Le Bourg Transformer Station

Antony Gibb, Historic Building Consultants

Le Bourg Transformer Station is an unusual building to see on a country lane in Grouville. The small but distinctive building is a “Schalthaus” (“Switch house”) and was one of three constructed in the Island. Designed by the Swiss company Brown Boveri in a Swiss Alpine style, its purpose was to facilitate the distribution of electricity from the coal fired power station at Tesson Mill to the quarry at Les Maltieres and the Grouville area as a whole.

Le Bourg is the last remaining example in Jersey, the others having been demolished in the late 1970s.

The building is built in a mix of hollow brick, red brick and reinforced concrete. The exterior is rendered and the slated roof has projecting eaves and weatherboarded gables. It’s now in a poor state of repair. The original front door remains- off its hinges - but the windows are post-war replacements and the roof is starting to rot.

The question is always what to do with buildings like these. They can’t all become museums, and its original use has been superseded. Fortunately for Le Bourg, the National Trust for Jersey has recently been gifted the building together with an adjacent agricultural field by Mrs Sue Wheeler in memory of her late husband Laurence Wheeler. The possibility of it becoming another quirky holiday let is being explored. The bones are good: nice rural location, just room for a double bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and somewhere to sit, and the fun of it being an unusual home for a weekend.

£30,000 has already been raised towards the cost of repair, and initial enquiries with the Planning Department have been positive. Over the coming months we’ll be developing more detailed plans for conversion to a holiday let. As with all conversions, the use will change, as will what’s inside, but the exterior will remain pretty much as it is now, albeit repaired and ready to stand for a further 80 years and beyond.

Not surprisingly Charles Alluto, CEO of The National Trust for Jersey is full of praise for the donor. “The National Trust for Jersey is very grateful to Mrs Wheeler for donating this important historic building to the Trust, together with the generous donors who are helping to fund emergency repairs. Whilst we already care for a number of Occupation structures, we were keen to ensure that this particular building was safeguarded given its distinctive architectural style, rarity and landscape value. It is one of those buildings which everyone knows of but very few appreciate its purpose or history.”

Within the next year or so we should start to see some construction work that will give the island another of its well-used heritage holiday lets.