A history of Fort Regent
What's your street's story? -
Fort Regent
The Fort Parade ground photographed by Albert Smith in the early 20th century
This article is based on material produced for the Jersey Archive ‘What’s your Story?’ series.
Fort Regent straddles Mont de la Ville (Town Hill) and Petit Mont de la Ville (South Hill). The Fort was built during the period when the Napoleonic Wars dominated Europe.
The experience of invasion by the French in 1781, which led to the Battle of Jersey, was still fresh in people's minds, with Elizabeth Castle having proved inadequate as the main military stronghold of the island.
The prominent position of Mont de la Ville and its value as a defensive position was was identified as early as 1550 in a document from the reign of Edward VI, which noted that the town had no place of strength to retire to in case of invasion and recommended that the town should be moved to the hill so that it could be made 'strong and defensible'.
Weekend walks
By the 18th century Mont de la Ville was mostly common land and was frequently used by townspeople for walks. Falle wrote that Mont de la Ville was a 'lovely walk with most extended prospects on all sides', and Durell said that 'on Sundays and holidays it was the best frequented walk in the neighbourhood of the town'.
After the Battle of Jersey work was carried out at Mont de la Ville and, in 1785, a dolmen was discovered there. Henry Seymour Conway, Governor of Jersey from 1772 to 1795, described the discovery as follows:
- 'It then happened that the colonel of the St Helier Militia, wanting to level the ground for the exercise of his corps, the workmen soon struck the stones, and the temple they discovered has afterwards been cleared as it now stands.'
The dolmen was offered to Conway by the Vingtaine de la Ville as a gift from the island after a meeting on 6 November 1787.
By 1795 lines or fieldworks at Mont de la Ville can clearly be seen on the Richmond Map. The land was in the ownership of the Vingtaine de la Ville, but after some dispute the procureurs of the Vingtaine sold the property to the Crown in 1804.
Powder magazine fire
Construction of a powder magazine had begun by June of that year , when a crowd gathered on the hill to see a Royal Salute fired and a flag hoisted in celebration.
Philip Lys, the signal officer, noticed that smoke was pouring from the magazine and sounded the alarm. All the soldiers fled for their lives, except Lys, Private Penteney and a carpenter named Edouard Touzel, who burst open the door to find that a careless gunner had placed a smouldering rope back in the magazine.
As the door was opened the three men could see that the fire would soon spread to the barrels of gunpowder stored in the magazine and cause a destructive explosion. They removed the burning rope and extinguished the fire.
For their heroism the men were rewarded: Lys and Touzel each received 5,000 livres sterling from public funds and Penteney was awarded an annuity of 288 livres for the rest of his life. Each also received a gold medal valued at £12.
General Humfrey
Lieut-General John Humfrey was the man responsible for the planning and construction of Fort Regent. He was appointed to Jersey in 1800 and remained in the island until the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815.
On 14 May 1806 Humfrey prepared a Plan of the Ordnance, Land and Buildings adjoining the Town Hill of St Helier, shewing also the new works carring on and the way it is proposed to form the ground lately purchased.
His plan consisted of two drawings; a plan of the entire complex extending from Snow Hill to La Collette (Pointe des Pas) showing the current state of the defences and an overlay showing his proposals for the fort.
In a letter dated May 1810 Humfrey gave an insight into the work patterns expected of the men. They were employed to work from 5am to 7pm six days per week.
The masons, who had recently arrived, said that it was impossible to stand their heavy work for 12 hours a day, because it was much more fatiguing than their usual work in England.
Garrison soldiers
Work continued at the fort until its completion in 1814. The following year saw the Battle of Waterloo and the end of the Napoleonic Wars, but the fort continued to be garrisoned throughout the 19th century and into the 20th. The 1841 census listed over 300 men and their families at Fort Regent.
The soldiers who came to the island from the 18th to the 20th century became a part of island life. They were called into service against rioters, married Jersey girls and appeared in criminal court and prison registers when they came into conflict with the local population, or, in some cases, tried to desert.
In the 1830s W Mackenzie was one of the many soldiers garrisoned at the fort. During his time in Jersey he wrote frequent letters to his mother in Bristol describing his life in the island. The letters suggest that the life of a garrison officer in that era included many social engagements and parties with islanders.
His first letter, dated 15 August 1836, gives an idea of his social diary over the course of a week:
- "The Monday after I arrived I went to a party at Nichole's; they are Jersey people and rather nice. On Tuesday to a party at Mrs Halford; they are among the elite of the fashionable world, though report says that Mr Halford, a stockbroker, who settled £200 a year on each of his seven daughters, became bankrupt and never paid a penny of his debts.'
On the outbreak of the Second World War Fort Regent was brought into use again and several men started their service careers there. When the Germans invaded the fort was used as accommodation for their troops.
Leisure centre
On 1 March 1958 the States, on behalf of the public of the island, purchased from the Crown 'certain fortifications' known as Fort Regent, which were established by the War Department. The purchase was part of the disposal of all War Department property in the island. The area included the fort itself, the east outworks and the Glacis, but not South Hill, giving a total of 22 acres (or 50 vergees).
The future of the fort was first the responsibility of the Public Works Committee, and then the Special Committee on Former War Department Properties, which was established by the States in December 1959. After much deliberation and rejected plans, a dvelopment report was taken to the States on 12 December 1967 at a cost of £2.65 million. The plan was unanimously approved and the committee's name changed to the Fort Regent Development Committee.
Work started in 1968 when two casements in the north-west redan [1] were converted to a children's play area. A mini-golf and northern redoubts were opened in July 1969 and the cable cars that ran from Snow Hill opened in April 1970.
In 1972 the swimming pool on the Glacis Field was opened. The roof over the parade ground was completed in 1974, the Gloucester Hall in 1978, and Queen's Hall was opened in 1988. [2]
