St Mary (

Jèrriais ( ; also known as the Jersey language, Jersey French and Jersey Norman French in English) is a Romance languages, Romance language and the traditional language of the Jersey people. It is a form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, an isla ...

: Sainte Mathie) is one of the twelve

parishes of Jersey The parishes of Jersey (Jèrriais, Jerriais: ) are the civil and religious Administrative division, administrative districts of Jersey in the Channel Islands. There are twelve in total; all have access to the sea and share a name with their anc ...

Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...

. It is north-west of

St Helier St Helier (; Jèrriais: ; ) is the Capital city, capital of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. It is the most populous of the twelve parishes of Jersey, with a population of 35,822, over one-third of the island' ...

. It is the smallest parish by surface area, with an area of 3,604 vergées (6.5 km²). The parish is rural, with a low population of only 1,818 in 2021, with a single sparse village. It borders four other parishes: St Ouen, St John, St Peter and St Lawrence.

History

The Jersey parish system has been in place for centuries. By Norman times, the parish boundaries were firmly fixed and remain largely unchanged since.Syvret, Marguerite (2011). ''Balleine's History of Jersey''. The History Press. . The parish and its eponymous church derive their name from a medieval monastery, probably destroyed during Viking raids some time between the 8th and 10th centuries. In 1042 Duke William gave "St Mary of the Burnt Monastery" to the abbey of Cerisy. In 1180 Jersey was divided by the Normans into three ministeria for administrative purposes. St Mary was part of ''Crapoudoit''. ''Crapoudoit'' likely refers to the stream running through St Peter's Valley.

Governance

The parish is a first-level

administrative division Administrative divisions (also administrative units, administrative regions, subnational entities, or constituent states, as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which a particular independent sovereign state is divi ...

of the Bailiwick of Jersey, a British

Crown dependency The Crown Dependencies are three offshore island territories in the British Islands that are self-governing possessions of the British Crown: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey, both located in the English Channel and toge ...

. The highest official in the parish is the ''Connétable'' of St. Mary. The incumbent office holder is David Johnson, who has held the office since 2022 (previously as the parish's Deputy since 2014). The parish administration is headquartered at the Parish Hall next to St Mary's School. At present, the parish forms one electoral district for

States Assembly The States Assembly (; Jèrriais: ) is the parliament of Jersey, formed of the island's 37 deputies and the Connétable of each of the twelve parishes. The origins of the legislature of Jersey lie in the system of self-government according ...

elections and elects one Deputy, as well as eight Senators in an islandwide constituency. The current Deputy for St. Peter is Daivd Johnson. Under the proposed electoral reform, it will form part of the North West electoral district consisting of St Mary, St Ouen and St Peter, which will collectively elect 4 representatives alongside the parishes' ''Connétables''. The parish is divided into

vingtaine A vingtaine (, literally "group of twenty" in French) is a political subdivision of Jersey. They are subdivisions of the various parishes of Jersey, and one, La Vingtaine de la Ville (The Vingtaine of the town), in Saint Helier is further divid ...

s for administrative purposes as follows: *La Vingtaine du Sud *La Vingtaine du Nord The boundary between the vigntaines run from the parish boundary with St Ouen and along the north side of La Rue Mahier. The boundary then runs along the north side of some of the buildings north of La Verte Rue. It then runs in a direct line from the southern end of La Rue du Motier to the southern end of La Rue de la Grosse Épine directly to its junction with Rue d'Olive. From there it runs to the border with St John.

Geography

Mourier Valley runs down the boundary between St Mary and St John. The stream formerly powered a number of mills despite the scant population of the area. La Grève de Lecq is the main bay in the parish and lies on the border with St Ouen. It can be accessed from the village down a valley known as Le Mont de Ste Marie. The parish stands upon coarse-grained

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

, 'of St Mary's type', which formed during the lower

Palaeozoic The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma at the start of ...

period. This granite was formerly quarried for building.

