Home Farm

From Jerripedia

Historic Jersey buildings

Home Farm, Grouville

The property pictured at the end of the 20th century

If you own this property, have ancestors who lived here, or can provide any further information and photographs, please contact us through editorial@jerripedia.org

Home Farm early in the 20th century

Property name

Home Farm

Other names

Mallet House - the name was changed to Home Farm by the Labey family
Home Farm House
Home Farm Cottage

Location

Rue de Grouville, Grouville

Type of property

18th century farm converted to five residential units

Valuations

Several sales of various elements of the property are on record from 2009 onwards:

Home Farm was sold for £650,000 in 2009 and Home Farm Cottage for £1.2 million. There must have been further sub-divisions because the cottage, or No 4 Home Farm, was sold in 2010 for £550,000 and in 2014 for £800,000.
Home Farm House (No 3) was sold for £795,000 in 2010 and £1.1 million in 2016
No 1 was sold for £635,000 in 2012 and £925,000 in 2020
No 2 was sold for £625,000 in 2013
No 5 was sold for £865,000 in 2020

Families associated with the property

Datestones

17 CML ETZ 41 - On the front of the house for Charles Mallet, who married Elizabeth Touzel in 1719]], and probably had the house built or rebuilt in that year
18 CML ICT 17 - For |Charles Mallet who married Jeanne Coutanche in 1786
MLB 1720 - Probably for Labey, which may relate to earlier ownership of Home Farm, which was worked by another Mr Labey in the 20th century (see next stone), although not of the same branch
JWL EB 1903 For - John William Labey and Eliza Blampied

Reaping in the 1950s

Historic Environment Record entry

Listed building

Farm group comprising a circa 1741 house with attendant outbuildings, dating to mid-18th century and 19th century. This is a fine example of a traditional Jersey farmstead of this period. McCormack proposes an earlier house, turned to face south in 1741. Shown on the Richmond Map of 1795.

Former farm group, now converted to 1-5 Home Farm. The mid-18th century farm house (No 3) Home Farm House is notable for the quality of the masonry work, including a facade of squared granite with dressed quoined openings.

At the roadside are tall gate piers to the front garden, dated 1750. The house retains its original six-panelled door with transom light, and there are 12-pane sash windows. The slate roof has a pair of dressed granite chimneystacks with dripstones, and three early attic dormers.

In the rear wall of the house is an unchamfered round arch - apparently contemporary with the house and one of only three recorded examples in Jersey.

Adjoining to the east of the house is a two-storey wing, aligned roughly north-south, with a further three-bay building, (No 4) Home Farm Cottage

There are converted outbuildings to the east, and forming a farmyard to the rear of the main house. On the east side of the group is a detached two-storey, five-bay range (5 Home Farm) with rubble stone walling and brick dressings. This was substantially rebuilt in 2010.

On the roadside is a two-storey 18th century range of rubble granite with dressed openings. The converted outbuildings to the rear of the house (1 and 2 Home Farm) retain their original footprint and some external walling, but were otherwise demolished and rebuilt in 2010.

These converted outbuildings are of group value and an integral part of the character and historical arrangement of the farmstead.

The farmhouse retains its original plan and several interior features of note, including a pair of large granite fireplaces on the ground floor, and historic joinery throughout - such as a mahogany staircase and six-panel doors.

Old Jersey Houses

In Volume One Joan Stevens describes the property as follows:

"There is a round arch in the north of a house which is patently a mid-18th century one, and a good example, with meadows to the east from which one has a view of Mont Orgueil Castle.

"But it is an unchamfered arch. A possible solution is that the builder bowed to fashion with regard to the front of the house, but hankered after the older custom of a round arch, and decided to have one put in on the north. But by 1741, the date on the front, most of the masons had discarded the old style, and with it the chamfer." ^[1]

Haymaking in 1947

Reminiscences

In 1983 Raymond Labey, son of John William and Eliza, nee Blampied, shown on the datestone above, was interviewed for Radio Jersey at the age of 94. He was then living in St Martin. The interview was published as part of the Grouville Millennium Book in 2001. These are some excerpts relating to his time at Home Farm, where he was born in 1889, one of nine children.

"We ploughed four farms together. We ploughed Home Farm, Carteret, Les Maltieres and Mr Henry at Rose Farm. Before starting the ploughing season, the one day was set aside to go from farm to farm, opening the furrows, which had to be spread, with forms again, getting the patches ready to start the ploughing.

"Was it a tough life for the women of the house? Oh - it must have been. Yes, at Home Farm we had our own bread - it was baked in the farm oven. The woman would come in on the Thursday afternoon, and set her dough. We would get a bottle of liquid yeast from thop, and Friday morning, she would work her dough and fashion her loaves. You couldn't go to the shop and buy a loaf in those days. We had the same bread the whole week. It was a treat to cut off the first piece of crust and butter it on the crusty side.

"We had five orchards at Home Farm and we made gallons and gallons of cider. Where it went to, I don't know. But everybody walked in the cider press and helped themselves, and the workmen were supposed to have a quart bottle each half day - in the morning and the afternoon. But if they came back halfway through the day, their bottle was empty and they'd fill it up again a second time.

"Every load of potatoes that left Home Farm had to be escorted as far as the Arsenal with a second horse, up the hill. It wook one man the best part of his day to go up and down with the loads.

"The stable manure was stacked in a pit behind the stables and one day, or two days perhaps, would be set aside to cart the manure up to the fields, all in the carts, five heaps in each cart. And two horses on each cart to go to the field because at Home Farm it was always uphill, whichever way you left the farm."

History

This history of the property, abridged from an article published in the Grouville Millennium Book, was written by Trevor Labey:

"This property was built by a branch of the Mallet family. At the time of the 1861 census it was referred to as Mallet House, the Labeys changing its name to Home Farm.

"The earliest Mallet of this branch I could trace was one Philippe Mallet, but during the 18th century the dominant family name was Charles. Certainly it was Charles Mallet, son of Charles Mallet and Jeanne Coutanche, who held the property at the time of its sale to Clement Hemery. Unfortunately the Mallets had become embroiled in decret prroceedings, the relevant deed of sale being passed in September 1827.

"The quality of the stonework in the facade of the house suggests that the Mallets had already become accustomed to a high standard of living as early as the 1740s. With this wealth would have come an increase in the taxes they paid into the parish purse, a contribution which would have enabled them to take an active part in parish affairs. In those days service in the municipality and parish politics in general was restriced to rate payers. In so doing they would have come to enjoy the respect of their small community. Their financial downfall in 1827 must have been a bitter pill to swallow.

"The earliest Hemery tenant at Home Farm would appear to have been Jean Hocquard, brother-in-law of Jean Labey of Carteret Farm. He was a highly respected cattle farmer. After his retirement he seems to have been succeeded by his nephew, Jean Labey, who is known to have farmed a further 18 acres from this site. He died suddenly in August 1852 at the age of only 28, being followed by Philippe Labey (1825-1903) Philippe bought Home Farm from the formidable Anne Marguerite Hemery, the family having retained it ever since.

"It has been claimed that Home Farm was originally a single-storey building. The difference in size in the cornerstones on the western gable would tend to bear this theory out. The extra storey and facade may have been added in 1741, and the garden gate in 1750."