TESSON CHAPEL: 1861 – 2001 – Part 2
By Richard and Gwyneth Syvret
THE TURN OF THE CENTURY
The buyer of the chapel in 1888 was Mr William Pellier. His daughter, Elsie Mary, who later became Mrs Pitts, inherited the chapel on his death in 1893. It is believed that Mr Pellier allowed the chapel to be used by a Mr. Gilley as a potato store for a time.
The year 1893 however also saw the birth of Miss Charlotte Luce, a niece of Mr Philip S Langlois — the daughter of his sister, Charlotte, and her husband, Francis Luce. Her recollections of early days lived at Tower Hill on the opposite side of the road to the chapel included in particular attendance at a day school in the chapel for about twenty boys and girls called 'The Vale School'. The only teacher was Miss Laura Laurens and it was remembered that in those years around the turn of the century the children sang to her organ music, were taught writing and sewing and sat at two long trestle tables. Drinking water was obtained from Miss Luce's home.
In 1904, when what is now St Lawrence Primary School was opened, the Vale School was closed and all the pupils transferred there. Miss Laurens took up a position in the new school.
The building however had been brought back into use also as a chapel in 1897. Sunday 18th July in that year saw the first of the fortnightly evangelistic services that were held at 3pm each Sunday afternoon. An advertisement in the 'Nouvelle Chronique' heralded the opening and the chapel was identified as 'proche le Moulin de Tesson' — near Tesson Mill. It must have been around this time however that it became known for a while as Rock Chapel.
Closure of the day school, it seemed, allowed the owner, Miss Pellier, to lease Rock Chapel to Mr Philip Sorsoleil Langlois from the summer of 1904 onwards. There is reference in the lease to strips of land to the north and east of the chapel and permission is given to build on those strips and to fix in the building "an ordinary fireplace or other heating apparatus". Mr Langlois' connection with the chapel was to continue until his death in 1933 and was to be extended through his daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren — and their spouses - to the present day.
THE BRETHREN CONNECTION
Mr Langlois had, prior to 1904, married Miss Ann Bichard. Husband and wife, principally through their friendship with Mr and Mrs Monet, had close connections with the Open Brethren meeting at Lyric Hall in Cattle Street, St Helier and later in Belmont Hall, Belmont Road, St Helier. Mr Monet, who was a leading figure with the Open Brethren in Jersey, was effectively a partner with Mr Langlois in the commencement and maintenance of an evangelical work at the chapel.
Not surprisingly therefore those attending the chapel came under the ministry of the lay speakers connected with that fellowship. Also, Mr Langlois was happy later to link Tesson Chapel, as it became known, to a Fellowship of Undenominational and Unattached Churches and Missions which included churches in Halkett Place (St Helier), and at Maufant (St Saviour), Les Tours (St Clement), Sion (St John) and Mitspa (Trinity). He preached himself, in both French and English, and was the superintendent of Tesson Chapel and of the meetings held there up until the time of his death in 1933.
It is recalled that in the years when Mr. Langlois headed the work Mr Harold Alexandre, Mr Stephen Bull and Mr W Horn (the latter two being sons-in-law of Mr Monet), amongst many others, preached at Tesson. An afternoon Sunday school was started in the mid-1920's by Mr and Mrs Beard, missionaries on furlough, and Hilda Langlois, Mr Langlois' elder daughter and her husband Mr George Querée took up that work which at one stage had around fifty children attending. Mr Hedley W Maillard also assisted for some time. The afternoon service was moved to the evening and Mrs Langlois took charge of the opening up of the chapel for the services.
In 1931 there was a Sunday afternoon school at 3pm and a Sunday evening service at 6.30pm. The weeknight service was held at 7.30pm on a Wednesday. Sometimes services were held in the open-air just outside the chapel. Those who heard the good news of forgiveness through the Lord Jesus Christ in that way were the many French farm workers who came over year by year to help with the manual harvesting of the potato crops. One may have no doubt at all that the gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ was preached there throughout those years and that the teaching would have been based solely on the Bible as the Word of God and on the historic Protestant Christian faith.
