As we mark the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of the Channel Islands, including the island of Jersey, on May 9th 1945, I hope you'll be interested in this series that ran actually five years ago, when we marked the 75th anniversary!

I made the series for BBC Radio Jersey ... the Breakfast Show played out an episode every Friday morning and the series ran until June 2020. The series is introduced by the BBC's Executive Editor, Matthew Price

I spent a year working with Jersey Heritage to select 5O Objects from their Archives and Museum collections which told the story of the Occupation and Liberation era … 1940 to 1945.

The first episode was actually broadcast on May 9th 2019 ... a year before the big anniversary ...  

Our first story is told through the discovery of a small brown envelope held in the Jersey Archives.

Featuring Stuart Nicolle, Senior Archivist at Jersey Heritage, it tells how Jersey first heard from the British government, the War Office in London, that the Island would be demilitarized in the spring of 1940 ... which meant the doors were open to invasion from the German military forces who were already just over the water from the Channel Islands, in nearby France.

That happened not longer after and then  followed five long years of Occupation. The Channel Islands was the only place in the British Isles invaded and occupied by enemy forces during the Second World War!

Jersey Heritage have the whole series on their Vimeo webpage  - 50 Objects - 1 to 50 on Vimeo  - and this first episode is here ...

But if you fancy staying here ... please feel free to click below to listen to the audio ......

50 OBJECTS 1 LITTLE BROWN ENVELOPE

Thanks! Hope you enjoy the series.

Oh by the way, if you're accessing this via your mobile phone, I'm aware that you may have problems listening to the audio directly on this page ... so in that case, please go to the Heritage Vimeo site to enjoy the story.

We continue our journey through 50 Objects which tell the story of the Occupation and Liberation of Jersey in the Channel Islands, with Object Number 2 and a message from the King of England, King George VI.

This message is believed to have been sent on the 24th of June 1940, just days before the Occupation of Jersey, and the others in the Channel Islands - Guernsey, Sark, Alderney - by enemy German forces.

This episode is hosted by Linda Romeril, Archives and Collections Director at Jersey Heritage, who explains those last few weeks before the Germans arrived and took over the island in early July 1940, which marked the start of the Occupation!

To create this series, I spent a year working with Linda and her colleagues at  Jersey Heritage to select 5O Objects from their Archives and Museum collections which told the story of the Occupation and Liberation era … 1940 to 1945. It was designed to help mark the 75th anniversary of the Liberation in 2020, and I repost it here as we mark the 80th anniversary in 2025!

I made the series for BBC Radio Jersey ... the Breakfast Show played out an episode every Friday morning and the series ran until June 2020. The series is introduced by the BBC's Executive Editor, Matthew Price.

The first 'Object' was broadcast on May 9 2019, exactly a year before Liberation Day, the 75th anniversary, on May 9 2020. We picked up the story then in June of 2019 and ran it for another 49 weeks. This episode - Object 2 - A Message from the King - was broadcast on Friday June 21st 2019.

Jersey Heritage have the whole series on their Vimeo webpage  - 50 Objects - 1 to 50 on Vimeo  - and this second episode is here ...

But you can also stay here if you want ... please feel free to click below to listen to the audio ......

50 OBJECTS 2 - KING'S MESSAGE

Thanking you!

On June 28th 1940 war came to Jersey!

Yes, the Second World War had begun on September 1st the previous year, but the Channel Islands had remained pretty much unaffected. However, a series of bombs which landed on St Helier harbour and La Rocque harbour on the island's east coast shattered the relative peace.

Object Number 3 of our 50 Objects series, telling the story of the Occupation and Liberation of Jersey, is a poignant reminder of the cost of war.

Jersey Archive holds many Inquest books from the 19th and 20th centuries ... official court documents from the Viscount's department ... which record inquests. 

On the entry for June 30th 1940, we see the records of inquests held into 11 people killed in German bombing raids on those two harbours two days previously ... people officially recorded (in the French language) as 'mortally wounded by war'!

Linda Romeril, Archives and Collections Director at Jersey Heritage, looks at the Viscount's Inquest Book for that day ... and explains why, even though Jersey had been demilitarised a week earlier, the German army still bombed an undefended island before finally, invading and taking over the island ... the start of the five year period we now know as 'The Occupation'.

I spent a year working with Linda and her colleagues at Jersey Heritage to select 5O Objects from their extensive Archives and Museum collections which told the story of the Occupation and Liberation era … 1940 to 1945.

