Museum
Exhibits
Alderney
Prehistory
Roman and Mediaeval Alderney
The Elizabethan Wreck
Alderney Breakwater
The Quarrying Industry
German Military Occupation 1940 - 1945
Island Life
Geology
The Alderney Cow
Alderney
Prehistory
Mesolithic 'flint floors' have been discovered on the island, evidence
of human habitation from the time the Island broke away from the continent.
In 1991, an assessment of the Museum's flint collection revealed that
that flint tool production would have been greater than needed for local
use and therefore would have been intended for trade.
Evidence of Late Neolithic
culture, characterised by the beginning of settled farming, has been
found in the peat at Longis. Some of the peat is well below the present
high tide level and would have been formed at a time when the sea was
perhaps half a mile further out, several metres lower, and the Island
several times larger than today.
By the early Bronze Age,
the rise in sea levels and encroaching sand dunes reduced areas of cultivation,
and threatened it with inundation by sand. A tradition of terrace building
to protect and increase cultivation areas may have have begun at this
time.
The earliest Bronze Age artefact
found to date on the Island is a copper-bronze axe-head-shaped ingot
which analysis suggests came originally from Ireland. Bronze and Iron
Age artefacts have been found on Longis Common, and an Iron Age Pottery
site has been identified immediately west of Longis Bay.
Roman
and Medieval Alderney
Alderney has been identified as the 'Arica' referred to by Antoninus,
though this is disputed. Coins, pottery, fragments of high-status glass,
and other Roman artefacts have been found in the Longis area, some of
which are in the Museum. Finds suggest that in about the fourth century
a Roman military unit was stationed in the Longis area, with a building
on the site of The Nunnery, as part of their system to control the growing
menace of piracy. Roman building material is found scattered on and
around Longis Bay.
In 911, the Viking leader
Rollo and his Norsemen, having laid siege to Paris, was allowed to settle
in what became known as Normandy. His son, William, annexed the Channel
Islands as part of the Duchy of Normandy. In 1204, when France reclaimed
Normandy, Alderney and the other Channel Islands remained loyal to the
English Crown (Our Duke of Normandy). As a reward for their loyalty,
in 1341, Edward III issued a Royal Charter which ensured the independence
of the Channel Islands and granted them special trading and tax privileges
that continue to the present day.
The
Elizabethan Wreck
This yet-unnamed vessel, foundered on a shallow reef north-east of Braye
Bay in the early 1590s. Dendrochronology dates some of the ship's timbers
to 1575. The Museum houses the ships' rudder and artefacts lifted from
the wreck. Some of these are unique or very rare for the period, such
as metal charge flasks (called 'Apostles') for measured charges of gunpowder.
Also on display is a cannon which was found with its original gun-carriage,
the latter a unique survival from the Elizabethan period.
The
Alderney Breakwater
Between 1847 and 1864, The British Admiralty built the Alderney Breakwater
to protect Royal Navy ships. At the same time the Board of Ordnance
built a series of forts to protect it from the threat of French Invasion.
Plans and drawings relating to the construction of the breakwater are
on display, including George Reynold's lithograph (1852) and the Jersey
artist Ouless’s sketches (1854) of the harbour works.
The
Quarrying Industry
The extensive quarrying in the 19th century for the harbour and fortifications
was continued in the 20th century until 1939, supplying southern English
county councils with stone for building roads.
German
Occupation 1940 - 1945
On 23rd June 1940, the entire population of some 1,400 residents of
Alderney was evacuated, nine days in advance of the German arrival.
Between July 1940 and December 1945, the Island was extensively fortified
by the German military. It was used by the Nazi government to house
three forced labour camps and an SS Concentration camp, holding up to
1,500 prisoners each, over four hundred of whom are known to have died.
When the Islanders began
returning in December 1945, they found their homes stripped of everything,
many containing not a scrap of wood. The winter of 1944 – 45 had found
two thousand German soldiers, sailors and airforce gunners without fuel,
so that many houses that had been habitable until then were lost by
the time of the surrender. The Museum’s 'Issue Room' displays some of
the basic supplies which the British Government issued to Islanders
on their return to help them reinstate their homes.
Island
Life
Exhibits of domestic equipment, items relating to the garrisons from
before 1800 until 1930, the lighthouses, and tools from the days when
the Islanders were more self-sufficient, give an insight into everyday
Alderney life in the past.
Geology
The oldest rocks at the western end of the island – the granodiorites - solidified over 2200 million years ago in the southern hemisphere; since then plate tectonics and continental drift have brought them to their present position. The central section of the island is also composed of igneous rocks, namely diorite and granite and, although more than 1000 million years younger, are still very ancient; these can be seen with many associated dykes at Roselle Point and Chateau À L'Étoc.
The eastern, and much of the southern cliffs are composed of the attractive Alderney sandstone, which was laid down by turbulent streams flowing from a landmass, which had been raised to the northwest after the intrusion of the granites. The islets of Casquets, Ortac and Burhou to the northwest of the island are also composed of this same sandstone
The
Alderney Cow
The term "Alderney Cow", found in literature from Tobias Smollet to
A.A.Milne, indicates a small, fawn, dairy cow, once popular in England
with the landed gentry and prosperous farmers, often used as a house
cow and yielding delicious rich milk and yellow cream. These animals
were probably known as "Alderneys" because all Channel Island cattle
, whether transported for sale from Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney or even
France, arrived in England from the last port of call - Alderney- in
what was known in the ports as the Alderney Boat. In fact, not more
than 4% of the cattle known as "Alderneys" in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries were actually from this Island. All Channel Island cattle
and some French were so similar that English buyers could not distinguish
between them.
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