Before his death Mr. Langlois organised the insertion in the west gable of a window designed to give light in the pulpit area. Mr Philip Le Sueur was the stonemason. The only occasions when those attending had an opportunity to give money was when it was wished to make chapel donations to missionary causes. At all other times there was a notice in the porch "All seats free - no collection". Most of the congregation walked to the chapel - often from two or three miles away - and heating was by paraffin stoves.
On 10th October 1925 a change of ownership of the chapel occurred when Mr Langlois purchased the freehold together with the adjacent cotil for £200. The freehold was therefore part of his estate when he died. The 'partage' which took place in 1933 between his two daughters, Mrs Hilda Ann Querée and Mrs Emily Rose Coutanche, resulted in the former inheriting the chapel.
Mrs Querée and her brother-in-law Mr Philip Coutanche watched over the fellowship that continued to gather. Mr and Mrs Querée had no children but the son and four daughters of Mr and Mrs. Coutanche were all brought up at the chapel. They and their respective marriage partners comprised a substantial part of the congregation during the remainder of the 1930s.
The preachers continued to be drawn mainly from the Belmont Hall Brethren Assembly and a number of new names from there appeared like Mr Lindsay Proudfoot and Mr William Perchard. In addition, from other churches, Mr Bert Renouf and his sister Susan, Mr John Langlois (who always spoke in French), Mr John Le Breton (who had married Phyllis, one of the daughters of Mr and Mrs Coutanche) and his father Mr J P Le Breton (who was a Wesleyan circuit preacher) came to preach and, in some cases regularly to attend.
Just before the Second World War Mrs Querée arranged and paid for an extension to the chapel behind the west gable and to the north. Mr Andre Jezequel undertook the carpentry work and Mr W Horn's building firm dealt with the blockwork. The extension comprised a small room for Sunday school activities plus a toilet reached from outside the building.
THE GERMAN OCCUPATION AND POST WAR YEARS
All through the occupation of Jersey by German armed forces the work at the chapel continued. The shortage of heating fuel in the early 1940s gave rise to the placing of a wood-burning stove in the centre of the chapel with long pipes reaching to the chimney in the north wall.
The main source of speakers during that time and the 1950s and 1960s remained the Belmont Hall Brethren Assembly and to those previously named were added Mr Ernest Le Breton. Mr William Proudfoot, Mr W Querée (a Wesleyan), Mr Richard Voisin, Mr Kenneth Lear, Mr Eric Colebrook, Mr Enoch Prosser, Mr James Colback, Mr Clifford Colback and others. The Coutanche grandchildren swelled the numbers attending after the occupation years, participating with others in the Sunday school and later as part of the fellowship. After the end of the Second World War it was decided to hold a Sunday morning service as well as the afternoon Sunday school, Sunday evening service and weeknight meeting and the chapel had taken on a full church role in the lives of its congregation.
Mrs Queree's ownership, Mr Coutanche's administration and their combined supervision of the fellowship at Tesson Chapel allowed the spiritual teaching ministry of Mr John ("Jack") Le Breton to have its full effect during all these years. Mr Le Breton, as mentioned earlier, had married Phyllis, one of Mr Coutanche's daughters and a niece therefore of Mrs Querée. He was an able preacher and teacher. It was perhaps not surprising therefore that on her death in 1970, Mrs. Hilda Querée bequeathed to him by will the property of the chapel and additionally of the car park that had been formed on her land in the meadow across the road.
With a view to the long term maintenance of a Christian testimony at Tesson Chapel, Mr Le Breton very quickly set about placing both the properties in the hands of trustees to be held for the purposes of undenominational meetings of evangelical Christians there.
THE TRUSTEES
In 1971 therefore the realty of Tesson Chapel was conveyed into the hands of nine trustees - three of these were sons-in-law of Mr Philip Coutanche, one a son, two were grandsons and one a grandson-in-law.