I made the series for BBC Radio Jersey ... the Breakfast Show played out an episode every Friday morning and the series ran from May 2019 until June 2020. The series is introduced by the BBC's Executive Editor, Matthew Price.

We originally made the series to mark the 75th anniversary of the Liberation in 2020, and I repost it here as we mark the 80th anniversary in 2025! 

This episode records the inquests relating to the events of June 28th 1940 and those air raids, which also killed 33 people in St Peter Port in Guernsey, with details including names of some of the victims, directly from the Inquest Book. It was transmitted on June 28th 2019... which coincidentally was the 79th anniversary of the bombing raids. 

Jersey Heritage have the whole series on their Vimeo webpage  - 50 Objects - 1 to 50 on Vimeo  - and this third episode is here ...

However, you may also listen here if you prefer.... just click to listen to the audio ...

50 OBJECTS 3 - AN INQUEST BOOK

Thanks!

We continue our exploration of 50 Objects which tell the story of the Occupation and Liberation of Jersey in the Channel Islands, with the story of a ship called the Isle of Sark.

This mail boat was the last ship to sail out of the Channel Islands just before the Occupation of the Channel Islands in July 1940. She was a final hope for evacuees from Jersey and Guernsey desperate to get away from their island homes before the German enemy military forces invaded.

If you've already listened to the first couple of episodes you'll know that on June 28th 1940, when the Isle of Sark set sail from St Helier harbour in Jersey bound for the British mainland, via Guernsey, the German Occupation was imminent.

An exquisitely created model of the Isle of Sark is held in the Jersey Heritage collections in the Museum and Archives. To create this series, I spent a year working with Jersey Heritage to select 5O Objects from their collections which told the story of the Occupation and Liberation era … 1940 to 1945.

We made the series to help mark the 75th anniversary of the Liberation in 2020, and the 52 episodes were transmitted on the BBC Radio Jersey Breakfast Show on Friday mornings between May 2019 and June 2020. The series is introduced by the BBC's Executive Editor, Matthew Price. I'm reposting the whole series here to mark the 80th anniversary of our Liberation in 2025!

Our host for this fourth episode, telling the story of the Isle of Sark and it's later history during the Second World War and beyond, is Val Nelson who has now retired as Senior Registrar for Jersey Heritage.

As Val explains, that final sailing out of the Channel Islands coincided with an air raid on St Peter Port harbour in Guernsey ... which we heard about in the previous episode (Object 3 - An Inquest Book)

Jersey Heritage have the whole series on their Vimeo webpage  - 50 Objects - 1 to 50 on Vimeo  - and this fourth episode, which was first transmitted on the radio on Friday July 5th 2019, is here ...

But you can also stay here if you want ... please feel free to click below to listen to the audio ...

50 OBJECTS 4 - A MODEL BOAT

Thanks!

Imagine you book a ticket for a journey ... and then can't use it!

As we continue our travels through 50 Objects which tell the story of the Occupation and Liberation of Jersey in the Channel Islands, we look at a ticket which was bought for a boat journey scheduled to take the owner on a trip from Jersey to Southampton in the UK on July 2nd 1940.

But it was never used ... for a very important reason ... and it's a symbol of a fascinating moment in history.

The ticket might be very small, but it's an important part of the Jersey Heritage collections held in the Archive and the Museum because it tells us a lot about what was happening in Jersey in early summer 1940 ... and it marks the moment that the island, along with the other Channel Islands of Guernsey, Sark, Alderney, became isolated because they were invaded and occupied by German military forces.

Linda Romeril, Archives and Collections Director at Jersey Heritage, explains what the ticket tells us about those last few weeks and days before the Germans arrived and took over the island in early July 1940, which marked the start of what we now call the Occupation!

To create this series, I spent a year working with Linda and her colleagues at Jersey Heritage to select 5O Objects from their Archives and Museum collections which told the story of the Occupation and Liberation era … 1940 to 1945. It was designed to help mark the 75th anniversary of the Liberation in 2020, and I repost it here as we mark the 80th anniversary in 2025!

I made the series for BBC Radio Jersey ... the Breakfast Show played out an episode on Friday mornings between May 2019 and June 2020. The series is introduced by the BBC's Executive Editor, Matthew Price. This fifth episode was broadcast on Friday July 12th 2019.

Jersey Heritage have the whole series on their Vimeo webpage  - 50 Objects - 1 to 50 on Vimeo  - and this fifth episode can be found here ...

But you can also stay here if you want ... please feel free to click below to listen to the audio ......

