Herm

Herm (Guernésiais: , ultimately from Old Norse 'arm', due to the shape of the island, or Old French 'hermit') is one of the Channel Islands and part of the Parish of St Peter Port in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It is located in the English Channel, north-west of France and south of England. It is long and under wide; oriented north–south, with several stretches of sand along its northern coast. The much larger island of Guernsey lies to the west, Jersey lies to the south-east, and the smaller island of Jethou is just off the south-west coast.

Herm was first discovered in the Mesolithic period, and the first settlers arrived in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Many tombs from that period remain today, the majority in the north of the island. The island was annexed to the Duchy of Normandy in 933, but returned to the English Crown with the division of Normandy in 1204. It was occupied by Germany in the Second World War and the scene of Operation Huckaback, but was largely bypassed. Herm is currently managed by Herm Island Ltd, formed by Starboard Settlement, who acquired Herm in 2008, following fears during the sale of the island that the 'identity' of the island was at threat.

Herm's harbour is on its west coast. There are several buildings of note in the vicinity including the White House, St Tugual's Chapel, Fisherman's Cottage, "The Mermaid" pub and restaurant, and a small primary school with about eight children. During a busy summer season up to 100,000 tourists visit the island, arriving by one of the catamaran ferries operated by the Trident Charter Company. Cars are banned from the island, as are bicycles; quad bikes and tractors used for staff and luggage transport respectively are allowed.

History

Prehistory

Herm was first found in the Mesolithic period (between 10,000 and 8,000 BC), when hunters were in search of food. In the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, settlers arrived; the remains of chamber tombs have been found on the island, and may be seen today; specifically on the Common, and the Petit and Grand Monceau; it has been suggested that the northern end of the island, i.e. the Common, was set apart for burials. After a three-year project by the University of Durham, supported by specialists from the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and the Guernsey museum, they stated that the "density of tombs suggests that the northern end of Herm may have been a place set apart for funerary activity".

Middle Ages

The first records of Herm's inhabitants in historic times are from the 6th century, when the island became a centre of monastic activity; the followers of Saint Tugual (also called Tudwal) arrived, establishing Saint Tugual's Chapel. In 709, a storm washed away the strip of land which connected the island with Jethou.

An important moment in Herm's political history was in 933, when the Channel Islands were annexed to the Duchy of Normandy, they remained so until the division of Normandy in 1204, when they became a Crown Dependency. In 1111 Brother Claude Panton was a hermit in "Erm" and in 1117 the then hermit, Brother Francis Franche Montague is recorded as living on "Erm". After the annexation, Herm gradually lost its monastic inhabitants, and between 1570 and 1737 the governors of Guernsey used it as a hunting ground; visiting to shoot, hunt, and fish.

19th century to the Second World War

In 1810, an inn was founded; and during the Industrial Revolution, roads, paths, a harbour, accommodation, a forge, blacksmiths, a brewery, a bakery and a prison were built to cater for the largest number of inhabitants since prehistoric times. Most were quarrymen working in new granite quarries. Several quarries can still be seen at present, such as on the Common. When the Prince and Princess Blücher leased the island from the British government in 1889, he introduced a colony of red-necked wallabies to the island, which lasted until 1910. Offspring were "said to have been eaten as food by English soldiers occupying the island during World War 2".

Compton Mackenzie, an English-born Scottish novelist, acquired the tenancy in 1920. He recalled that his three years there had numerous logistical problems. It has been suggested that Mackenzie was the basis for the character Mr Cathcart in D.H. Lawrence's ''The Man who Loved Islands'', about a man who moved to ever smaller islands much as Mackenzie moved from Herm to the smaller Jethou, but Lawrence himself denied it.

The German occupation of the Channel Islands during the Second World War essentially by-passed Herm. The island was claimed on 20 July 1940 by Nazi Germany, a few weeks after the arrival of German troops in Guernsey and Jersey; German soldiers landed on the island to shoot a propaganda film, ''The Invasion of the Isle of Wight.'' Herm's sandy beaches were soon used for practising landings from barges, in preparation for the invasion of England, but otherwise the island saw little of the Germans beyond officers making trips to shoot rabbits. Herm had only a little German construction during the war; a flak battery was placed on the island for a few weeks, and mines were placed in an area. Occasionally German soldiers would travel to Herm to cut wood for fuel.

Operation Huckaback

Operation Huckaback was a British Second World War military operation that was originally designed to be a raid on Herm, Jethou and Brecqhou, but instead became only a raid on Herm undertaken on the night of 27 February 1943, following an earlier attempt that had been aborted. Ten men of the Small Scale Raiding Force and No. 4 Commando under Captain Patrick Anthony Porteous landed 200 yards to the north-west of Selle Rocque on a shingle beach and made several unsuccessful attempts to climb the cliff in front of them. Porteous finally managed to climb up the bed of a stream and pulled the others up with a rope. They later reported that they had found no sign of any Islanders or Germans (who were supposed to be billeted near the harbour). They had failed to make contact with the few civilians on the island whose duties included looking after the sheep.

Since 1945

In 1949, the States of Guernsey bought Herm from the Crown because of the "unspoilt island idyll that could be enjoyed by locals and tourists alike". One of the island's most influential tenants was Major Peter Wood, who looked after the island from 1949 to 1980 with his wife. The island was run down when he arrived, with the manor hidden in undergrowth, the windows and roofs of the houses having been blown off by a sea mine drifting into the harbour shortly after their arrival, but they created a school, and restored St Tugual's Chapel. Major Wood's daughter Pennie Wood Heyworth and her husband Adrian succeeded them; Major Wood died in 1998. Their early efforts are recorded in ''Herm, Our Island Home'', written by Major Wood's wife Jenny Wood.

On 17 May 2008, the BBC
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