Mr Philip G Le Moignan who had been connected with the chapel since 1908 and who had been an organist there for many decades was also appointed, as was Dr David Carnegie, who at the time was a senior lecturer at London Bible College.
The trustees - at present six in number - are the appointed overseers of the work of the chapel, which functions as a non-denominational independent evangelical fellowship with a statement of Christian doctrinal position clearly set out in the Trust Deed under which the property was transferred to them. Of the present six, two are married to great grand children of the original Philip Sorsoleil Langlois.
THE LAST THREE DECADES OF THE 1990s
During the past thirty years, the chapel has been blessed with the Christian ministry of many visiting preachers. Not least among these has been Dr David Carnegie (the Chairman of the trustees), along with Mr Walter Boxall, Mr Neville Brooks, Mr Geoffrey Powell, Mr Clarence Schofield, Mr Douglas Dron, Mr John de la Haye, Mr Walter Clarke, Mr Ron Brint, Advocate Ian Le Marquand, Mr Brian Vibert, Dr Douglas Begg, Mr Brian Clarke, Mr Peter Gallaher, Rev David Le Seelleur, Dr William Taylor and many others.
A feature of these years too has been the significant prayer and financial support shown by the fellowship at the chapel towards evangelical missionary organisations engaged in various ways in the proclamation of the Christian gospel at home and abroad.
In 1986 the fellowship appointed as Pastor the Revd Clifford M Measday, who, for over twenty-one years, had been the minister of the Jersey Baptist Church in Vauxhall, St. Helier. He and his wife Doreen provided the congregation with a much-valued settled preaching and caring ministry for over ten years — and continue to support the fellowship in every way.
In 1997 however, the congregation, on Revd Measday's formal retirement, welcomed Revd Nigel Houillebecq as part-time pastor. Mr Houillebecq had been a Baptist pastor in the United Kingdom and returned then to the Island — his native home — until his emigration with his family to Canada in 1999.
In 1989 the car park was extended into land owned and donated by Mrs Joan Bisson, a granddaughter of Mr Philip S Langlois. In addition, the over-covering of the brook running by the roadside of the park was completed. The contracting firm owned by one of the trustees — Mr Stephen Hotton -undertook the work at a cost in excess of £7000.
In 1994 Clifford Measday's professional skills as an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects came to the fore once again in his ministry and the fellowship embarked on a major building project under his guidance. The extension built in the 1930s was demolished and significant excavation of the rock face at the rear of the chapel cleared the space needed for a new large meeting room, kitchen, toilet, hall and other facilities. The building contracts were followed by refurbishment of the chapel itself and other external works to re-establish walls and boundaries. The main building contractor was H L Bertram & Co Ltd and the congregation met virtually all of the total cost, in excess of £65,000. Only an amount of just under £5,000 was provided from a small trust fund in the hands of the trustees.
The extension enabled the continuing Sunday school word to be undertaken, for the first time, during the time set aside for the Sunday morning services for the adult congregation.
Two meetings on a Sunday were held throughout these years— morning and evening - as well as a Wednesday evening time of prayer and Bible study.
In 1995, Mrs Doreen Measday started a fortnightly Thursday afternoon meeting for ladies and this proved to be very successful with well attended events being held in the new meeting room and Christians from a wide variety of occupations and backgrounds presenting different aspects of the Christian faith and gospel.
Many Christians during these years preached and had fellowship with the congregation at the chapel — and still do. They come from many different denominations — Baptist, Anglican, Methodist and others - reflecting the non-denominational Christian position of the chapel.
AN INVITATION
The present Trustees and the entire congregation extend to all an invitation to join them on the following occasions: [This has been updated to reflect current day services in 2026]
At the Chapel
Car Parking Opposite
Every Sunday at 10.30 am
Bibles provided
The apostle Paul in AD57 in a letter to the Christians in Corinth wrote: -
"What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the twelve."