50 OBJECTS 5 - AN UNUSED TICKET

Thank  you!

We're marking the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of the Channel Islands, including the island of Jersey, on May 9th 1945, with a series of historically focussed recorded interviews and features that ran actually five years ago, when we marked the 75th anniversary!

I spent a year working with Jersey Heritage to select 5O Objects from their Archives and Museum collections which told the story of the Occupation and Liberation era … 1940 to 1945, and among those collections is a piece of headgear... a metal helmet which would have been worn by an ARP warden or officer ... an Air Raid Precautions Warden's helmet! 

Val Nelson, who has since retired as Senior Registrar for Jersey Heritage, looks at and describes the helmet for us and explains its story and where it fits in to the history of the Occupation.

She explains that the ARP service was part of Jersey's civil protection service (which included the emergency services) which was set up in the years before war was declared on September 1 1939 and then operated in the months running up to July 1940, when the German occupying forces landed in the Channel Islands, so beginning the period of history we now know as 'The Occupation'.

Val explains the role of the ARP Wardens in this era, which continued throughout the Occupation, even though the German occupiers weren't that keen on them.

I made the 50 Objects series for BBC Radio Jersey ... the Breakfast Show played out an episode on Friday mornings for a year up to and around May 9th 2020...the 75th anniversary of the Liberation. The series is introduced by the BBC's Executive Editor, Matthew Price

I'm reposting this series to coincide with and mark the 80th anniversary of Liberation on May 9th 2025 ... and hope you are enjoying it.

Jersey Heritage have the whole series on their Vimeo webpage  - 50 Objects - 1 to 50 on Vimeo  - and this sixth episode, which was first transmitted on the radio on Friday July 19th 2019, is here ..

If you prefer to just sit here on this page and listen to Val on the audio ... please ... just click below!

50 OBJECTS 6 - AN ARP HELMET

Thanks!

Continuing our exploration of 50 Objects which tells the story of the Occupation and Liberation of Jersey in the Channel Islands, we now arrive at the moment when the occupying German military forces have landed in the islands and have started to make their presence felt.

Our host for this seventh episode is Val Nelson, who has now retired as Senior Registrar for Jersey Heritage. And this latest 'object' is actually a selection of various items of German insignia and parts of uniform  ... a helmet, a shoulder plate, a dagger with its scabbard, and a plaque which Val hoped listeners might be able to help them with.

The objects are a haunting reminder that after July 1 1940, when the enemy forces landed, Jersey was no longer free. In fact, the Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles that were occupied by the enemy during the Second World War.

I spent a year working with Val and her colleagues at Jersey Heritage to select 5O Objects from their collections which told the story of the Occupation and Liberation era … 1940 to 1945. 

We made the series to mark the 75th anniversary of the Liberation on May 9th 2020, and the 52 episodes were transmitted on the BBC Radio Jersey Breakfast Show on Friday mornings between May 2019 and June 2020. The series, which is introduced by the BBC's Executive Editor, Matthew Price, is being reposted here as we mark the 80th anniversary of our Liberation in 2025!

Jersey Heritage have the whole series on their Vimeo webpage  - 50 Objects - 1 to 50 on Vimeo  - and this seventh episode, which was first transmitted on the radio on Friday July 26th 2019, is here

But if you want to, please just click below to listen here.

50 OBJECTS 7 - GERMAN INSIGNIA

Thanks everyone!

We're marking the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of the Channel Islands, including the island of Jersey, on May 9th 1945, and so I decided to repost a series that ran on local radio five years ago, when we marked the 75th anniversary!

I spent a year working with Jersey Heritage to select 5O Objects from their Archives and Museum collections which told the story of the Occupation and Liberation era … 1940 to 1945. We had 50 episodes which ran on the BBC Radio Jersey Breakfast Show on Friday mornings from May 2019 through to June 2020. The series is introduced by the BBC's Executive Editor, Matthew Price.

Object Number 8 in the series, which was broadcast on Friday August 2nd 2019, is introduced by Stuart Nicolle, Senior Archivist at Jersey Heritage, who chats to us about a Food Supply List from the period when Jersey was occupied by enemy military forces.

From very early on in the Occupation the Jersey and German authorities realised that they needed to keep a close eye on supplies, to ensure food was looked after properly and that rationing was in place to ensure everyone was getting a proper diet. This list dates from September 1940, just a month or two after the invasion of the island on July 1st. 

This 'object' might look fairly insignificant, but it begins to give us an insight into how Jersey operated during the Occupation and how people coped with their change of circumstances as the enemy forces started to control all aspects of culture and society.

