St. Helier

Information about St. Helier

Saint Helier

Location of Saint Helier in Jersey	}}
Location of Saint Helier in Jersey	Coat of arms of Saint Helier

Island

Jersey, Channel Islands

Area

10.6 kmÂ²

Population

28310

- density

2670.8/kmÂ²

Saint Helier (JÃ¨rriais: St HÃ©lyi) is one of the twelve parishes, and the largest town in Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. It has a population of about 28,000, and is the capital of the Island (although Government House is situated in St. Saviour).

The parish covers a surface area of 4.1 square miles, being 9% of the total land area of the Island (this includes reclaimed land area of 494 acres).

The parish crest is two crossed gold axes on a blue background, symbolising the martyrdom of Helier and the sea.

History

Saint Helier viewed across St. Aubin's Bay from West

It is thought that the site of St. Helier was settled at the time of the Roman control of Gaul.

The medieval hagiographies of Helier, the patron saint martyred in Jersey and after whom the parish and town are named, suggest a picture of a small fishing village on the dunes between the marshy land behind and the high-water mark.

Although the Parish Church of St Helier is now some considerable distance from the sea, at the time of its original construction it was on the edge of the dunes at the closest practical point to the offshore islet called the Hermitage (site of Helier's witness and martyrdom). Before land reclamation and port construction started, boats could be tied up to the churchyard wall on the seaward side.

An Abbey of St. Helier was founded in 1155 on L'Islet, a tidal island adjacent to the Hermitage. Closed at the Reformation, the site of the abbey was fortified to create the castle that replaced Mont Orgueil as the Island's major fortress. The new Elizabeth Castle was named after the Queen by the Governor of Jersey 1600-1603, Sir Walter Raleigh.

The Hermitage of Saint Helier lies in the bay off St. Helier and is accessible on foot at low tide

Until the end of the 18th century, the town consisted chiefly of a string of houses, shops and warehouses stretching along the coastal dunes either side of the Church of St. Helier and the adjacent marketplace (since 1751, Royal Square). La Cohue (a Norman word for courthouse) stood on one side of the square, now rebuilt as the Royal Court and States Chamber (called collectively the States Building). The market cross in the centre of the square was pulled down at the Reformation, and the iron cage for holding prisoners was replaced by a prison gatehouse at the western edge of town.

The statue of George II in the Royal Square is the zero milestone from which all distances in Jersey are measured

George II gave Â£200 towards the construction of a new harbour - previously boats would be beached on a falling tide and unloaded by cart across the sands. A statue of the king (by John Cheere) was erected in the square in 1751 in gratitude, and the market place was renamed Royal Square, although the name has remained LÃ© ViÃ¨r Marchi (the old market) to this day in JÃ¨rriais. Many of St. Helier's road names and street names are bilingual English/French or English/JÃ¨rriais, some having only one name though, although the names in the various languages are not usually translations: distinct naming traditions survive alongside each other.

The Royal Square was also the scene of the Battle of Jersey on January 6, 1781, the last attempt by French forces to seize Jersey. John Singleton Copley's epic painting The Death of Major Pierson captures an imaginative version of the scene.

As harbour construction moved development seaward, a growth in population meant that marshland and pasture north of the ribbon of urban activity was built on speculatively. Settlement by English immigrants added quarters of colonial-style town houses to the traditional building stock.

Continuing military threats from France spurred the construction of a citadel fortress, Fort Regent, on the Mont de la Ville, the crag dominating the shallow basin of St. Helier.

Military roads linking coastal defences around the island with St. Helier harbour had the effect of enabling farmers to exploits Jersey's temperate micro-climate and get their crops onto new fast sailing ships and then steamships to get their produce into the markets of London and Paris before the competition. This was the start of Jersey's agricultural prosperity in the 19th century.

In 1855 an obelisk was constructed in Broad Street to commemorate the reformer Pierre Le Sueur, five time elected Constable of St. Helier. The monument was restored in 2005 and the fountains restored to working order.

From the 1820s, peace with France and better communications enabled by steamships and railways to coastal ports encouraged an influx of English-speaking residents. Speculative development covered the marshy basin north of the central coastal strip as far as the hills within a period of about 40 years, providing the town with terraces of elegant town houses.

In the second half of the 19th century, the need to facilitate access to the harbour for hundreds of trucks laden with potatoes and other produce for export prompted a programme of road-widening which swept away many of the ancient buildings of the town centre. Pressure for redevelopment has meant that very few buildings remain in urban St. Helier which date to before the 19th century, giving the town primarily a Regency or Victorian character.