By Richard and Gwyneth Syvret
THE TURN OF THE CENTURY
The buyer of the chapel in 1888 was Mr William Pellier. His daughter, Elsie Mary, who later became Mrs Pitts, inherited the chapel on his death in 1893. It is believed that Mr Pellier allowed the chapel to be used by a Mr. Gilley as a potato store for a time.
The year 1893 however also saw the birth of Miss Charlotte Luce, a niece of Mr Philip S Langlois — the daughter of his sister, Charlotte, and her husband, Francis Luce. Her recollections of early days lived at Tower Hill on the opposite side of the road to the chapel included in particular attendance at a day school in the chapel for about twenty boys and girls called 'The Vale School'. The only teacher was Miss Laura Laurens and it was remembered that in those years around the turn of the century the children sang to her organ music, were taught writing and sewing and sat at two long trestle tables. Drinking water was obtained from Miss Luce's home.
In 1904, when what is now St Lawrence Primary School was opened, the Vale School was closed and all the pupils transferred there. Miss Laurens took up a position in the new school.
The building however had been brought back into use also as a chapel in 1897. Sunday 18th July in that year saw the first of the fortnightly evangelistic services that were held at 3pm each Sunday afternoon. An advertisement in the 'Nouvelle Chronique' heralded the opening and the chapel was identified as 'proche le Moulin de Tesson' — near Tesson Mill. It must have been around this time however that it became known for a while as Rock Chapel.
Closure of the day school, it seemed, allowed the owner, Miss Pellier, to lease Rock Chapel to Mr Philip Sorsoleil Langlois from the summer of 1904 onwards. There is reference in the lease to strips of land to the north and east of the chapel and permission is given to build on those strips and to fix in the building "an ordinary fireplace or other heating apparatus". Mr Langlois' connection with the chapel was to continue until his death in 1933 and was to be extended through his daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren — and their spouses - to the present day.
THE BRETHREN CONNECTION
Mr Langlois had, prior to 1904, married Miss Ann Bichard. Husband and wife, principally through their friendship with Mr and Mrs Monet, had close connections with the Open Brethren meeting at Lyric Hall in Cattle Street, St Helier and later in Belmont Hall, Belmont Road, St Helier. Mr Monet, who was a leading figure with the Open Brethren in Jersey, was effectively a partner with Mr Langlois in the commencement and maintenance of an evangelical work at the chapel.
Not surprisingly therefore those attending the chapel came under the ministry of the lay speakers connected with that fellowship. Also, Mr Langlois was happy later to link Tesson Chapel, as it became known, to a Fellowship of Undenominational and Unattached Churches and Missions which included churches in Halkett Place (St Helier), and at Maufant (St Saviour), Les Tours (St Clement), Sion (St John) and Mitspa (Trinity). He preached himself, in both French and English, and was the superintendent of Tesson Chapel and of the meetings held there up until the time of his death in 1933.
It is recalled that in the years when Mr. Langlois headed the work Mr Harold Alexandre, Mr Stephen Bull and Mr W Horn (the latter two being sons-in-law of Mr Monet), amongst many others, preached at Tesson. An afternoon Sunday school was started in the mid-1920's by Mr and Mrs Beard, missionaries on furlough, and Hilda Langlois, Mr Langlois' elder daughter and her husband Mr George Querée took up that work which at one stage had around fifty children attending. Mr Hedley W Maillard also assisted for some time. The afternoon service was moved to the evening and Mrs Langlois took charge of the opening up of the chapel for the services.
In 1931 there was a Sunday afternoon school at 3pm and a Sunday evening service at 6.30pm. The weeknight service was held at 7.30pm on a Wednesday. Sometimes services were held in the open-air just outside the chapel. Those who heard the good news of forgiveness through the Lord Jesus Christ in that way were the many French farm workers who came over year by year to help with the manual harvesting of the potato crops. One may have no doubt at all that the gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ was preached there throughout those years and that the teaching would have been based solely on the Bible as the Word of God and on the historic Protestant Christian faith.