Stuart reflects on food supplies, the fact that inevitably there was a black market and some people did profiteer, but also that quickly a barter economy arose in the island. This list outlines discovered discrepancies in supplies held by local retailers. It's fascinating!

Jersey Heritage have the whole series on their Vimeo webpage  - 50 Objects - 1 to 50 on Vimeo  - and you can listen to this eighth episode here ... 

But if you fancy staying here ... please feel free to click below to listen to the audio ... 

50 OBJECTS 8 - A FOOD SUPPLY LIST

Thanks!

Continuing our series looking at 50 Objects which tell the story of the Occupation and Liberation of Jersey in the Channel Islands, we find out more about how people operated on a day-to-day basis, including under wartime restrictions.

Val Nelson, who at the time of recording was Senior Registrar for Jersey Heritage but is now retired, takes a look at a blackout headlamp cover dating from 1940. In explaining how the objects worked, Val takes us back in time to the era that was 'dark' in many ways.

These objects were issued to car owners before war broke out in 1939 when the 'blackout' came into force after dark. But they continued in use throughout the Occupation, when they would have been primarily fitted to vehicles driven by the ruling German military forces and the decreasing number of islanders who managed to retain vehicles (and bicycles with lights on them) during this period.

The headlamp cover is one of  50 Objects from the Jersey Heritage Archives and Museum collections which were selected to tell the story of Jersey's Occupation and Liberation era … 1940 to 1945.

I spent a year working with the team at Jersey Heritage to select the items to enable me to tell the story through this special series, which was first transmitted on the local BBC Radio Jersey station as part of the celebrations to mark the 75th anniversary of the Liberation in 2020.

The 52 episodes were transmitted on the Breakfast Show on Friday mornings between May 2019 and June 2020, introduced by the BBC's Executive Editor, Matthew Price. I'm reposting the whole series here to mark the 80th anniversary of our Liberation in 2025!

Jersey Heritage have the whole series on their Vimeo webpage  - 50 Objects - 1 to 50 on Vimeo  - and this ninth episode, which was first transmitted on the radio on Friday August 9th 2019, is here ...

But you can also stay here on my blog if you want ... to listen to the audio, please feel free to click below ...

50 OBJECTS 9 - A HEADLAMP COVER

If you're accessing this via your mobile phone, I'm aware that you may have problems listening to the audio directly on this page ... so in that case, go to the Heritage Vimeo site to enjoy the story.

Thanks Everyone! Hope you're enjoying listening to the series!

Back in 2019, when I was working as Senior Communities Journalist for BBC Jersey, I contacted Jersey Heritage and asked them if they would like to collaborate on a special series to help mark the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Jersey on May 9th 2020.

So the '50 Objects' series came into being!

I worked for a year with the team at Heritage to select items from their collections in the Archive and Museum which tell the story of the Occupation and Liberation of Jersey in the Channel Islands. With thousands of items relating to this period it was exceedingly difficult coming up with a shortlist, but after much discussion one was put together that touched on many different aspects of this time. I then set about recording and editing Jersey Heritage staff talking about these unique objects.

The 50 episodes were transmitted on the BBC Radio Jersey Breakfast Show on Friday mornings between May 2019 and June 2020, introduced by the BBC's Executive Editor, Matthew Price. This tenth episode was transmitted on Friday 16th August.

Today's 'object', hosted by Val Nelson who has since retired as the Senior Registrar for Jersey Heritage, looks at a collection of items, including cutlery and a tin eating bowl, a pair of specs and even some instant puddings, which were used by German soldiers based here in Jersey during the Occupation.

Sometimes we tend to forget that the Occupation of the Islands, however awful for locals with the loss of liberty and restrictions to their freedoms, also affected those who were sent here to oversee the military occupation of this part of the British Isles.

This little collection of items which were left behind when Liberation finally came on May 9th 1945, is  a fascinating insight into the life of, especially, the ordinary soldier who, as Val notes, probably just 'wanted to go home'.

Jersey Heritage have the whole 50 Objects series on their Vimeo webpage  - 50 Objects - 1 to 50 on Vimeo  - although for some reason Object #10 seems to be missing.

So... please feel free to listen to the audio here ... just click below.

50 OBJECTS 10 - FORK+SPOON

Oh ... just a reminder ... if you haven't clocked it already, I'm reposting the whole series here to mark the 80th anniversary of our Liberation in 2025!

Waste Not, Want Not, eh?

Thanks Everyone!