Pierre Le Sueur, reforming Constable of St. Helier, was responsible for installing sewerage and provision of clean water in St. Helier following outbreaks of cholera in the 1830s. An obelisk with fountain in the town centre was raised to his memory following his premature death in office from overwork.

In the 1970s, a programme of pedestrianisation of the central streets was undertaken.

The statue in Liberation Square

In 1995, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jersey being liberated from Nazi occupation, and thus 50 years of peace, a sculpture was erected in what is now called Liberation Square, in front of the Pomme d'Or Hotel, the focal point for the celebrations when the island was originally liberated.

The sculpture was originally to depict islanders releasing doves of peace, but this came under fierce criticism, with some islanders remarking that had any doves been on the island during the occupation, they would have been eaten by starving German soldiers. Therefore the sculpture was revised to show islanders raising the British flag, as they had done on the day of liberation 50 years previous.

Liberation Square is now a focal point in the town, and is especially a draw for tourists, as it is the location of the Jersey Tourism office (which was formerly the terminus of the Jersey Railway.)

The parish is the site of the Jersey Library and Jersey Museum.

In 2006, it was reported^[1] that the ConnÃ©table, with the backing of the Chief Minister of Jersey, was to seek city status for St. Helier.

Subdivisions

The parish is divided into vingtaines for administrative purposes:

Demographics

Saint Helier is the most populated of Jersey's parishes, with 28,310 residents as of 2001.

Population
1991	1996	2001
28123	27523	28310
Statistics beginning 1991

Politics

A depiction of the Town of Saint Helier as it would have been in 1709

For electoral purposes, the parish is divided into 4 districts.

St. Helier No. 1 (comprising the Vingtaine de la Ville) elects 3 Deputies
St. Helier No. 2 (comprising the Vingtaine de Bas du Mont au PrÃªtre and Vingtaine de Haut du Mont au PrÃªtre) elects 3 Deputies
St. Helier No. 3 (comprising the Vingtaine du Rouge Bouillon and Vingtaine du Mont Ã l'AbbÃ©)
St. Helier No. 4 (comprising the Vingtaine du Mont Cochon)

votes from polling stations in Nos. 3 and 4 are combined into one district electing 4 Deputies. This district is the largest constituency in the Island.

With the Constable, the parish therefore has 11 representatives in the States of Jersey (out of 53 elected members).

The Parish also has its own responsibilities and elections to the Municipality of St Helier take place to elect honorary officials who fulfill a variety of roles for Parishioners under the overall control of the Constable, two Procureurs du Bien Public and the Parish Assembly.

The Administration Civile includes elected Honorary Police; 16 Constable's Officers, 10 Vingteniers and 12 Centeniers. The Honorary Police are senior to the States of Jersey Police (also referred to as the Paid Police) and undertake the charging and prosecution of all suspects in the criminal justice system of Jersey.

Five members of the Roads Committee and ten Roads Inspectors are also elected by parishioners and ensure that the roads of the parish are kept in good repair.

The Assessment Committee are elected to agree the rate chargeable to each property in the Parish.

The Welfare Board is elected to oversee the distribution of welfare to parishioners.

The Accounts Committee are elected to ensure that the accounts of the Parish represent a 'true and fair view' of the state of the Parish finances in order that the Parish Assembly may rely upon the information to set the Parish Rate.

Elected officials are supported by a paid administration within the Parish.

Saint

Major article: Helier.

Saint Helier is named for Helier (or Helerius), a 6th century ascetic hermit. The traditional date of his martyrdom is AD 555. His feast day, marked by an annual municipal and ecumenical pilgrimage to the Hermitage, is on July 16.

References

Jersey in Figures, 2003 - 2004, published by the States of Jersey
Balleine's History of Jersey, Marguerite Syvret and Joan Stevens (1998) ISBN 1-86077-065-7

1. ^ Jersey Evening Post, 5 August, 2006

Biological population densities

..... Click the link for more information.

JÃ¨rriais is the form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, in the Channel Islands. It has been in decline over the past century as English has increasingly become the language of education, commerce and administration.
..... Click the link for more information.

parish as a country subdivision or administrative subdivision exists in several countries' political systems. In England and in Louisiana it is sometimes called "civil parish" to distinguish it from the religious parish.
..... Click the link for more information.

