St Brelade's Bay

On the coast

St Brelade's Bay The bay from an 1890 painting St Brelade's Bay has long been one of the most popular tourist beaches, and today it is built up along its full length. This is a comparatively recent phenomemon, however, and even between the two world wars the bay remained largely unspoilt Click on Pegman to view the location in Google Street View

Guidebooks

As late as 1844 the following was published in a guidebook:

"You who love Nature in her wildest beauty, you pious souls who seek utter solitude to muse on godly things, come to St Brelade's and you will find the object of your search."

Durell wrote in 1852:

"The bay is enclosed by barren hills covered with heath and furze. The sealine is formed by a sandy down, yet even here the surface is overspread by a dwarfish, creeping rose."

Church

The only building in the bay, probably for centuries, was the parish church, which is on the shoreline at the western end. Quite why it was built here, so far from such centres of population which existed in the 11th or 12th century, is a matter for speculation.

One theory is that in those days the sea level around Jersey's south-west coast was somewhat lower and that there were areas of agricultural land at La Pulente, on St Brelade's St Ouen's Bay coast, which could be reached by walking round the coastline from the church, which was equidistant between that agricultural community, the small village of St Aubin and other farmsteads in the Quennevais Area.

It is perhaps more likely that an earlier chapel had existed where the church was built, which had served a community which sought the isolation of the otherwise uninhabited bay.

A fanciful alternative theory suggests that the original intention was to build a church at Les Quennevais - a more logical location - but the land chosen was special to fairies, who daily moved the workmen's tools and stones to the seaside spot where the church now stands.

Dressed for the beach

An outing to the beach has long been a Jersey tradition. In the early years of the 20th century it was the preserve of those affluent enough to be able to afford the horse and carriage to take them there, and they always dressed for the occasion - not in t-shirts and trainers, but in their Sunday best suits. Hats were seemingly compulsory for ladies and gentlemen in Edwardian days and further protection from the sun was afforded by a dainty parasol: no Factor 30 sunscreen in those days! This picture was taken at the western end of St Brelade's Bay and St Brelade's Bay Hotel, one of the few buildings in the bay in the first decade of the 20th century, can be seen in the background to the right.

Smugglers

An uninhabited bay with a flat, sandy beach, was the perfect location for smugglers and records suggest that contraband was regularly landed in the 19th century. A British Customs House report of 1823 recorded:

"On March 17 a Cawsand boat took in at St Brelade's Bay upwards of 300 ankers of brandy. On March 31 a Plymouth cutter took in at the same place upwards of 600 tubs of brandy and geneva. On June 10 a cutter from East Looe took in at the same place 690 casks of brandy, and during the same month a Cawsand boat took away a large cargo of spirits."

Defences

Not only was the bay ideally suited to smugglers' vessels, but there were fears that it may be chosen for an invasion during the periods in the 18th and 19th centuries when Britain was at war with France. Two coastal round towers with 18-pounder guns on top were built in the bay and still survive, but as historian George Balleine wrote in his The Bailiwick of Jersey, that was not all:

"The sand-dunes were bristling with guns - two 12-pounders on Le Grouin, three 24-pounders where the Hotel l'Horizon now stands, two 12-pounders near the St Brelade's Bay Hotel, three 24-pounders in the churchyard, two more on the point just behind the church, and at each extremity of the bay, at Beau Port and Le Fret, a battery. But when peace came, the gunners were withdrawn and the bay resumed its sleep."

1989 stamp

2014 stamp

2011 stamp

Hotels

The construction of a road from St Aubin, down Mont Sohier into the heart of the bay, and then up La Marquanderie at the western end, encouraged some landowners to build houses, although the relative isolation of the bay ensured that development was still very limited right up to the Second World War.

The Fisherman's Inn, near the church, which had been popular both with fishing folk and, on Sundays, with those attending morning service and not wishing or able to go home and back again for evening service, grew into a large hotel, and some houses were eventually adapted to take in guests and eventually became hotels. Hotel l'Horizon is an example of an establishment which started in this way.

General Boulanger

Among the distinguished visitors to the bay were General Georges Boulanger, whose own political party became very successful in late 19th century France and was thought to be on the verge of staging a coup d'etat when he fled the country when a warrant was issued for his arrest. He spent two years in a house in St Brelade's Bay before committing suicide over the grave of his former mistress in Belgium in 1891.

Post-war development

After the Second World War, which saw the construction of a substantial seawall by the Germans, where sand dunes had previously swept down to the beach, a rapid process of tourism-based development saw St Brelade's Bay established as the most popular island beach with locals and tourists alike. At the peak of the tourism industry from the 1960s to 1990s the beach would be packed tightly from seawall to the sea along its whole length with sun-worshippers.

Today the beach remains almost as popular and the bay is extensively developed with hotels, cafes, restaurants, private houses and apartment blocks, and every spare space in between is given over to car parks.

