Smuggling the salt, 1719
7th January 2019
From John Baskett's The Acts of Tonnage and Poundage, and Rates of Merchandize &c, London, 1731.
Trade & Commerce
Guernsey still makes cider in 1951
19th January 2018
The Vimeira estate. An article from the Morning Advertiser, January 18, 1951, by Basil C de Guerin. From his Scrapbook K, p. 10 (Staff.)
Monsieur White's hairpiece
19th April 2017
From the Gazette de Guernsey, January-September 1808, the spelling exactly as it was published. The 18th January was the occasion of a ball at the Assembly Rooms. The plate is dated October 1807 and is from the Library Collection.
A letter from Thomas Leighton, 1594
20th January 2017
The Governor of Guernsey to Mr Carey, concerning Newfoundland. From Chefs Plaids &c p. 88.
38, High Street
20th November 2015
From the Star 9 December 1904. 'Cohu's new establishment in High Street.' What is now Burton's and Townhouse was once a very grand residence.
Century-old island business closing
5th August 2015
Businesses come and go in the world of high-speed commerce, but the 'Closing Down Sale' notice in the window of a long-established island concern always involves a little nostalgia, a little sadness, for someone. So it is with the shoe business of A W Collenette and Son, one of the Town shops which islanders have come to take for granted. From the Guernsey Press, c. 1969. [Scrapbook No 24, Staff F, p. 153.]
Safe-conduct for Alderney, 1513
20th July 2015
Letter to Monsieur de Pontaumont, archivist of the Société académique de Cherbourg.'My dear friend, I am taking the liberty of sending you a copy of a document which you might think appropriate to present to our colleagues at the Society. I feel it provides interesting evidence of the relationship between the people of Alderney and those of Basse-Normandie at the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th centuries. It is a document of safe-conduct from the French admiral, Louis Malet, Seigneur de Graville, dated 20 April 1513. We were then at war with England, but, as had long been the case with the people of Alderney, even though they were subjects of the English Crown, they were very keen not to be treated as enemies by French soldiers and sailors.'[The portrait above is of Louis Malet de Graville.]
Herm carrageen, c. 1865
George Geary's great scheme. From The Star, January 27, 1883. From Guernsey cuttings (Andros Tupper collection). 'The Island of Herm and its resources.'
December 1843
From the Guernsey newspapers.
High Street East; more reminiscences of the 1860s
From the Evening Press, Monday, December 9, 1940. Part Two. 'In the first article the shops from Smith Street to Church Square on the right hand side were dealt with; today we take the return journey, examining those premises which then occupied the east side of the street.'