Articles

The Library's unique collections are a treasure chest of unusual, interesting and sometimes surprising material just waiting to be found. This anthology, written by the Editor, is based on an eclectic selection of our archive. The author asserts her copyright on all material on the Priaulx Library website except where copyright of other authors is expressly notified. Permission to reproduce material from this website and full attribution to the author is required in all cases.

Library Newspaper Collection

Maria Rosetti

From St Peter Port to revolution. A request from Angela Jianu* of Warwick University for some research into the birth data of Marie Grant of St Peter Port has revealed the extraordinary history of a Romantic heroine, born here in Guernsey in 1819, daughter of Marie Le Lacheur, descendant of the Le Lacheurs of the Forest, and known today to all Romanians through her depiction as Revolutionary Romania, and because one of the main streets in Bucharest bears her name: Strada Maria Rosetti.

Walter Ollivier: They used to swallow the gunpowder

Walter Ollivier in 1957, Priaulx Library Collection

Ollivier the gunsmith, by Bernard Brett, from The Star November 1947. The business at 1, Tower Hill, was begun by his great-great grandfather in 1800.

Les Quartiers

Oldest house at Les Quertiers, now lost, from Guernsey Folk Lore in the Library Collection

A newspaper report of a trip by the Société Guernesiaise to the Les Quartiers Estate in the 1920s. The photograph is from MacCulloch's Guernsey Folk Lore.

Old names of places in the Town: Part V

Extracts from the Livre de Perchage of the Fief le Roi St Peter Port, 1573.

Old names of places in the Town: Part IV

Extracts from the Livre de Perchage of the Fief le Roi St Peter Port, 1573.

Old names of places in Town: Part III

From the Livre de perchage of the Fief le Roi of St Peter Port, 1573. Extracted by the Reverend George Lee and published in the Star in July 1891.

Old names of places in the Town : Part II

From the Livre de Perchage of the Fief le Roi, 1573.

Old names of places in the Town

The Star, 11 July 1891. Extracts from an early St Peter Port Livre de Perchage by the Rev. George Lee. A digital copy of this document, dated 1573, can be consulted in the Library.

Lines written on quitting the Vauquiedor, October 1813

From Le Miroir Politique, Saturday 23 October 1813. 'Original Poetry: the following Lines are the production of a Lady, whose poetical talents are not wholly unknown to this Island. A copy of them having fallen into our hands, we have not hesitated to insert it, from a persuasion that it will be acceptable to our numerous readers.' The Vauqiédor estate was acquired by Thomas Fiott de Havilland who transformed it into Havilland Hall.

Owners of Houses in the Clos du Valle, 1624

From The Star[?], Saturday 6th February 1897.

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