Before his death Mr. Langlois organised the insertion in the west gable of a window designed to give light in the pulpit area. Mr Philip Le Sueur was the stonemason. The only occasions when those attending had an opportunity to give money was when it was wished to make chapel donations to missionary causes. At all other times there was a notice in the porch "All seats free - no collection". Most of the congregation walked to the chapel - often from two or three miles away - and heating was by paraffin stoves.
On 10th October 1925 a change of ownership of the chapel occurred when Mr Langlois purchased the freehold together with the adjacent cotil for £200. The freehold was therefore part of his estate when he died. The 'partage' which took place in 1933 between his two daughters, Mrs Hilda Ann Querée and Mrs Emily Rose Coutanche, resulted in the former inheriting the chapel.
Mrs Querée and her brother-in-law Mr Philip Coutanche watched over the fellowship that continued to gather. Mr and Mrs Querée had no children but the son and four daughters of Mr and Mrs. Coutanche were all brought up at the chapel. They and their respective marriage partners comprised a substantial part of the congregation during the remainder of the 1930s.
The preachers continued to be drawn mainly from the Belmont Hall Brethren Assembly and a number of new names from there appeared like Mr Lindsay Proudfoot and Mr William Perchard. In addition, from other churches, Mr Bert Renouf and his sister Susan, Mr John Langlois (who always spoke in French), Mr John Le Breton (who had married Phyllis, one of the daughters of Mr and Mrs Coutanche) and his father Mr J P Le Breton (who was a Wesleyan circuit preacher) came to preach and, in some cases regularly to attend.
Just before the Second World War Mrs Querée arranged and paid for an extension to the chapel behind the west gable and to the north. Mr Andre Jezequel undertook the carpentry work and Mr W Horn's building firm dealt with the blockwork. The extension comprised a small room for Sunday school activities plus a toilet reached from outside the building.
THE GERMAN OCCUPATION AND POST WAR YEARS
All through the occupation of Jersey by German armed forces the work at the chapel continued. The shortage of heating fuel in the early 1940s gave rise to the placing of a wood-burning stove in the centre of the chapel with long pipes reaching to the chimney in the north wall.
The main source of speakers during that time and the 1950s and 1960s remained the Belmont Hall Brethren Assembly and to those previously named were added Mr Ernest Le Breton. Mr William Proudfoot, Mr W Querée (a Wesleyan), Mr Richard Voisin, Mr Kenneth Lear, Mr Eric Colebrook, Mr Enoch Prosser, Mr James Colback, Mr Clifford Colback and others. The Coutanche grandchildren swelled the numbers attending after the occupation years, participating with others in the Sunday school and later as part of the fellowship. After the end of the Second World War it was decided to hold a Sunday morning service as well as the afternoon Sunday school, Sunday evening service and weeknight meeting and the chapel had taken on a full church role in the lives of its congregation.
Mrs Queree's ownership, Mr Coutanche's administration and their combined supervision of the fellowship at Tesson Chapel allowed the spiritual teaching ministry of Mr John ("Jack") Le Breton to have its full effect during all these years. Mr Le Breton, as mentioned earlier, had married Phyllis, one of Mr Coutanche's daughters and a niece therefore of Mrs Querée. He was an able preacher and teacher. It was perhaps not surprising therefore that on her death in 1970, Mrs. Hilda Querée bequeathed to him by will the property of the chapel and additionally of the car park that had been formed on her land in the meadow across the road.
With a view to the long term maintenance of a Christian testimony at Tesson Chapel, Mr Le Breton very quickly set about placing both the properties in the hands of trustees to be held for the purposes of undenominational meetings of evangelical Christians there.
THE TRUSTEES
In 1971 therefore the realty of Tesson Chapel was conveyed into the hands of nine trustees - three of these were sons-in-law of Mr Philip Coutanche, one a son, two were grandsons and one a grandson-in-law.
