Friday 10 August 2018

This is Jersey - 1979 - Part 4

From 1979 comes this holiday guide - "This is Jersey". This is a flat brochure which is larger that the later glossy designs, and it doesn't have nearly as many pages - 16 double sided in all, including front and back covers.

It does provide a very interesting snapshot of the tourism scene in 1979, just as it was more or less at its peak, just before Bergerac launched, and before the package tour market and cheap holiday destinations abroad made Jersey's prices suddenly more expensive and the bottom fell out of the market.

Tourism is today rebuilding a new approach geared to the lifestyle of the modern tourist. It still has plenty to offer, but the old style of tourism probably won't sell today. But here's a chance to capture that flavour.




The guide mentions:

ZOOLOGICAL PARK, Augres - Specializing in animals threatened with extinction in the wild state.

The zoo guide of the time shows cheetah and snow leopards . They look very similar. The photo shows a cheetah.

Being unsure, I cheated! I posted the photo on Facebook, and quite amazingly, I was not only told that it was definitely a cheetah but noted the Zoo connection: "Cheetah. Nothing like a snow leopard! Looks like Jersey zoo some years back."

My research uncovered these notes:

"There were two adjacent cheetah pens adjacent to the road. Their original female was called 'Paula' and was handtame. She may have been kept elsewhere in the zoo originally. I think they later got a male from (probably) Whipsnade but there was no breeding."

"A new and improved exhibit for the bears and the new otters and coatis meant that the cheetahs had to move. The zoo also saw the threat to the species had reduced. They were moved onto another zoo before work on the exhibit started in 1996."

"Conditions for the snow leopard were no longer suitable at Jersey, as the cats required more area and more resources than the trust had to spare. The pair were moved onto another zoo which met the requirements in 1996."


The guide mentions:

GERMAN MILITARY UNDERGROUND HOSPITAL, St. Peter's Valley. Tunnelled out of solid rock by Russian slave labour during the 1940-45 occupation of the Island. Excellent wartime museum.



I

In July 1946, the States of Jersey opened the tunnels to the public. In 1961, the Royal Court ruled that the subterranean complex belonged to the private owners of the land above it, and Ho8 fell under private ownership. The complex was restored, with a collection of Occupation memorabilia and a museum and memorial to the occupation being set up. In 2001, a permanent exhibit called "Captive Island" was unveiled in the tunnel complex, detailing everyday life for civilians in Jersey before, during and after the occupation of Jersey.

Extensive work was done to the visitor area by 1999, where Jersey attractions list:

The German Underground Hospital and adjacent Sanctuary Visitor Centre and Restaurant are at Meadowbank, Les Charrieres Malorey, St Lawrence, JE3 1FU and are open daily from mid-March until early-November from 9:30 am (with last admission at 4:15 pm) and from mid-November to mid-December on Thursday and Sunday afternoons.

Today, Ho8 is generally referred to as the "Jersey War Tunnels".

1 comment:

Moz said...

‘Tourism is today rebuilding a new approach geared to the lifestyle of the modern tourist’. How exactly?