Historic Jersey buildings
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Property name
Handois Manor
Other names
- Handois
- Handois Farm
- Handois Manor Farm
Location
Rue du Bel au Vent, St Lawrence [1]
Type of property
Manor house with medieval origins
Valuations
- Handois Manor Farm was sold in 2003 for £1.25 million, in 2007 for £1.8 million, and the following year for £2 million
- Handois Cottage was sold in 2004 for £298,000 and in 2016 for £465,000
Historical transactions
Jersey Heritage hold a 1693 agreement for the sale of the Fiefs and Seigneurie of St Germain, Handois, Les Quatorze Quartiers or Garis with the Fief of Grainville by George, Lord Carteret to Jean Durell, gentleman, including a list of seigneurial dues
They also hold an agreement between Jean Fautrart and Thomas Pinel, son of Thomas, concerning the lease from Fautrart to Pinel of the Manor de Handois, which belonged to Mathieu Fondan, that Fautrart had a right to through his late wife.
Families associated with the property
See a separate article on the history of Handois Manor for more details
- De Carteret
- Le Marquand
- Le Gros
- Pinel: 25-year-old Francis Philip Pinel was living at Handois in 1940 when application was made on his behalf by Francis Edward Pinel, of Mare Ballam, St John, to defer his call-up. A number of other families, including Mauger, Le Riche and Emmanuel are recorded as living at Handois in 1941
Datestones
- IF1659 - For Jean Fautrat
- IF EF - For Jean Fautrat and Elizabeth Fondan
- JLG 1727 SLG - For Josué Le Gros and Sara Langlois, who married in St Lawrence in 1718
- ILG 1757 - For Josué Le Gros
- EM RF AF WLM - On fireplace. Interpreted by the Datestone Register as Fautrat and Le Marchant, but there is no corresponding marriage record
Historic Environment Record entry
Listed building
The name Handois is likely to derive from the French han (a type of sedge) and douet (stream).
Manor house of late-medieval origin with principal phases of alteration and remodelling in the 17th and 18th century. Grounds include the ruins of circa 1500 manorial chapel and an 18th century farm range.
Associated with the fief of Handois, Les Saints Germains, Les Quatorze Quartiers et Garis. Shown on the Richmond Map of 1795. The site is recorded from the 13th century
Earlier owners had the property confiscated by the Crown after the battle of Barnet in 1471, as they were Yorkist supporters. The fief, and probably the manor house, was subsequently granted by the Crown to a succession of people - eventually in 1522 to Hélier de Carteret, Bailiff and friend of the young Henry VIII.
The manor was later bought by his nephew, also Hélier de Carteret, leader of the expedition to colonise Sark in 1565.
The present manor house is of late-medieval date - originally a two-cell plan with the fireplace and chimney against the end wall (the remains of a double or triple fireplace surviving within the kitchen). Considerable rebuilding was undertaken in 1659 by the then owner, Jean Fautrat, the alterations marked by a gable stone dated IF1659 (now ex-situ in the 20th century extension north elevation) - one of few dated stones cut during the Commonwealth period.
The date of 1659, together with the initials of Fautrat and others ('EM.RF.AF.WLM'), are also incorporated on an elaborately carved armorial lintel above a corbelled fireplace at first floor - the most ornamented lintel in Jersey. There is another outstanding stone fireplace of the same age on the ground floor below. There is a fireplace with the initials 'IF.EF' which represent Jean Fautrat and Elizabeth Fondan. A number of other early carved stones are set (or re-set) into the walls on the east and north elevations of the house including a window lintel with an unusual motif of interlocking lines, and a jamb in the same window opening with a fleur-de-lis chamfer-stop - both possibly from the former chapel.
There is also part of broken tombstone dated 1580 with HD (Helier (or Hugh) de Carteret) - the earliest dated stone found on a domestic property in Jersey.
The house was re-fronted in the early 18th century, giving it a regular five-bay appearance. The house was later used for many years as a farmhouse, and then declined in status as a pigsty and potato store until the early 1980s.
Subsequent building works have provided a new pantile gable roof with new granite chimneystacks, and internal refurbishment of the property.
To the south-east of the house are the remains of the manorial chapel. The round-arched stone doorway in the north wall suggests a date circa 1500, which would fit with the house becoming the home of the seigneur at that period. There is a stone baptismal font inside. To the north of the house is a two-storey farm range with 18th century origins and 19th century alterations. The building is rubble granite and includes a 1751 datestone on its south front and various re-used and decorative stones imbedded.
To the east is Handois Manor Farm, a five-bay, two-storey farmhouse in granite with brick dressings, built 1860-1870. A stone trough discovered in the pigsty was later interpreted as the base of a medieval cross.
Old Jersey Houses
Volume One contains a long article on the property, quoting as one of its sources the author's own article in the 1962 Annual Bulletin of La Société Jersiaise, an abridged version of which is included in Jerripedia
Notes and references
- ↑ The property has a drive connecting it with Rue du Bel au Vent, and a longer one to Route de St Jean, which is apparently given as the current postal address
