Vale (

Guernésiais Guernésiais, also known as ''Dgèrnésiais'', Guernsey French, and Guernsey Norman French, is the variety of the Norman language spoken in Guernsey. It is sometimes known on the island simply as "patois". As one of the langues d'oïl, it has it ...

: ''Lé Vale''; French: ''Le Valle'') is one of the ten

parishes of Guernsey The Bailiwick of Guernsey includes the island of Guernsey and other islands such as Alderney, Sark, Herm, Jethou, Brecqhou, and Lihou. Each parish was established, probably in the 11th century, as a religious area, each having its parish church. ...

in the Bailiwick of Guernsey,

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

. In 933 the islands, formerly under the control of

William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...

, then

Duchy of Brittany The Duchy of Brittany ( br, Dugelezh Breizh, ; french: Duché de Bretagne) was a medieval feudal state that existed between approximately 939 and 1547. Its territory covered the northwestern peninsula of Europe, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean t ...

were annexed by the

Duchy of Normandy The Duchy of Normandy grew out of the 911 Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between King Charles III of West Francia and the Viking leader Rollo. The duchy was named for its inhabitants, the Normans. From 1066 until 1204, as a result of the Norman c ...

. The island of Guernsey and the other Channel Islands represent the last remnants of the medieval Duchy of Normandy.Marr, J., ''The History of Guernsey – the Bailiwick's story'', Guernsey Press (2001). Much of the Vale parish belonging to the fief Saint Michael, which benefited the Benedictine monks who lived in an abbey that had been built next to the Vale Church from when it was granted in 1032 by Robert of Normandy who had apparently been caught in a storm and his ship had ended up safe in Guernsey. The rights to the fief were removed by Henry VIII when he undertook the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Vale Castle

The Castle of Saint Michael, now called

Vale Castle Vale Castle, is a protected building located in the Vale, Guernsey. The original name was "Le Chateau St Michel", later it became "Chateau de Val" or "Chateau de Valle" and is over 1,000 years old. It defends both St. Sampson's harbour at the easter ...

, has an origin going back at least 1,000 years and was used as a refuge from pirate attacks. It was probably started in the late 10th century. In 1372

Owain Lawgoch Owain Lawgoch ( en, Owain of the Red Hand, french: Yvain de Galles), full name Owain ap Thomas ap Rhodri (July 1378), was a Welsh soldier who served in Lombardy, France, Alsace, and Switzerland. He led a Free Company fighting for the French agai ...

, a claimant to the Welsh throne, attacked Guernsey at the head of a free company, on behalf of France. This event is popularly called ''La Descente des Aragousais''. Owain Lawgoch withdrew after killing 400 of the Island militia. The poem of the same name refers to the castle as the ''Château de l'Archange'', the location of the last-ditch stand against the insurgents. In 1615 the island was required to maintain the Vale Castle, while the Crown maintained Castle Cornet. It has been a focal point for defence; the most recent modifications were undertaken by the German occupiers.

Modern era

Until 1806 the parish occupied territory on the mainland of Guernsey, the Vingtaine de l'Epine, as well as the whole of Le Clos du Valle, a

tidal island A tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands, many of them have been sites of ...

forming the northern extremity of Guernsey separated from the mainland by Le Braye du Valle, a tidal channel. Le Braye was drained and reclaimed in 1806 by the British Government as a defence measure. Vale now consists of two non-contiguous territories. The Vale

postal code A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...

mainly starts with GY3 with some starting GY8.

Features

The features of the parish include: * Churches: ** Vale Parish Church, St Michel du Valle ** Vale Mission Fellowship ** St Pauls Methodist Church * Parish war memorial at Vale Avenue-Braye Road Cross Roads *

Bordeaux Harbour Bordeaux Harbour is a fishing port and bay in the parish of Vale in the northeast of Guernsey, about north of Saint Peter Port. The harbour is now used primarily as a beach, which is flat and low, "with stretches of fine sand and groups of bou ...

* The Vale Mill (the parishes most prominent landmark) * Northern half of Saint Sampson's Town * Northern half of Saint Sampson's Harbour * Vale Pond, nature reserve * Beaucette marina * Military: ** Parish war memorial at Vale Avenue-Braye Road Cross Roads **

** Fort le Marchant ** Fort Doyle ** Fort Pembroke ** Rousse Tower ** Eight

Guernsey loophole towers The British built 15 Guernsey loophole towers at various points along the coast of Guernsey between August 1778 and March 1779 to deter possible French attacks after France had declared itself an ally of the Americans in the American Revolutionary W ...

numbered 4 to 11 ** Beaucette Battery dating from the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

** La Lochande Battery dating from the

** Nid L'Herbe Battery and Magazine dating from the

** Portinfer Battery dating from the

** German fortifications, built during the occupation 1940-45 * Archaeology: ** Le

Dolmen A dolmen () or portal tomb is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the early Neolithic (40003000 BCE) and were somet ...

de Déhus, which incorporates a

megalithic art Megalithic art refers to art either painted or carved onto megaliths in prehistoric Europe. Elizabeth Shee Twohig has coined the term Megalithic art in her study of The Megalithic Art of Western Europe. Her original definition of Megalithic a ...

carving known as ''Le Gardien'' ** La Varde passage grave, the largest dolmen on the island ** Les Fouaillages, L'Ancresse Common ** La Platte Mare, cist in circle ** La Mare es Mauves, cist in circle ** Martelo 7, cist in circle * Beaches ** Pembroke ( MCS recommended) ** L'Ancresse ** Ladies Bay ** Bordeaux Harbour * A number of protected buildings The parish of the Vale hosts: *

Guernsey Electricity Guernsey Electricity Limited (GE) is the sole commercial electricity supplier on the island of Guernsey. GE has been operating for over 100 years, moving from local generation of power from coal, and later oil, to investing in cables to connect in ...

Power Station * Fort le Marchant shooting range * numerous industrial premises * Maison Maritaine * Vale Douzaine Room * Vale Primary School * 18 hole golf course on L'Ancresse Common * Annual music festival 'Vale Earth Fair' at the Vale Castle * numerous quarries * many old and some still in use, vineries. (greenhouses) * Countryside walks * A weekly 5 km

Parkrun Parkrun (stylised as parkrun) is a collection of events for walkers, runners and volunteers that take place every Saturday morning at more than 2,000 locations in 23 countries across six continents. Junior Parkrun (stylised as junior parkrun) ...

event

Other

The parish was twinned with the Normandy port of

Barneville-Carteret Barneville-Carteret () is a commune in the Manche department in the Normandy region of north-western France. For many years it has been a popular seaside resort destination. The commune resulted from a merger of two communes in 1964: Barnevill ...

in 1987.

Politics

Vale comprises the whole of the Vale

administrative division Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

In the

2016 Guernsey general election The 2016 Guernsey general election was held on 27 April 2016 to elect 38 members of the States of Guernsey who will serve until 2020. There was a by-election in October 2016 to fill a vacancy in the district of Vale. Electoral system Follow ...

there was a 3,774 or 74% turnout to elect six Deputies. Those elected (in order of votes received) being ''Matt Fallaize'', ''Dave Jones'', '' Mary Lowe'', ''Laurie Queripel'', ''Jeremy Smithies'' and ''Sarah Hansmann Rouxel''. Dave Jones died in July 2016 and a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

was held in October 2016 to elect a replacement.

References

{{coord, 49, 29, 34, N, 2, 31, 22, W, type:city_source:kolossus-plwiki, display=title Parishes of Guernsey