Library Newspaper Collection

Christmas Time, Or the Passage from Southampton to Guernsey, 1814

From Le Miroir Politique, January 15th, 1814. The packet for Guernsey is held up by the weather; a familiar tale! You may have to spend Christmas at Southampton; how do you fill your time as you wait for the wind to die down? You can gossip, or take a walk for the day to nearby Netley Abbey; you can eat and drink, but the passengers for Guernsey will insist on confusing the waiting staff by speaking Guernsey French: 'Of all the gibberish, linguos, tongues unknown, Methinks there’s none that beats our Guernsey own.' Interestingly, the poet has written the Guernsey French to reflect its pronunciation. The visit to the Abbey and the quays of Southampton are exactly as described by William Money in his account of a visit to Guernsey many years earlier.

Driving a motor car at a reckless pace, August 1916

From The Star, August 31, 1916.

An appeal from Flanders: a Guernseyman to Guernseymen, July 1916

'You're very young and very small you boys, but your hearts are big.' His Excellency the General Officer Commanding has authorised in the public interest the publication of the following extracts from a letter received from a non-commissioned officer at the front, and the statement that every consideration will be given to the promotion of those men who have passed through the fiery furnace of this war. H St Leger Wood, Colonel, AA and QMG, August 8th, 1916.

More deserters, January 1810

From the Gazette de Guernsey, January 13th 1810.

Explosion in Alderney, 10 September 1903

'Buildings Wrecked. Hayricks afire.' The Helcke fulminate of mercury works explodes. From The Star of September 11, 1903.

Annual examination at the Vauxbelets, July 1911

The annual examinations in Agriculture, Horticulture, Chemistry, Engineering and English took place at the Vauxbelets Schools. Examiners from the Société d'Agriculture de France came to the island especially to conduct some of the examinations, which were all oral. There were fifteen first year pupils and five second year pupils.

Pollet Fountain, 1861

Drinking fountains. From The Star of July 16. The Pollet fountain was moved farther North to make way for the new States Offices, now used as an Information Centre.

Regatta, January 1952

From the Guernsey Press, 5 January 1952; the projected revival of the Town Regatta.

Herm is blown up by a mine, 4 January 1952

In view of the recent spectacular controlled detonation of a WWII bomb off Guernsey, here is a rather less controlled episode from 1952, in which the 28 inhabitants of Herm were incredibly lucky to escape injury or worse. 'Will you tell your husband when you go ashore that there is a mine somewhere off the Herm coast. Tell him to try and get a rope round it and pull it in; it will be quite harmless. It's been in the sea since the war and the firing mechanism will be rusted up.' Insurance did not cover damage by rogue mine, but the States stepped in to do the repairs, which were considerable.

Mr Trengrouse's Rocket Apparatus, June 1836

As reported in the Comet of July 4th, 1836. Henry Trengrouse (1772-1854), from Cornwall, was the inventor in 1808 of an early form of the Breeches buoy. As he first presented his invention, however, in 1818, versions of it had long been in use by the time he demonstrated it in Guernsey, despite the Comet's misgivings.

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