On this day in 1919

Frederick Macquisten was the MP for Argyll, but that didn’t stop him showing considerable interest in the Jersey butter situation – and the fact that Jersey might be getting more than its fair share. Standing in the House of Commons on 10 November 1919 he claimed that Jersey had more than enough of its own butter, with considerably more than 10,000 cattle and a population of just 40,000 people. Yet, he claimed, despite this the mainland was exporting its own butter to Jersey, which was then being sold on in France. The only sensible course of action, in his view, was for the Minister of Food Control, Charles McCurdy, to “prohibit the export of butter from England to the Channel Islands”.

With the relevant stats to hand, McCurdy refuted Macquisten’s claim that Jersey had more butter than it knew what to do with, and there was no evidence that butter imported to the mainland was subsequently exported to Jersey. Perhaps hoping to call Macquisten’s bluff, he asked for proof that British butter was ending up on French bread.

Whether Macquisten was ever able to obtain the data he required is unclear; there is no further mention of Jersey’s butter consumption in Hansard, the official record of proceedings in the Houses of Parliament.

 

...and on this day in 1980

The decision to flood Queen’s Valley to create a new reservoir provided the scriptwriters on BBC police drama Bergerac with an interesting opportunity. As the house that Jim Bergerac lived in was situated in the valley, the programme’s fourth series opened with him looking for a new house, and thus meeting estate agent Susan Young, played by Louise Jameson. The two became romantically involved and she was a regular cast member from 1985’s The Last Interview, until A True Detective, broadcast in 1990.

Despite the States voting in favour of the flooding, it wasn’t until 1991 – several years after Bergerac had met his beau – that the taps were turned. The BBC’s ambitious Domesday Project explained in 1986 how it had come about: “The decision in the mid 1970s by the Waterworks Company to flood Queen’s Valley, immediately raised a major opposition.  This opposition quickly organised itself and mounted a campaign of tremendous pressure against the flooding. The Waterworks’s figures for projected water consumption were questioned – even 10 years has shown the company to have been wrong- and economies were suggested. In spite of compelling the resignation of the responsible committee in the States as the result of a petition unique in Jersey’s history, the States finally agreed to flood by 1 vote. However, the campaign has continued and the anti-flooding group have still not given up.”

A vote against flooding Queen’s Valley

The issue rumbled on for years and a petition against the flooding organised in response to the vote attracted more than 11,000 names at a time when Jersey’s population stood at just under 80,000. According to a report in The Times on 10 December 1985, one of their concerns was the wording of the draft law that would enable the reservoir’s construction. “If objectors find as the project goes ahead that they dislike some aspect of it, they will not be able to challenge it in court,” the paper explained. If the law was allowed to pass in that form, the challengers said, it could set a precedent, and so they intended to appeal to the Queen, who owned land in the valley, since the law would not be valid unless she approved it.

The saga still had a long time to run, with plans being scuppered when an investor acquired 30% of the water company in 1981, and the States itself receiving bad news in 1990.

 

...and on this day in 2000

Ramsar wetlands enjoy protected status, in line with the Convention on Wetlands, better known as the Ramsar Convention. The convention was established in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971 and came into force in 1975.

Jersey’s south east coast was designated because of its important reefs, shingle shores and lagoons. With a rich biodiversity, it is home to waders and wildfowl, and the Violet Bank that sits within it is one of the largest igneous intertidal reef sites in Europe.