Parks and gardens

This development is interrupted only by colourful gardens alongside the seafront promenade and the quiet oasis of the Winston Churchill Memorial Garden in the backdrop of the bay, a tribute to Britain's wartime leader.

Other articles

• A history of St Brelade's Bay from the Jersey Archive What's your street's story? presentations Added 2016
• 'Pop' Newman

360-degree panoramic views

St Brelade's Parish Church and the bay

St Brelade's Bay

From the jetty

On the beach

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  This tinted photograph shows that before the bay was developed for tourism, it was a fertile, coastal plain with a network of small fields, as well as dunes and heath land
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  Looking east from the garden of Clos du Coleron in 2023

Early 1800s

Three sketches of the bay and its aproaches by artist Henry Irwin, dating, it is believed, to the first decade of the 19th century

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Pre-war

Beach bungalows and early cafes, and no seawall

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  The bay viewed from Mont Sohier in 1870

Early 20th century views

These six images showing similar views of St Brelade's Bay illustrate clearly how little development there was in the bay, even as recently as the 1950s.

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  1920s
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  1932
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  1930s
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  1954

Click on images below to see larger picture

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  Beach tents in 1904
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  An 1870 etching by Benoist
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  19th century slide
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  Ouaisne and St Brelade's Bay in the 1930s
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  1930s
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  1940s

The newly completed promenade in 1955

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  Hotels in a sparsely developed bay
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  The bay in winter
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  1950
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  1915
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  Punch and Judy on the beach in the 1960s
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  1950 holidaymaker's photograph
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  1910
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  1925
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  An advertising photograph taken by Michael Bellee in 1964 ...
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  ... and another on the tideline
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  The bay in 1929

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  No development whatsoever in the 19th century
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  A large heated glasshouse next to St Brelade's Bay Hotel
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  Beach huts in front of the hotel

This picture, which we now believe to have been taken in 1938, was found in a photograph album containing photographs of members of the Luftwaffe in Jersey during the German Occupation. It had to have been taken before the Occupation started and somehow come into the possession of the album's compiler because access to the beach would have been prohibited from soon after the arrival of the occupying forces. The photograph also predates the construction by the Germans of the seawall along the length of the bay

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  1920s
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  1930
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  Snow covers the bay, photographed by Claude Cahun
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  A Tuck postcard of the bay
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  1950s
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  A 19th century photograph by Ernest Baudoux
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  A packed beach in 1966
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  1948
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  St Brelade’s and Ouaisne Bays in the 1960s
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  A picture window view of St Brelade’s and Ouaisne Bays
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  Beach tents at St Brelade’s Bay
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  Beach tents at St Brelade’s Bay
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  Looking down on St Brelade’s Bay
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  The house in St Brelade’s Bay where one of the earliest photographers, Thomas Sutton, set up his studio in 1846
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  A 1948 photograph
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  A drawing by J T Satterley
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  A photograph by Godfray
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  From La Société Jersiaise photographic archive
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  1910 photograph from amateur photographer G W McDougal's album held by Jersey Heritage
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  View from above the parish church

Mid-20th century photograph of the bay

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  Parking was still allowed on the western end of the beach in the 1950s
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  A busy beach in the 1970s
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  A Victorian outing
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  The promenade gardens
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  St Brelade's Bay in 1890
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  A quiet, undeveloped bay in 1906
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  The bay in 1959
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  A 1977 picture
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  The seaside gardens
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  The bay in 1862
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  A 19th century lantern slide
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  The western approach to the bay photographed by Caroline Slater in the mid-19th century

After an aerial joyride from the beach

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  The bay in 1857
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  The bay in the 1920s
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  The bay in the 1960s ...
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  ... and another 1960s view
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Boat trips from the small jetty at the western end of the bay. It is believed that this picture might have been taken in 1911 when groups were being taken out to view the Roebuck which was stranded on the offshore Kaine's Rock

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  Beauport Battery at the western end of the bay
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  Beauport Battery
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  The bay in 1865
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  The bay in the 1960s
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  Beauport Battery
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  The bay in 1929
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  The bay in 1963
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  The bay in 1968

1869

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1809 drawing by Stead

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  A 1949 photograph
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  A picture from 1955
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  St Brelade's Bay photographed by Henry George Allix
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  The bay in 1882
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  1960s
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  Greve de St Brelade 1907
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  Greve de St Brelade 1910
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  The bay in the 1930s
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  1957
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  1960s
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  An undeveloped bay in the mid-19th century - picture by Ernest Baudoux

A picture taken in 1862 with Thomas Sutton's panoramic lens

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  1913
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  1960s
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  1902
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  1913
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  1930s

Before a seawall was built by the Germans during the Occupation, residents in seaside bungalows had direct access to the beach

