Clarence Road. as it is today Picture: JON GUEGAN (00868799)

THIS year, Jersey Heritage’s What’s Your Story? project, sponsored by Appleby for the third consecutive year, needs your help.

We are asking for members of the public to nominate a street or area that they think is of interest. We will then explore the stories of the people who lived, loved and worked as part of the local community and the streets in which they lived.

During 2010 eight articles will be published in the Jersey Evening Post, each featuring the stories of the people who lived in a certain street or area in the Island.

Jersey Archive will also be open one Saturday each month and a member of staff will give a talk highlighting their research into a particular area. The team at Jersey Archive are looking for your help in deciding which streets or areas of the Island you would like us to research.

Have you ever wanted to know more about the people and communities who have lived on your street or in your house over the past centuries? Have you ever wondered what your street was like in days gone by? Have you ever thought about the people who lived in your house – who they were, where they worked and what their lives were like? And who was your street named after?

Did someone who lived in your house go on to achieve great things? Was property in your area requisitioned by the Germans during the Occupation? Could your community have witnessed an event such as the infamous Brighton Road tragedy?

To illustrate the fascinating stories that you can find at Jersey Archive, staff have looked at the area around Clarence Road, where the Jersey Archive is located.

The Jersey Archive itself was built in 2000 in the former Anthony’s Quarry. The quarry had been bought by the States of Jersey in the 1950s as a site for housing. By looking at the 1834 Le Gros map of St Helier, we can see that a quarry existed on the site of Jersey Archive at that date. The rest of Clarence Road (or Clarence Terrace, as it is called on the Le Gros map) consists of a small number of houses with part of the road still bordering onto an orchard.

Looking back at the 1800 map of St Helier, we can see that the entire area from the Jersey Archive in Clarence Road to St James Street was covered by orchards.
And by looking through the public registry for land transactions, we can trace the origins of Anthony’s Quarry. The land for the quarry was purchased by Clément Auguste de Quetteville in the 1820s from the Chevalier family. Clément presumably built the quarry to cater for the growth in the number of buildings in St Helier that occurred in the first half of the 19th century.

The quarry in Clarence Road sat alongside some rather grand properties, including Sussex House and Gardiner House, both of which were built between the 1830s and the 1850s, perhaps using stone from the quarry.

The area around Clarence Road would have been a pleasant area of St Helier to live in during the 19th century, with Royal Crescent just around the corner which included as its centrepiece the Theatre Royal.

By looking at the 1851 census, we can see that this was a prosperous area of town. Living in Clarence Road we have a doctor, a retired surgeon from the East India Company, a fund holder, a professor of writing and general literature, a master sailmaker and a retired Royal Navy Lieutenant.

M ANY of the inhabitants of Clarence Road had large families, including Philip Harding, a 50-year-old doctor, and his wife Mary, who are listed as having seven daughters from the age of four to 20 all living with them at Sussex House in 1851.

Looking at baptism records, we see that Philip and Mary actually had an eighth daughter, Kate, in 1848, and after eight girls Mary gave birth to twin sons, George and Robert, in 1849. Sadly, as the 1851 census does not record these last three children, we can only assume that they succumbed to the high levels of infant mortality in the 19th century.

Further evidence of the prosperity of the area can be found when looking at the names of the individuals living in Grosvenor Terrace. It was built in 1826, but tragedy struck during construction when, in June 1825, a builders ladder collapsed with 16 men on it.

By 1851 the individuals living in Grosvenor Terrace included John Hammond, the Advocate-General of Jersey. He lived at number 15 with his wife, Jane Penrose Le Breton – the sister of Dean Le Breton, father of Lillie Langtry – and their four daughters and two sons. The household benefited from the services of a live-in cook, a parlour maid and two housemaids.

John Hammond went on to become Bailiff of Jersey in 1858. He was a strong supporter of the Jersey Industrial School and Female Orphans Home as well as a keen horticulturist. In his professional life as a judge he took a keen interest in the prisoners he sentenced and visited them in prison to talk to them about their plans to reform.

These stories show how the records at Jersey Archive can be used to give us a brief glimpse into the individuals who walked on the same streets and lived in the same properties as us. We can imagine the Harding girls playing in the garden at Sussex House and John Hammond setting off to work at the Royal Court from Grosvenor Terrace.

Now, you can find out more about your local community. We are asking all Islanders to vote for the streets or areas that they would like us to research by coming in to the archive between 9 am and 1 pm on our first open Saturday of the year – this Saturday – and filling in a form.

You can also vote by emailing archives@jerseyheritage.org or by calling the archive on 833300. We would like members of the public to vote for a street or area that they feel holds some interesting stories, and as part of the voting process we want you to tell us why you think that street is important.

The team at Jersey Archive will then select eight streets or areas and the stories they find will be published in the Jersey Evening Post throughout the year.

The closing date for nominations is 20 January and competition results will be announced to coincide with the archive’s February opening. The first ‘street story’ talk will take place on Saturday 20 March.