A ‘last bastion’ for some species

Weather. Autumn colours. Grouville marsh. Picture: JON GUEGAN

GROUVILLE Marsh is one of the Island’s best-kept secrets – and the people whose job it is to protect this important ecological wetland would like to keep it that way.

It is so important to the Island’s environment, and for the indigenous wildlife and bird species which migrate to Jersey to breed, that access to its centre is restricted to a few weeks a year.

The marsh and surrounding water meadows cover 89.5 vergées, stretching from Les Prés Manor to the beginnings of Gorey Village, and between Chemin des Maltières and Rue à Don. It is owned largely by the Chefs Tenants du Fief de la Reine, Grouville – a group of parishioners with feudal property rights to the parish’s ancient common land – and the National Trust for Jersey.

Together with the Chef Tenants, the trust looks after the land as a nature reserve, with a regular programme of reed bed and willow management to safeguard and enhance biodiversity.

Chequered past

Grouville Marsh – also known as Les Maltières – is one of the most important remaining areas of low-lying wet meadow in Jersey, and a close second in environmental importance to St Ouen’s Pond, another National Trust site. It was designated as a Site of Special (Ecological) Interest in 2009.

The marsh contains ponds, reed beds, hedgerows, flood meadows and copses, and the most secluded parts are still much the same as they were 6,000 years ago when the Island was covered with woodland.

The surrounding farmland and fields are in private ownership but are largely farmed organically and are monitored to protect the SSI.

Grouville Marsh has not always been so carefully looked after. During the Occupation, it was the site of a forced labour camp and a railway ran through it to enable the occupying forces to carry stone from the German quarry in Chemin des Maltières to the coast where they built the sea-wall defences from Longbeach to Fort Henry. The Germans also extracted peat.

After the Liberation, parts were drained to create farmland and an area became the parish refuse dump but, fortunately, proposals to develop it for housing – or as a site for a new parish hall – came to nothing.

The public are encouraged to use its edges and footpaths are maintained in the flood meadows opposite the Royal Jersey Golf Course as a natural alternative to the cycle track alongside the busy main road.

However, access to the site is poor and the terrain hazardous, especially in winter when much of the area may be flooded.

Lands manager Jon Parkes says that, apart from guided tours in the autumn and school visits in selected areas, the site, unlike so much of the trust’s land, is not open to the public.

‘There is also a real concern over safety,’ he said. ‘The site has lots of undulating surfaces and wet ditches filled with vegetation and mud. It would be very easy for someone to get stuck in a hole, which is another reason why we don’t allow the public access into the marsh.

‘The relatively small size and scarcity of other wetland habitats across the Island is really why this site is so important. If you look at the marsh on the map, you will notice that it’s completely surrounded by development, which is the main threat. It really is a “last bastion” for some species that have specific requirements, such as reed beds.

‘Most of the Island’s wetlands have been drained for agriculture or housing and this is still continuing. And it is not just the threat from being built on.

‘More buildings mean more people, noise, domestic cats and disturbance, all of which can have a negative effect on wildlife in a nature reserve.’

Nature’s cornucopia

Grouville Marsh supports a complex biodiversity of plants, trees, insects, small mammals and, most notably, local and migratory birds.

Bird-ringing and monitoring has been undertaken at the site by two
generations of an Island family since 1974 as part of the Channel Islands Bird Ringing Scheme.

It began with Eddie Buxton who was joined by sons Dave and Ian, and now Dave’s daughter, Alex, is following in their footsteps. When Eddie died ten years ago, the brothers carried on his legacy.

Over the past 47 years, 112 species – including honey buzzard, corncrake, hen harrier, little bittern and thrush nightingale – have been recorded by the family and other trained and licensed bird ringers.

Dave says that, year after year, they record birds that return annually from Africa and Russia to breed in the same reed beds in the marsh where they hatched.

‘We do it to monitor exactly how the birds live their lives in this protected area and because it is so important for [bird] migration,’ Dave said.

‘The marsh is a very important staging place where birds pass through and it is also an important breeding area for quite a few warbler species.

‘It is also an important wintering ground for species like woodcock and various ducks and a resting place for reed bunting throughout the year.’

Other bird species which inhabit or visit the marsh include reed bunting, short-toed tree creeper and brent geese.

What else to look
out for:

nPlants: Common reed, water mints and cyperus sedges which occur at only one other site in the Island.

nTrees: Drack and goat willow and grey, Lombardy and black Italian poplars.

nMammals: Jersey bank voles and red squirrels.

nBeetles: More then 280 beetle species (25% of the Jersey total) including red-brown skipjack.

nInsects: Dragonflies, crickets and pink-barred sallow moth.

nButterflies: Meadow brown, small tortoiseshell and clouded yellow.

Jardin de la Croix
de la Bataille

In 1406, more than 1,000 French and Spanish armed mercenaries invaded the Island.

Although outnumbered three to one, they defeated local forces on sand dunes – now West Park and the Esplanade – with survivors retreating to Castel Sedement, a well fortified area in Trinity.

The following day the invaders marched eastwards to attack Mont Orgueil Castle. When they reached the heights of Grouville, another battle took place, so fierce that an adjacent lane – Rue des Alleurs – is still known as Blood Hill. Blood dripping from injured soldiers being carried to Grouville Church was said to have stained the road.

The site of the battle was marked with a cross, hence the name La Croix de la Bataille. However, the cross was removed in the 1540s when Edward VI decreed that all Roman Catholic emblems be destroyed.

The triangular piece of ground that survived between road junctions was gifted to the National Trust in 1937 by Vice-Admiral Edward de Faye Renouf.

Orchids in the east

The flowering of wild orchids in St Ouen’s Bay is a well-established attraction in the spring but a similar site in Grouville is gaining equal significance.

Le Pré and Le Don Obbard are meadows on the fringes of the Samarès or Rue de Prés wetland on the Grouville and St Clement border, where loose-flowered, spotted and southern marsh orchid bloom in May and June.

Unlike Le Noir Pré in St Ouen, there is no parking so the meadows are only accessible by foot or bicycle from Rue du Coin.

Under the trust’s management since 2005, as a result of hay-cutting and grazing, numbers of loose-flowered orchids increased from 61 in 2010 to just under 7,000 in 2016.

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