Highfield Farm

Historic Jersey buildings Highfield Farm, St Brelade Index of all house profiles If you own this property, have ancestors who lived here, or can provide any further information and photographs, please contact us through editorial@jerripedia.org

Property name

Highfield Farm

Other names

Maison du Val, a name used for a short period in the 21st century

Location

Pont du Val, St Brelade ^[1]

Type of property

Early-18th century country house from period of transition from traditional Jersey farmhouse to Georgian style

Valuations

• Highfield Farm sold for £425,000 in 2004, £820,000 in 2008 and £530,000 in 2018 ^[2]
• Highfield Farm Cottage sold for £490,000 in 2017

Datestones

• 1739 - The only stone has no initials, just the date

Historic Environment Record entry

Listed building

A good survival of an early-mid 18th century Jersey house, which is an interesting example of the transitionary period of vernacular architecture from the traditional Jersey farmhouse to the 'Georgian' style. Shown on the Richmond Map of 1795. ^[3]

Five-bay, two-storey farmhouse (originally associated with farm buildings to the east, now converted to residential use, and small cottage/bakehouse to the south).

Door surround with datestone above 1739.

Notes and references

1. ↑ Pont du Val is given by HER as the postal address, and shown in some records. This is a continuation of Route du Francfief, which appears in other records, and we believe to be the correct location for the property
2. ↑ The last of these transactions may have reflected the earlier division of the property into separate units
3. ↑ We beg to differ with this description. The house has far more in common with the traditional Jersey farmhouse style than it does with the Georgian period, which may be reflected in the front porch, but this is obviously a later addition. An examination of the roofline shows that the house was originally thatched, which was not the style of Georgian architects. The cut-off point for the first volume of Old Jersey Houses was chosen by the author to be 1700 because this was allegedly the time when the architecture of country houses in the island changed 'dramatically' (according to the publisher's blurb) to a more English style. That assertion is open to debate, but houses built in Jersey in the early years of the 18th century can hardly be labelled Georgian, because the first King George did not come to the throne until 1714, and it is very doubtful that this event had anything to do with changing architectural styles. We believe that a closer examination of the properties featured in the two volumes of Old Jersey Houses, and more recent analysis of these, and those which were omitted, shows a much more gradual evolution of style in the island throughout the 18th century. Houses such as Highfield Farm were being built in the early 1700s to serve as farmhouses, commissioned by traditional farming families. It was the appearance of the so-called 'cod houses' in the early 19th century, built for sea captains, ship owners and merchants who had grown very rich through their involvement with the cod industry, on the Canadian Atlantic seaboard, which saw the most dramatic change in the style of Jersey houses. And although many of these were built towards the end of the reign of the fourth King George, they are the buildings which most closely reflect the style of Georgian architecture which developed elsewhere.