Category: History

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What’s in a Name – L’Ancresse Bay

L’Ancresse – The Anchorage. (place name) Corruption of Norman French ‘ancre’ – anchor
So, no surprise then that this flat sandy bay in the north of the island should be named as an “anchorage”. What is surprising though is one of the stories associated with how it was given this name. That is the story of when Robert “the devil” Duke of Normandy met the Abbot of St Michel du Valle

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Guernsey’s Occupation : Resistance & Punishment – Frank Falla’s Story

During the occupation of the Channel Islands it’s thought that about 1300 Channel Islanders were imprisoned in Jersey and Guernsey prisons during the occupation for acts of protest, defiance and resistance. Of these, at least 200 people were deported to Nazi prisons, labour and concentration camps on the continent. One of the most well known acts of resistance was the production of an underground News Letter “The Guernsey Underground News Service” or GUNS for short.

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Trafalgar : The Royal Navy’s Greatest Ever Victory ?

The Battle of Trafalgar was to witness both the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s plans to invade Britain, and the death of Admiral Lord Nelson. It was never going to be any ordinary battle, and quickly acquired a heightened, almost magical, reality.

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English Language History : What Caused the Great Vowel Shift?

English is arguably the single most important and influential language in today’s world. It does however contain many vagaries and annoying inconsistencies. One of which is the variations of how vowel combinations should be pronounced. For example, the ‘ea’ in ‘bread’ is pronounced the same as the ‘e’ in ‘bred,’ and not the same as the ‘ea’ in ‘break. This is down to “The Great Vowel Shift”

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Were the Moon Landings Fake ? – Debunking The Conspiracy Theories

To have to be forced to even think about debunking this question is something of a sad indictment of our current zeitgeist. That said, the Moon Landing conspiracy, is one of those theories that seems to persist – so we’ll give it our best shot to explain the most pertinent objections that are often quoted as ‘proof’ that it was all fake, and nothing more than an attempt to humiliate the Russians and hoodwink the world in the cause of American glory.

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The Origins of England’s Three Lions

“It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming, Football’s coming home ” – So goes the ever popular 1996 “Three Lions” song. So when did the three lions symbol come to be used as England’s royal arms and therefore on the England team shirts ? The answers is somewhat surprising and reveals why in the past we might’ve been singing “three leopards on a shirt”

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Guernsey and Her Island Fiefs

One of the most enduring effects of Guernsey’s association with Normandy is the system of fiefs in the island. The island’s link with the Crown is feudal, as the Queen is still Duchess of Normandy. In this article we look at how Guernsey’s fiefs came about and how they worked.

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Guernsey’s Buried Artillery – Guns in Victoria Gardens

Standing opposite each other in Victoria Gardens opposite the Town Fire Station, like sentinels from another age, you’ll find two heavy calibre artillery pieces – trophies of a previous war. They’re not British or even French but German and date back not to the dark days of Occupation but to the First World War. How they came to be here and their survival through another world war, and subsequent re-discovery, is even more fascinating.

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