Historic Jersey buildings
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Property name
China Quarry Farm
Other names
- China Quarries
- Hunter's Moon
Location
Rue Ville es Gazeaux, St Lawrence
Type of property
19th century farm with 18th century origins
Families associated with the property
- Nicolle: In addition to the 19th century ownership indicated by the datestones below, a third generation of Jean Nicolles was farming here in 1901. Jean (1861- ) and his wife Emma Jane, nee Prouings (1865- ), who married in her home parish of St Ouen in 1885, were living here with daughters Mabel (1886- ), Helen (1887- ), Emma (1889- ) and Lucille (1898- ) [1], and son Philip Vautier (1893- )
Philip Vautier Nicolle and his wife Ellen Florence, nee Bisson (1886- ) were living here in 1941. Helen Nicolle, of China Quarry Farm, married William Benest in 1911.
- Rabet: Arthur Jules Rabet (1904- ) and his wife Elsie Marie, nee Guillou (1902- ), together with their sons David Arthur and Allan John, and daughter Nancy Ellen (1929- ) were also living here in 1941.
- Poingdestre
- Vatcher
China Quarry Farm and all its outbuildings and land, together with the adjoining China Quarries and its outbuildings and land, all belonged to the Jersey New Waterworks Company. At the end of the war the Rabet family moved from another of the Company's properties - Blampied Farm - into China Quarry Farm and in 1947 Harold Winter Touzel, his wife Dorothy and their children, moved from another of the Company's properties, Quetteville Mill (otherwise known as King's Mill) at the foot of Mont Gavey into China Quarries. Both Mr Rabet and Mr Touzel were employed by the Company. Mr Touzel died in 1957 but the Company allowed his wife and children to remain there until her death in 1965. The Rabets moved out of the Farm a few years earlier.
Datestones
- INC ♥ ELS 1819 - For Jean Nicolle and Elizabeth Le Sueur
- 17 MPD 15 (RRN nearby) - ForMichael Poingdestre and Rachel Renouf
Historic Environment Record entry
Listed building
An historic farm group comprising an early 19th century rural house with 18th century origins, a mid-19th century wing and an 1869 stable, each retaining original features and character. Named after the nearby china clay quarries. A cluster of buildings is shown on the 1795 Richmond Map, and it is likely the earliest surviving house, now China Quarries, has 18th century origins, re-fronted and developed in the early 19th century .
A further wing, now China Quarry Farm, was added to the west side in the mid-19th century.
The stable building, now Hunters Moon, was added in 1869. Farming activity ceased in the 1940s and the property became staff accommodation for Jersey Water, later sold off as separate properties in 1989.
Old Jersey Houses
A brief entry in Volume 2 records the datestones shown above, and suggests that the 1819 stone records the building of the house, without explaining the 1715 stone
The property remained in the Nicolle family until the time of Jean Nicolle (1860- ) (son of Jean on the later datestone) who married Emma Jane Prouings. The Vatchers then bought it in order to work the china clay in the district." [3]
Notes and references
- ↑ Wrongly recorded in the census as a boy
- ↑ Grandson of Jean and Elizabeth on earlier stone. We have not been able to place these Nicolles in any of our family trees. There are a large number of trees online which correctly show the first Jean as born in St Lawrence in 1774, but name his parents as Philippe Nicolle and Elizabeth Mauger. He was actually the son of Jean and Elizabeth, nee Descaudeville, who married in St Lawrence earlier that year.
- ↑ There were Nicolles in residence as late as 1941, according to German Occupation registrations
