DECEMBER PAUL DARROCH:Layout 1 02/12/2019 14:42 Page 1
HISTORY
The Fishermen's Chapel at St Brelade's Church. Was the lost Chapel of Havre des Pas once as richly decorated?"
The Lost Chapel By Paul Darroch A PILGRIM, CHRISTMAS EVE, 1419 Winter has fallen on medieval Jersey. From the barren slopes of Mont de la Ville, I survey the vastness of the bay; the sea surging in to meet the sand dunes of St Helier’s town. I glimpse a flicker of candles faraway in the Priory, perched on its rocky outcrop over the waters. It is the eve of Christ’s Mass. In the great manor houses of Jersey, they will soon be feasting on rich meats and pastries. In the little gaggle of houses that make up St Helier’s town, men dream of playing dice, kicking a leather ball around the ditches, finally breaking their long fast. An icy wind is brewing. Even the sheep that graze on the Town Hill are huddling together for warmth, and the field mice have gone to ground. So, I clamber down the slope, and at the foot of the great hill, facing the eastern plain, I stumble across a stone chapel. Long ago, they found mysterious footprints carved here in a rock. Some whispered this earth must have been touched by the feet of the Blessed Virgin Mary herself. So, they built a stone chapel to honour her, and named it Notre Dame des Pas: Our Lady of the Footsteps. I walk through the stone arch and enter the sanctuary. 68 | www.life-mags.com
A gaggle of townspeople are here, kneeling in prayer beneath the beautiful lancet windows. I listen awhile to the mumbled Latin prayers of the priest, and then I slip out into the night. History is coming for this holy place. In the centuries to come, the chapel will be dissolved. By 1646, it is used as barracks for soldiers; and later still, as a Wesleyan meeting place. Eventually, Fort Regent rises, and the crumbling old chapel is torn down, stone by stone. Yet it has one more treasure left to yield, for in 1818 they find the body of a great knight buried beneath it, clad in chainmail, bearing a sword. The Chapel has vanished. In the years to come, there will remain only a plaque in the gardens of La Collette flats to remember the long centuries of faith, all the Christmases that have come and gone. Still the generations to come will whisper its name, whenever they speak of the harbour of the footsteps: Havre des Pas. Paul Darroch is the author of Jersey: Secrets of the Sea and Jersey: The Hidden Histories. Both books are available at Waterstones, Maison de la Mare, WH Smith and Amazon. They are ideal Christmas presents for anyone who loves Jersey and its history.