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  1961
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  1907
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  1971
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  Hinde postcard
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  A photograph of the bay, not a postcard, taken around 1900
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  1970s
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  St Brelade's Bay
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  1930
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  1939
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  A picture by Ernest Baudoux
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  A picture by Ernest Baudoux
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  1933 aerial photograph by Aerofilms
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  1933 aerial photograph by Aerofilms
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  1933 aerial photograph by Aerofilms
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  1900 - the jetty was much longer than it is now and the sea wall had not been built. Plants can be seen growing right down to the beach
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  1930s

The bay in 1937, already popular with tourists but relatively undeveloped

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  1920s or 30s
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  1900
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  1870s
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  A family group on the beach in the 1930s
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  JMT bus stop
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  Le Coleron headland
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  Albumen print of the bay
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  1909
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  1880s
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  1890
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  The beach in 1930
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  A family photograph above the bay in 1930
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  Horse and cart in St Brelade's Bay
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  1882
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  A sketch of the bay
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  1903 - photograph by Albert Smith
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  1965
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  1900
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  1980s
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  1924
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  1903
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  1955 - Evening Post picture
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  1955 - Evening Post picture
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  1955 - Evening Post picture
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  1964
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  1964
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  1978 - Evening Post picture
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  1978 - Evening Post picture

1936

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  1914
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  Mont Sohier
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  St Brelade's Bay with Ouaisne behind
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  Tomatoes growing in St Brelade's Bay
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  Before the sea wall was built
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  1890s
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  View from the sea in 1900
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  Before the seawall was built and land reclaimed behind it, some properties had their own protective walls and direct access to the beach
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  1894
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  The jetty at the western end of the bay
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  Car park in the 1970s
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  Les Creux, 1893
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  Hutton photograph
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  Hutton photograph
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  19th century
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  1903

A crowded beach in 1965. The tent and deckchair concession was run by Anne, nee Luce, wife of Cecil Corbin, of furniture shop Corbins. It was here that Colin Parry arrived as a teenager with a mate from Cardif and Ann saw them sleeping on the beach and not a penny to their name. She gave them a job putting tents up and putting deckchairs out. He started Sovereign Car Hire which his son was running in 2019

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  1956
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  1977 - Picture Jersey Evening Post
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  1870s
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  LL postcard
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  LL postcard
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  LL postcard
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  LL postcard
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  Philip Godfray photograph
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  From a 1961 tourism brochure
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  A busy beach in 1965
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  The bay with Ouaisne in the background
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  An Aerofilms aerial photograph showing Ouaisne in the foreground and St Brelade's Bay behind
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  The seaside gardens in 1966
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  An 1855 etching
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  Mont Sohier is the hill leading to the eastern end of the bay

Heads turned by the sight of an MG sports car on the sand in the late 1940s

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  A rare picture showing bathing huts in the bay
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  The bay in 1905
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  A view from the eastern end of the bay
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  The gardens in 1910
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  1906
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  1923
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  1923
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  1875 print
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  1920s
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  1920s
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  1920s
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  Picture courtesy of Facebook group Jersey Temps Passe
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  A view from the sea
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  A drawing showing the new sea wall constructed by the Germans during the Occupation
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  This photograph, taken by Henry Mullins in the 1860s, is believed to be one of the earliest surviving of St Brelade's Bay, but the exact location is unknown
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  Strolling along the seafront on a sunny day in 1950
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  1930s
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  1930s
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  1930s
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  1932 - no seawall yet. The photograph was taken in front of the Chateau Rocozanne Hotel
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  Seaside bungalows which were removed by the Germans during the Occupation and not allowed to be replaced after the war
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  1859
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  1950s
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  1950s
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  1869
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  The slipway next to the church at the western end of the bay
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  1950s
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  1955
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  1978
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  1970s
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  The bay was once popular with smugglers

1870s photograph by Philip Godfray

St Brelade’s Bay development

Two pictures of St Brelade’s Bay, and although the gap between when they were taken is only about 30 years, the change in the bay has been dramatic. The picture above probably dates from the first decade of the 20th century, and at this stage, although Jersey was already building a reputation as a holiday island, visitors had still not discovered the lovely golden sands of St Brelade’s Bay. There were few buildings and the appearance of the bay was much as any of the other small villages dotted around the island. Move forward about 30 years and the view of the same stretch of the bay from the opposite direction shows a proliferation of houses on the slopes above the bay, and substantial tourism development on the coastline. On the beach to the left we see organised sports in progress with a large crowd watching the start of a race, probably involving holdaymakers staying at one of the large hotels which were so busy in the pre-war years.

The 1976 heatwave

The summer of 1976 was one of the longest and hottest on record. These pictures were taken by a Jersey Evening Post photographer on the beach in St Brelade's Bay at the height of the heatwave

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1979

And more pictures from the Jersey Evening Post in 1979

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2021 view from a drone by Paul Lakeman

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  Two more Paul Lakeman images from 2024
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German Occupation

These pictures of the bay during the German Occupation come from an official German army collection. For the full set of pictures of German installations across the whole of the island, follow this link

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  Le Grouin sentry post
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  Machine gun at Le Grouin
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  St Brelade's Bay gun turret