A WEEK was a long time in politics for Harold Wilson during his time as PM, which has meant the wait to get Jersey’s new Heritage Act into law has been a very long one.
The draft legislation was published in late July, more than 13 years after the discovery of an enormous hoard of Celtic coins [Le Câtillon 2] by two metal detectorists highlighted why a new law was needed.
Jersey Heritage has worked closely with the government’s law drafting office during this time, making it an appropriate time to sit down with chief executive Jon Carter, who first joined the organisation three-and-a-half decades ago.
The Island has moved to bring in its own version of the Treasure Act, which came into force in England and Wales in 1996 and regulates how archaeological finds should be dealt with.
“The Treasure Act set the tone for what’s happened subsequently, and Jersey did have a discussion in the late ’90s about about putting in place legislation along those lines,” he said. “But I guess there have always been other other priorities.
“What happened with Le Câtillon 2 was that it ended up in the public domain for the public to enjoy and experts to research, so to that extent, it was happy ending.
“But it took ten years between the discovery and the acquisition, which tells you quite a lot about the shortcomings of the legal situation, so certainly after that, the government understood the need for a modern statute.”
Mr Carter stresses that the Heritage Act has a far wider scope that gold and silver, with such buried treasure already partly covered by the concept of “treasure trove” in customary law.
“A lot of the focus has been on Le Câtillon, but it’s important to remember that finds like that are exceptional,” he said. “Whereas almost every day, certainly every week, people are finding bronze axes, or Iron Age pottery or Neolithic flint, and all the stuff that hasn’t been protected by law before because treasure trove is only about gold and silver – there is a really huge range of archaeological material.”
The new legislation is currently the subject of a consultation phase, lasting until 8 September, and is then due to be lodged for debate in the States Assembly before the end of the year and – all going to plan – come into force next year. Mr Carter is in little doubt about its significance.
“I think it’s the most important thing in heritage management in Jersey in the last 25 years, since the Public Records Law which really established the basis of the Jersey Archive service,” he said.
“This law is important because its’s about bringing in a sustainable system for looking after the things that we want to pass on to the next generation and the resources needed to support that.”
In moving towards the new act becoming law, Jersey has also benefited from the work carried out in another Crown Dependency, as Mr Carter explained.
“In the Isle of Man there was underlying archaeological legislation in an act from 1959, but it didn’t really address the the treasure trove issue – that was partly covered in a Treasure Act from 1586 which – like our customary law in Jersey – had certain ambiguities.
“There was a discovery called the Glenfaba hoard [in the Isle of Man in 2003] and that was very controversial and difficult to determine, because reliance on the 16th century act proved that it wasn’t really a reliable way to manage archaeology.
As with Le Câtillon, it worked out OK in the end, but it exposed an awful lot of problems, so the Manx government acted quite quickly, and produced their own Treasure Act in 2017.”
Although the law-drafting preparations have drawn on the experience gained in the UK and the Isle of Man, with Jersey Heritage acting as a contracted advisor to the government, the Island’s solution is intended to be a bespoke one, Mr Carter emphasised.
“I think we’ve got to a really good solution, because it retains the Jersey customary law of treasure trove, unlike in England and the Isle of Man.
“Customary law is absolutely fundamental to our constitutional relationship with the rest of Britain, isn’t it, and also it’s a really important part of our intangible cultural heritage – it speaks to our ancient links with Normandy. So I think that there was a sort of keenness to to to keep custom, the customary law, but obviously that needs to operate in a way which, you know, works for modern archaeological legislation.
“So it’s been incredibly interesting and I think the end result is to move from a situation where there was a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty, and therefore a lot of vulnerability, to a new law that provides now a great deal of clarity for the government, the Crown, heritage authorities, as well as for landowners and finders – it’s a much cleaner, simpler and fairer way ahead.”
The fact that the end is in sight for the new Heritage Act prompts a slightly mischievous enquiry about whether Mr Carter might think his work at Jersey Heritage is done, but he’s having none of that.
He said: “I’m looking forward to this law passing, but I’m also looking forward to sorting out the German estate, I’m looking forward to finishing the work we started at La Cotte to stabilise that, I’m looking forward to getting UNESCO designation for the Geopark, so I don’t feel my work is done yet, but I’m hoping that it may be in the next few years.”
The reference to the “German estate” reflects Mr Carter’s desire that the Island makes the most of the features left behind after five years of Occupation.
“We run six visitor sites, including the castles and museum and we see about 200,000 people a year at those but we know a lot more visit the free to access sites, including the German bunkers, and other features like the dolmens, the 18th century guardhouses, the bunkers, the round towers, and I think it’s really important to recognise that these are part of the heritage attraction of Jersey.
“We’ve been working with the government and the occupation society to look at a better approach to managing the Occupation remains – there are about 60 individual German Occupation sites owned by the public, and we think quite a lot of them could be better managed to make much more of the Occupation story, which is of such huge interest.
“There may not be a lot of commercial opportunity for Jersey Heritage in these Occupation sites, but they are of great value to the Island, so it is important they are included.”
Mr Carter said he felt that greater levels of collaboration had been achieved by those running major attractions, with Heritage working more closely with the likes of Jersey Zoo and the Jersey War Tunnels in a bid to attract visitors to the Island.
Jersey Heritage is also involved with looking after visitors after they arrive through the establishment, in partnership with the government, of a visitor centre within Jersey Museum.
There is also a focus on the Island’s landscape and natural beauty, with Jersey Heritage playing a leading role in the bid to achieve Geopark status from the United Nations.
Mr Carter added: “The value of heritage is in the holistic character of a place, and that includes the cliffs and the North Coast footpath and the bays and the beaches and this incredible story of hundreds of thousands of years of geological development and what’s that’s produced in terms of the wildlife and cultural life of the Island.
“It’s been an interesting project that will continue to develop for the next couple of years – I think that’s what it may take in order to achieve that UNESCO brand, which will really help promote the Island.”
Another key project has been the restoration of two buildings at Elizabeth Castle, namely the military hospital and the officers quarters, with around £7 million invested, the majority from government, in these features to provide a different appeal to the castle’s attraction.
Larger groups are now able to stay overnight at Elizabeth Castle, providing a unique setting for retreats, team-bonding exercises or other opportunities to get away from it all.
“It really picks up on the history of the site,” Mr Carter explained. “It’s been a fortress over the past 400 years or so, but for more than 1,000 years before that, it was a monastery, right from the time of Helier through to the middle of the Reformation, so the retreat thing picks up on that.”
There’s always more to do – at Elizabeth Castle alone there are potentially up to nine other buildings that could potentially be restored, reinforcing Mr Carter’s assertion about his job not being done.
The chief executive is proud of his organisation’s wide-ranging role, covering archives, museums and historic environment, and its growth since he joined as an assistant curator of social history in September 1989. And this pride extends to the financial model, which sees Jersey Heritage raise about 40% of the funding for its operational costs from income from its sites, with the balance coming from government, a higher proportion than similar jurisdictions.
Before long it’s time to head upstairs into Jersey Museum to find our photographer’s chosen location for the chief exec’s photo-shoot. Last time he had been shivering on the beach at Ouaisné, this time he’s inside in St Helier – there’s no shortage of potential backdrops under the Heritage remit.
