L'Abri des Hougues

Historic Jersey buildings L'Abri des Hougues, Trinity This property, shown here in a 1893 photograph, was previously wrongly included among our St Martin houses, based on an incorrect address given in La Société Jersiaise's photographic archive. A trace of the 1893 roof with its gable window now blocked, is clearly visible in the main picture, on the left Index of all house profiles 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

Property name

L'Abri des Hougues

Original names

• Les Hougues
• Les Hougues Cottage, being later named L`Abri des Hougues, was the original farmhouse
• Les Hougues Farm - see datestones - to distinguish the new farmhouse from the old, now called "cottage"

Location

Route des Côtes du Nord, Trinity

Type of property

Much altered old Jersey granite cottage, mansard roof and rear extension added in 20th century. The well, less than a metre from the front door, was hidden by ivy in the top right-hand picture. In the main picture, a few lines of circular masonry is all that remains of the former well housing, which was removed as it blocked much of the sitting-room light. The well, itself, survives to the original depth.

Families associated with the property

• de Gruchy: Gilles de Gruchy, a younger son from the nearby property named Sous Les Bois, is recorded in the Jersey Land Registry on 21 October 1699, as buying land here, at Les Hougues. There is no mention of a house. In 1710, Gilles was sued by the master of the Jolie Anne, Thomas Perchard, for not having paid for two voyages to the Ecréhous, probably for cargoes of stone, as the house has Ecréhous stone in the west gable, which was still visible in the 1990s. Gilles had an elder son named Hugh de Gruchy, whose burial entry in the Trinity register, gives his address as also being Les Hougues. Hugh, as a teenager, had been apprenticed to a neighbouring shoemaker. The lad had, however, different ideas. His father was sued before the Cour de Samedi on 18 Sept. 1708 for not delivering up his son to complete the term of his apprenticeship, by his master, Edouard de la Lande. It seems that Hugh had signed up, instead, for a voyage on the privateer Trois Aigles, 1708-9! On Hugh`s eventual death, the property was inherited by his daughter Marie (1717- ), who married Jean Cabot. Their eldest son Jean (1745-1803) inherited on Marie's death. He married Elizabeth de Gruchy, so the property was temporarily back in the family. It later passed into the hands of the Starck family, not by purchase in the 19th century, as originally suggested, but through the marriage of Jean George Cabot (1793-1839) to Marie Starck (1790-1867). Marie outlived her husband and their son and the property then passed down through her family.

• Starck: Marjorie Sabina Stephens, nee Starck, was living here when her will was registered in 1954. There are seemingly no records relating to the occupation of the property during the German Occupation. Marjorie appears to have inherited the property from her grandparents, whom she lived with at the age of ten in 1901 when the rest of her family was in London. She disliked the name of the two farms, both old and new, a hougue being a burial mound. She, it was, that amended the name of the cottage, being the original farmhouse, to L`Abri des Hougues, meaning "in the shelter of Les Hougues", the latter retaining the original name.

Among the many charming pictures of this small farm, with its ivy-clad well to the right of the front door, is one below showing a daughter of the family holding a pail between the well and the door, in traditional Jersey country attire. This was Mary Ann Starck (1863-1890).

Datestones

E STARCK 1890 - On gatepost for Edward Starck. Location described in Jersey Datestone Register as Les Hougues Farm

Historic Environment Record entry

It is not clear from the very brief entry whether this building is listed or not: "Single storey, three-bay, much altered. Wellhead in front garden. Shown on the Richmond Map of 1795."

It is suggested that the property may have medieval origins

• de Gruchy family of Les Hougues

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Mrs Herbert, whose grandmother was a Starck, for family information, identifying the girl at the well, and assistance in unravelling the evolving names of the properties

Guardhouse

A guardhouse was built on the cliff behind Les Hougues in the 18th century as part of the defences of Rozel before the barracks were built in the bay

Notes and references

• 
  The old farm cottage with the new 1890s farmhouse in the background. Both were called Les Hougues, being one property
• 
• 
• 
  "Mary Ann by the well", being Mary Ann Starck (Picture supplied by Mrs Faith Herbert)