Friday 2 November 2018

This is Jersey - 1979 - Part 16

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.

Here's the final page of the brochure and a few bits and pieces not put up yet.

A Brief History and Constitution of Jersey

Once upon a time, and this is a true story, don't forget, there was a bunch of Scandinavians who were pretty desperate for some- where to live. They were a pretty wild bunch and their leader was a certain chieftain called Rollo. Brawling their terrifying way down the North Sea they found themselves in France and many of them made themselves welcome in, among other places, the fertile and hospitable region eventually to become known as Normandy.

Rollo had a son who decided to expand his territories and overran Brittany and so included the Channel Islands in his empire. Thus, during the 11th Century, and that means at the time of the Norman conquest of Britain, Jersey was very much part of the Duchy of Normandy.

Bad King John was finally driven out of France in the year 1204 and a year later, the Channel Islands chose to remain faithful to England and to that unhappy monarch King John.

Because they were so near the French Coast, help from England against French attacks was slow in arriving: And during the 14th and 15th centuries, Jersey was attacked by the French on numerous occasions, several of which bound the island to pay heavy ransoms.

Between July, 1940 and May 1945, the island was occupied by German Military forces until liberation by British troops.

The island has its own Parliament and Law Courts the former, the States of Jersey, being one of the oldest legislative assemblies in the British Commonwealth.




The Royal Square - Centre of St Helier

The Royal Square is dominated by the edifice of the Royal Court House. Since at least 1329 there has been a building on this site.

The existing building was erected in 1865. The gilded statue in the Royal Square is of George the Second and it stands on the very site of the old Market Cross where proclamations and all new laws were read to the public. The Market was also the scene of public executions, floggings and the stocks.





This now gone, but here are a few snippets relating to it:

Award Winning Chef: Peter Marek

On arrival in Jersey in 1970 Peter and Penny managed the family hotel and restaurant. Peter then went on to be Executive Head Chef at the Lobster Pot Hotel and Restaurant and The Little Grove Hotel in Jersey where he gained the premier Restaurant Award and later the L'Horizon Hotel in Jersey until October 1995 (where he also gained the Premier Restaurant Award). Over the years Peter has won several major National and International Awards on the Culinary Scene including to name but a few.




Ron Dutton had a commission for cast bronze letters spelling out the name of the hotel which were mounted on a granite wall built of stone with an attractive pink hue.



And another snippet of history...

Former US President Gerald Ford was flying from Shannon Airport in Ireland to Paris in 1981 when he asked his pilot to make an unscheduled stop in Jersey so he could visit the recently purchased home of one of his friends, Mr D Keaton, who was travelling with him.

When news of the unexpected stopover was relayed to Jersey Airport, the Island’s establishment swung into action. Ford, President of the United States between 1974 and 1977 and vice-president to Richard Nixon before that, was met at the Airport and taken first to Government House where he met the Lieutenant Governor of the day and his wife.

Presumably Ford saw Keaton’s home and he was also known to have visited the Little Grove Hotel, in which Keaton had an interest and where formal photographs were taken, ahead of his return to the chartered jet.

He told Jersey Evening Post reporter Rob Shipley that he liked the Island and intended to return again, though there is no evidence he ever did!

References:
http://www.mareksrestaurant.com/
https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/features/2018/08/21/fleeting-island-visits-by-the-worlds-most-famous/

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