapestry, the history as to why it came about and they get an opportunity to paint and engage with the actual panel in their own way." Ms Rodrigues said the sessions were for all ages and abilities."We can get creative, [if] anyone wanted to bring along some material and do a bit of collage, it's a complete open creative session, so it's whatever anyone wants to bring to the table."Workshops will be held at the parish halls in St Saviour, Trinity, St Clement, St Peter and St Lawrence until Thursday 31 July.
BBC News
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Film brings to life 600-million-year story of Jersey
A campaign video has been launched as part of Jersey's bid for worldwide recognition of the geological significance of its Heritage is hoping to gain accreditation as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global successful, Jersey would be added to the list of more than 200 Geoparks across the video named A Symphony of Creation features the story of an island forged by fire, ice and sea. Visit Jersey said the film brought to life the raw, elemental story of Jersey's formation. Geosites featured in the campaign included La Couperon, Les Blanches Banques, Plémont, Le Pulec, Devil's Hole and Le Pinacle. Each tells a chapter in the island's 600-million-year story, Visit Jersey said. 'Build community' Paul Chambers, head of Jersey Island Geopark, said: "The campaign aims to raise awareness and build community support as Jersey enters the next stage of the submission process for UNESCO designation. "The film takes viewers on a visual and auditory journey through the Island's deep-time creation story – told not with words, but through the universal languages of music and nature."Visit Jersey said the benefits of becoming a UNESCO Global Geopark included sustainable tourism, environmental advocacy, education and engagement and global recognition. The campaign was led by the Jersey Island Geopark team and supported by Visit Jersey and ArtHouse Jersey.
The Guardian
11-03-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Mystery of Jersey's huge iron age hoard may have been solved
The mystery of why the world's largest iron age Celtic hoard was buried on the south-east coast of Jersey more than 2,000 years ago may have been solved by archaeologists. When about 70,000 silver coins, 11 gold torques and jewellery were unearthed in a field at Le Câtillon in the Grouville district in 2012, experts were unable to explain why it had been transported to a remote and unpopulated area with dangerous coastal reefs. Now a geophysical survey around the site has identified a possible Celtic settlement, which means Jersey was no isolated backwater in the mid-first century BC. A study of the site is published this week by the magazine Wreckwatch, with support from the educational Highlands Foundation of detectorists Reg Mead and Richard Miles had immediately reported their discovery to Jersey Heritage. As a crown dependency, it was processed under the England, Wales and Northern Ireland Treasure Trove Act 1996, leading to its acquisition by Jersey's government for £4.25m. The finds are displayed at La Hougue Bie Museum in Jersey. The detectorists have joined experts in researching the hoard, which is believed to have originated in the ancient French region of Armorica, which is modern-day Brittany and Normandy, as almost all the coins are linked to the Coriosolitae tribe, whose name may derive from the Celtic corios, meaning army or troop. Archaeologists believe the riches were hurriedly transported overseas to Jersey to ensure they did not fall into the hands of Julius Caesar's Roman army during the Gallic wars. In the geophysical survey, the team found linear anomalies spanning several tens of metres, parallel and perpendicular to each other, some with subdivisions that resemble late iron age rural Celtic settlements in northern France. Dr Hervé Duval-Gatignol, Société Jersiaise's archaeologist, said: 'This could represent part of a rectilinear enclosure consistent with known forms of rural settlements of late iron age date in Armorica.' Small magnetic anomalies suggest pits and postholes of buildings. Dr Sean Kingsley, Wreckwatch's editor-in-chief and an archaeologist who has explored more than 350 shipwrecks in the last 30 years, said the Celts were innovative boatbuilders and sailors: 'By the time Caesar attacked Brittany in 56BC, the Celts' seaborne trade was a well-oiled machine. Practical knowledge about low and high water times, the locations of shoals, winds, weather and landing places had long been passed down from generation to generation. 'In light of the dangerous shoals in the approaches to Jersey, it is possible that the Câtillon II hoard was shipped on a hide-boat vessel resembling the gold model of a boat from Broighter in Northern Ireland. This first century BC seacraft was equipped with a sail, steering oar pivoted near the stern and, crucially, nine oars on each side, which would have been invaluable to overcome unfavourable wind and steer clear of reefs. Ships built with hide or leather waterproof coverings fastened to a framework of light timbers sound flimsy but could be strongly constructed, light and flexible, ideal to ride the crests of high waves in the unpredictable Atlantic seas or for landing in almost any cove.' He added: 'Another new take is that we believe the landscape was sacred to the Celts, with ancestral power going back millennia, linked to a Neolithic megalithic tomb perched on the hilltop above the hoard discovery site. 'There's something incredibly special about these fields. The spiritual power of the ancestors is likely to have been a big reason why the hoard was brought to Jersey.' The Wreckwatch issue is accompanied by a video.
BBC News
08-02-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Channel Islands Holocaust records available to view
The majority of Jersey and Guernsey records relating to the Holocaust have been made available for the public to view in person, the governments of both islands have committed to making all Holocaust records public in 2022 and said many of the records have since been digitised and made available online, with work ongoing to complete the Heritage said many records were available, including files from German troop courts as well as naturalisation and immigration files covering "people of Jewish faith".A spokesperson for Guernsey's Island Archives said a "significant amount of work" had been done to preserve records from the bailiwick's occupation. The UK Government also committed to making all Holocaust records public in 2022. Jersey Heritage said it had identified one record relating to Jewish people in the naturalisation files - about a former Austrian citizen and his wife, staying in London, who had applied to come to from the file showed the couple's application was refused and they applied to the Home Office for a travel document to move to Heritage said its immigration files also showed details of five Jewish people who applied to come to the islands in the 1930s, adding the records showed "the States of Jersey policy towards Jewish immigration at the time". It said there were "still some records closed from the occupation period but these were documents subject to standard closure periods and were not unique to the occupation", such as education and hospital records.A spokesperson for the States of Guernsey said staff at the Island Archives were about halfway through the current batch of digitisation, but expected it to be several years before all records had been Archives said "some of the most popular records" had been digitised and were available online, while others were available to view in said overseas people doing research could also contact the Island Archives to put them in touch with a local researcher.
