St. Ouen’s Parish Church – (bus route no. 8) – it is not known when the church was first built, but is thought that there was a small thatched chantry chapel on the site of the present chancel. St. Ouen’s church was mentioned in a charter signed by William the Conqueror before he invaded England, so the church must have been in existence before 1066.
This same Norman duke had as his most binding oath, ‘By St. Ouen I swear it’. The saint to whom the church is dedicated and whose emblem of the gold cross on a blue ground is the parish crest, was Dadon, the Bishop of Rouen, the capital of William’s Normandy. A tiny splinter of the saint’s bone is supposed to be built into the main alter.
From the 12th century onwards, many enlargements of the church were carried out to accommodate the increasing population. The chapel was added in both the 13th and 14th centuries and later came the extension nave, the tower and the south and north aisles. During the 16th century the church was changed into a Huguenot temple, as with all island parish churches and all the pews were turned to face the central altar which Holy Communion was celebrated.
Reference: ‘Jersey’ by Sonia Hillsdon.
Park at the suggested parking co-ordinates, a short stroll from here, watch out for the hens roaming around in the lane, no room for swaps or a pen.