Anthem
"God Save the Queen" (official)
"Ma Normandie" ("My Normandy") (official for occasions when distinguishing anthem required)
..... Click the link for more information.

English Channel (French: La Manche, "the sleeve") is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates the island of Great Britain from northern France and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic.
..... Click the link for more information.

capital (also called capital city or political capital — although the latter phrase has a second meaning based on an alternative sense of "capital") is the center of government.
..... Click the link for more information.

Government House is the name given to some of the residences of Governors-General, Governors and Lieutenant-Governors in the Commonwealth and the former British Empire. It serves as the venue for the Governor's official business, as well as the many receptions and functions hosted
..... Click the link for more information.

Saint Saviour (JÃ¨rriais: St SaÃ»veux/St Sauveur) is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey in the Channel Islands. It is the only one to be virtually landlocked, having only a small piece of access to the sea.

It borders five other parishes.
..... Click the link for more information.

Land reclamation is either of two distinct practices. One involves creating new land from sea- or riverbeds, the other refers to restoring an area to a more natural state (such as after pollution or salination have made it unusable).
..... Click the link for more information.

martyr (Greek μάρτυς "witness") initially signified a witness in the forensic sense, a person called to bear witness in legal proceedings. With this meaning it was used in the secular sphere as well as in both the Old Testament and the New Testament of
..... Click the link for more information.

Saint Helier, a 6th century ascetic hermit, is patron saint of Jersey in the Channel Islands, and in particular of the town and parish of Saint Helier, the island’s capital. He is also invoked as a healing saint for diseases of the skin and eyes.
..... Click the link for more information.

patron saint of a particular group of people is a saint who has special affinity for that group and its members. Prayers by such people are considered more likely to be answered by their patron saint.
..... Click the link for more information.

Parish Church of St Helier is the parish church of the parish of Saint Helier, Jersey. It is one of the twelve 'Ancient Parish Churches' of Jersey, and serves as the Island’s civic church and Pro-Cathedral.
..... Click the link for more information.

islet is a small island. It is not to be confused with eyelet.

Definition of Types

Rock

A "rock", sometimes a synonym for a type of "islet", is a landform composed of rock, lying offshore, having no or minimal vegetation, and uninhabited (see
..... Click the link for more information.

Christianity

Foundations
Jesus Christ
Church Theology
New Covenant Supersessionism
Dispensationalism
Apostles Kingdom Gospel
History of Christianity Timeline
Bible
Old Testament New Testament
Books Canon Apocrypha
..... Click the link for more information.

11st century - 12nd century - 13rd century
1120s 1130s 1140s - 1150s - 1160s 1170s 1180s
1152 1153 1154 - 1155 - 1156 1157 1158

Politics
State leaders - Sovereign states
Birth and death categories
..... Click the link for more information.

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 religious worship, such as Mont Saint Michel
..... Click the link for more information.

Elizabeth Castle is a castle in Saint Helier, Jersey. Construction was started in the 16th century when the power of cannons meant that the existing stronghold at Mont Orgueil was insufficient to defend the Island and the port of St.
..... Click the link for more information.

15th century - 16th century - 17th century
1570s 1580s 1590s - 1600s - 1610s 1620s 1630s
1597 1598 1599 - 1600 - 1601 1602 1603

:
Subjects: Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.

16th century - 17th century - 18th century
1570s 1580s 1590s - 1600s - 1610s 1620s 1630s
1600 1601 1602 - 1603 - 1604 1605 1606

:
Subjects: Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.

Sir Walter Raleigh^[1] (c.1552 – 29 October, 1618), was a famed English writer, poet, courtier and explorer. He was responsible for establishing the second English colony in the New World (after Newfoundland was established by Sir Humphrey Gilbert nearly one year
..... Click the link for more information.

The 18th Century lasted from 1701 through 1800 in the Gregorian calendar.

Historians sometimes specifically define the 18th Century otherwise for the purposes of their work.
..... Click the link for more information.

8th century - 9th century - 10th century
850s 860s 870s - 880s - 890s 900s 910s
885 886 887 - 888 - 889 890 891

:
Subjects: Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.

Norman}}}
Writing system: Latin (French variant)
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: roa
ISO 639-3: nrm
Areas where the Norman language is strongest include Jersey, Guernsey, the Cotentin and the Pays de Caux.
..... Click the link for more information.

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.

Herod_Archelaus

iPedia Free Information Center