5th May 2015
Our collection consists of many tens of thousands of books, documents and other materials. Work to catalogue all of this material has been prioritised over the last decade and, although not complete, our catalogue is a very useful tool for finding what you need.
27th April 2015
From Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of England &c, 1831.
27th April 2015
A rhyme describing the girls of each Guernsey parish, given to Edith Carey at the beginning of the 20th century by 'the late Isaac Le Patourel, of St Martin's;' and a ditty from Fanny Ingrouille describing the average week of a Guernsey country girl. 'Monday, Tuesday—Party!, Wednesday, Hangover. Thursday, Hard work.' From Guernsey Folk Lore, pp. 507-8. The photograph is part of the Library's Carel Toms' Collection, and is a detail from a postcard sent to Miss M Hinson in 1909. The rhyme is attributed by George Métivier, in his notes to his poem 'L'Revillon d'une vielle chifournie,' published in Rimes Guernesiaises (1831), to a contemporary poet-songster called 'Eléazar.'
23rd April 2015
From Vol. II of Edith Carey's book of transcripts, Wills & Legacies, in the Library (Staff).
22nd April 2015
This story is by J R Le Ruez, and was published in the magazine Guernsey Gossip and Visitors' List, June 6 1908. The tale comes from Jersey, and is interesting because of the superstitions and beliefs it is based on; in the seventeenth century Elie Brévint of Sark, himself of Jersey extraction, wrote of the belief that one could aller à la graine de fougère, or 'use the fern seed' and become invisible.
21st April 2015
Donated 2015 by his granddaughter, Fiona Havergal. Working papers from the early 1920s, and a photograph of the Lieutenant-Colonel. Lt-Col. Kenneth Campbell moved to Sark in 1919, and was sworn in as Seneschal of Sark on the recommendation of W F Collings, the Seigneur. He had left Sark by 1923.
20th April 2015
From the Guernsey Monthly Magazine, September 1891, p. 382.
15th April 2015
'How Alderney lost its minister in 1705.' From A N Le Cheminant's A Christmas Box of Channel Gems, in the Library's Channel Islands' Pamphlets XIV (Goss.-LeFebvre), pp. 29 ff. This 1700 law remained unrepealed, in Sark at least, and continued to have repercussions into the 20th century!
14th April 2015
The Library has a complete set of the Calendars of Patent Rolls, except for the years 1248-1280, (this volume can be accessed online.) Those below, of the last quarter of the 13th century, refer to the activities of the infamous Otto de Grandison, amongst other things.
10th April 2015
I want nothing called after my name, and I will give nothing to those who already have much. .... If the money be not properly administered, better it had been thrown in the sea.
1st April 2015
A list of photographs in the magazine Guernsey Gossip and Visitors' List, which ran weekly during 1907/8; it was based at 42, the Pollet, and was printed by Frederick Watts of the Manor Printing Works. Please contact the Library for further information. The staff photographer seems to have been A Laurens, of 19 the Pollet, and of Jersey, where the magazine (known there as Jersey Week by Week) had its main offices. The 'Weekly Portrait' of an island worthy was accompanied by a biography.
23rd March 2015
The history of the Library's collection of Livres de Perchage, which we hold in hard copy and digital form, by Sue Laker, our Deputy Chief Librarian. 'A book of Perchage is drawn out by the sworn Douzaine of each fee, when called upon by the King's Receiver or Lord of the Manor, for the purpose of ascertaining correctly the admeasurement of the property in the possession of the tenants upon that fee, and is decisive as to the admeasurement and the name of the then possessor—nothing more.' Peter Jeremie, 1824.