St Mary's Village

St Mary's Village is the main settlement in the village. It is formed around a box of sorts of main roads with link roads in between. The village's amenities are formed roughly in three clumps: the parish hall, rec centre and primary school; the parish church, cemetery and pub; and the petrol station. There is also a

Methodist church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

. The village has a blanket 20 mph speed limit, introduced in 2015. Previously, there had been a 30 mph limit on the southern main road and a 20 mph on the northern main road. The village has extensive traffic calming, including raised junctions, filtered permeability, virtual footpaths and build-outs. The village won the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation award for traffic calming measures introduced in the parish in the 2010s.

Demography

St. Mary has the smallest population of all the parishes in Jersey, having only 1,818 residents in 2021.

Religious sites

The parish church is known as (St Mary of the five steeples), due to the church's steeple being ornamented with five smaller spires. During the Calvinist regime in Jersey there were no Christmas services, but the custom arose of ringing the bell at Christmas for 24 hours to celebrate the end of the French occupation. For several years after the Restoration, to the dismay of the church Rectors, the bell-ringing prevented the holding of any service. Several Rectors attempted to block the bell-ringing to hold a Christmas service, including taking the bell-ringers to court in 1788, however the Jurats found against the Rector. In 1858, a new Rector placed new locks on the church doors, removed the bell rope and clapper and took away the ladder to the belfry. However, parishioners quickly badly reacted. They broke the locks, deposited the doors in the Rectory gardens, awoke the blacksmith to forge a new clapper and one galloped into town to fetch a new rope. This firmly established the custom.

Landmarks

Among the natural attractions of the parish is a feature known as the Devil's Hole (), a blowhole in the cliffs of the coast. The descent from the car park to the Devil's Hole is a popular tourist attraction, with the walk taking approximately ten minutes. The upper part of the path is surfaced, and the lower part, once quite dangerous in parts, now has wooden steps and handrails, with much of the access having been improved by a working party from the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

Corps of the British Army. In Victorian times it was possible to descend into the hole itself at low tide, but this is no longer possible. However, the access path ends at a large specially constructed viewing platform. The origin of the name is disputed. refers to a chasm within a cliff-face. It is possible that was corrupted into an anglicised 'Devil'. It may also get its named from the statue of the devil, as it is unknown whether that predates the modern name. Following a shipwreck in 1851, when the ship's

figurehead In politics, a figurehead is a practice of who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet '' de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that ...

washed up in the Devil's Hole, a statue of a

devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

adapted from the figurehead was set up above the Hole."Turnkey" Giffard and the Devil
This wooden statue was replaced by a succession of modern versions in the 20th century. Grève de Lecq is shared with St Ouen. ''Grève'' is the Jèrriais word for beach. ''Lecq'' originates from the Norse ''La Wik'', which may have meant 'ship-loading creek' or referred to witches, should the bay have been a centre of sorcery. On the east side of Grève de Lecq in the parish lies Le Câtel de Lecq, a mediaeval earthwork. In the bay Le Moulin de Lecq, an old watermill, was converted into a residence in 1929 and following the Second World War became a pub, while retaining the wheel and remnants of the gears. Crabbé is a creek and hinterland to the east of Grève de Lecq. Crabbé is the Jèrriais word for a narrow creek, as Crabbé is a creek containing a triple cave. Crabbé is the location for pistol shooting. Off the north coast near Crabbé lies , a small islet. It likely takes its name from the Goes family. In the past, sheep would be taken over a plank laid across the gap between the island and the islet to graze. It belongs now to the National Trust. Excavation undertaken in 1974 showed it was a 7th- or 8th century monastery. Some 3rd century Roman coins were also found.

Twinned towns

St Mary is twinned with Longues-sur-Mer, a commune of the

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

of Calvados, in the

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

région of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Notes

References

External links

*
Ste Mathie at ''Les Pages Jèrriaises''
{{coord, 49.24136, N, 2.18697, W, source:placeopedia, display=title Parishes of Jersey