Coast Gallery: Spotlight on Le Hocq

Maritime historian Doug Ford continues his series celebrating Jersey’s coastline, with a look at the history of Le Hocq

The name Le Hocq is derived from the Jèrrias word for headland.

The beach to the west looking back to Rocqueberg is Havre des Fontaines, although it has also been known as Le Havre du Hoc and Havre ès Maques.

Commander Richards of the Royal Navy produced a survey of the Island which shows the spring on the shore that gave the bay its name. The sandy beach to the east is simply called Havre ès Cabots.

Doug Ford at Le Hocq

About 1770 the States decided that because the old guard house at Rocqueberg was in a ruinous state, rather than repair it a new parish guard house should be built at Havre de Hocq.

The importance of some sort of defensive focal point in this part of the parish was reinforced during the American Wars of Independence (1776-1783) when the French declared war on Britain in support of the colonial rebels and Jersey was once more on the frontline.

In the late spring of 1778 General Sir Henry Seymour Conway, the Governor of Jersey, ordered a series of round towers to be built around the coast to defend the Island. At the same time the Jersey Militia recommended that a tower and battery should be built at Le Hocq because it was one of the openings in the rocks ‘frequented by the fisher boats and smugglers from France’.

We don’t know exactly when the tower at Le Hocq was built but it was certainly there at the time of the Battle of Jersey because in June 1781 the Constable was authorised to build a seawall in front of it. It is also significant that rather than continue along the coast and pass Le Hocq on his way to St Helier, Du Rullecourt turned his troops inland at Pontac.

Governor of Jersey General Sir Henry Seymour Conway ordered a series of round towers to be built in 1778

Like the other Conway towers entry was by a door on the first floor, reached by a ladder, which could be drawn inside if there was any danger. It tapered slightly from about 10.5 metres in diameter at the base to about 8.7 metres at the top. Inside it was divided so that stores and gunpowder (20 barrels) were kept were on the ground floor while the upper two floors served as the living quarters for one sergeant and eight or ten men from the militia.

Four machicolations sticking out from the top of the tower allowed marksmen on the roof to fire down onto anyone trying to shelter at its base. On the roof of the tower was an 18-pounder carronade. Next to the tower was a small paved area with a low wall behind which were another three cannons.

In 1840 the marine painter Clarkson Frederick Stanfield (1793-1867) painted The Round Tower at Le Hocq showing what appears to be the building of the sea wall around the base of the tower.

Between 1970 and 1989 the tower served as a base for the Jersey Amateur Radio Society. Today it has a white patch painted on the seaward side which serves as a daymark for shipping.

Royalist emigrés

Of course, this wasn’t the only fortification in the area for in 1794, during the French Revolution, the States and the British military authorities gave the French Royalist emigrés in Jersey permission to organise themselves into a military force and to build a small fort on the high ground just above Le Hocq to act as their headquarters.

With great originality they called it Le Fort des Emigrés. In 1795 there were 3,500 male emigrés of military age in the Island and they were all conscripted into regiments to land in Brittany to fight the Revolutionaries.

Unfortunately, because so many of them belonged to what could be termed the officer class there tended to be ‘more chiefs than indians’.

Their intervention around Quiberon could not be described as successful and most failed to return. Their fort fell into disuse and was demolished in 1803.

Icho Tower

Work on this Martello tower started late in the Napoleonic War in the summer of 1810 and the first men were stationed out there in 1811.

Before the tower was here an Iron Cross served as a navigation mark. Now the top of the tower is painted white to serve the same purpose. It is inadvisable to walk out to the tower without local knowledge or an experienced guide.

Fishermen and farmers both used the beaches at Le Hocq and at times access for horse and carts was difficult. The usual route down to the beach was to the side of the tower.

In April 1861 the Jersey Independent reported that Jurat Lerrière was going to ask the States to build a slipway at Le Hocq, which he thought would cost £450. On 18 May 1861, six weeks

later, when he introduced his proposition the cost had risen by 11% to £500 – nothing really changes.

A States committee was set up to oversee the work and six months later they invited tenders for the work. Given that everyone knew how much was available I bet there were no prizes for how much the tenders came in at.

In 1873 life in Le Hocq changed dramatically for the Jersey Eastern Railway began its service from Green Street, St Helier to Grouville – it would later run from Snow Hill to Gorey Pier – and Le Hocq got its own station just up La Rue du Hocq which meant that Town was only eight minutes away.

The line carried on eastwards joining what is now the main coast road just before the top of the rise leading down to Pontac.

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