Mr Philip G Le Moignan who had been connected with the chapel since 1908 and who had been an organist there for many decades was also appointed, as was Dr David Carnegie, who at the time was a senior lecturer at London Bible College.
The trustees - at present six in number - are the appointed overseers of the work of the chapel, which functions as a non-denominational independent evangelical fellowship with a statement of Christian doctrinal position clearly set out in the Trust Deed under which the property was transferred to them. Of the present six, two are married to great grand children of the original Philip Sorsoleil Langlois.
THE LAST THREE DECADES OF THE 1990s
During the past thirty years, the chapel has been blessed with the Christian ministry of many visiting preachers. Not least among these has been Dr David Carnegie (the Chairman of the trustees), along with Mr Walter Boxall, Mr Neville Brooks, Mr Geoffrey Powell, Mr Clarence Schofield, Mr Douglas Dron, Mr John de la Haye, Mr Walter Clarke, Mr Ron Brint, Advocate Ian Le Marquand, Mr Brian Vibert, Dr Douglas Begg, Mr Brian Clarke, Mr Peter Gallaher, Rev David Le Seelleur, Dr William Taylor and many others.
A feature of these years too has been the significant prayer and financial support shown by the fellowship at the chapel towards evangelical missionary organisations engaged in various ways in the proclamation of the Christian gospel at home and abroad.
In 1986 the fellowship appointed as Pastor the Revd Clifford M Measday, who, for over twenty-one years, had been the minister of the Jersey Baptist Church in Vauxhall, St. Helier. He and his wife Doreen provided the congregation with a much-valued settled preaching and caring ministry for over ten years — and continue to support the fellowship in every way.
In 1997 however, the congregation, on Revd Measday's formal retirement, welcomed Revd Nigel Houillebecq as part-time pastor. Mr Houillebecq had been a Baptist pastor in the United Kingdom and returned then to the Island — his native home — until his emigration with his family to Canada in 1999.
In 1989 the car park was extended into land owned and donated by Mrs Joan Bisson, a granddaughter of Mr Philip S Langlois. In addition, the over-covering of the brook running by the roadside of the park was completed. The contracting firm owned by one of the trustees — Mr Stephen Hotton -undertook the work at a cost in excess of £7000.
In 1994 Clifford Measday's professional skills as an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects came to the fore once again in his ministry and the fellowship embarked on a major building project under his guidance. The extension built in the 1930s was demolished and significant excavation of the rock face at the rear of the chapel cleared the space needed for a new large meeting room, kitchen, toilet, hall and other facilities. The building contracts were followed by refurbishment of the chapel itself and other external works to re-establish walls and boundaries. The main building contractor was H L Bertram & Co Ltd and the congregation met virtually all of the total cost, in excess of £65,000. Only an amount of just under £5,000 was provided from a small trust fund in the hands of the trustees.
The extension enabled the continuing Sunday school word to be undertaken, for the first time, during the time set aside for the Sunday morning services for the adult congregation.
Two meetings on a Sunday were held throughout these years— morning and evening - as well as a Wednesday evening time of prayer and Bible study.
In 1995, Mrs Doreen Measday started a fortnightly Thursday afternoon meeting for ladies and this proved to be very successful with well attended events being held in the new meeting room and Christians from a wide variety of occupations and backgrounds presenting different aspects of the Christian faith and gospel.
Many Christians during these years preached and had fellowship with the congregation at the chapel — and still do. They come from many different denominations — Baptist, Anglican, Methodist and others - reflecting the non-denominational Christian position of the chapel.
AN INVITATION
The present Trustees and the entire congregation extend to all an invitation to join them on the following occasions: [This has been updated to reflect current day services in 2026]
At the Chapel
Car Parking Opposite
Every Sunday at 10.30 am
Bibles provided
The apostle Paul in AD57 in a letter to the Christians in Corinth wrote: -
"What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the twelve."
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