St Brelade's Church is one of the twelve ancient parish

Parishes of Jersey

The Channel Island of Jersey is divided into twelve administrative districts or parishes. All have access to the sea and are named after the saints to whom their ancient parish churches are dedicated.:* Saint Helier...

 churches in the island of Jersey

Jersey

Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...

; it is sited on the west of the island in the parish of St Brelade

Saint Brélade, Jersey

Saint Brélade is one of the twelve parishes of the Bailiwick of Jersey. Its population is around 9,560, and it occupies the southwestern part of the island. It is the only parish to border only one other parish, St. Peter...

, in the south-west corner of St Brelade's Bay. It is unique in the Channel Islands

Channel Islands

The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...

 in having one of the very few surviving medieval chapels, the Fisherman's Chapel

Fisherman's Chapel

The Fisherman's Chapel is a small chapel located beside St Brelade's Church in St Brelade, Jersey, by the shore at the western end of St Brelade's Bay.-History:...

, sited directly next to the main church building.

Name

The church is dedicated to Saint Brelade

Brelade

Branwalator or Breward, also referred to as Branwalader, was a British saint saint whose relics lay at Milton Abbas in Dorset and Branscombe in Devon. Believed to come from Brittany, he also gives his name to the parish of Saint Brélade, Jersey. "Brelade" is a corruption of "Branwalader"...

. Early histories of the church made a mistaken identification with Saint Brendan, which is undoubtably wrong. St Brelade was also known as St Branwalader, and has no connection with St Brendan.

History

The date of the present church is unknown, but it is mentioned in deeds of patronage. In AD 1035, Robert of Normandy confirmed the patronage of the church to the monastery of Montivilliers, which shows that the church was here before 1035.

The chancel

Chancel

In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...

 is the oldest part of the building. The original building extended some six feet into the nave. It was then only a small monastic chapel.

Early in the 12th century it became a parish church, so additions were made; and in the 14th–15th centuries, the roof was raised some two-and-a-half feet higher to a Gothic pitch. The roof of the Fishermen's Chapel was raised at the same time.

The church of the 12th century was cruciform in structure, consisting of a chancel, a nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

 (built in two periods) and two transepts—the latter forming the two arms. At a later date, perhaps a century later, the chancel aisle was built, and after that the nave aisle.

The date of the tower is uncertain; it is, however, of later date than the chancel.

Once a rood screen

Rood screen

The rood screen is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or wrought iron...

 adorned the church; the corbel

Corbel

In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...

s on which it rested are still in place and a closed-up doorway, through which the rood was approached, is still in existence.

The font disappeared during the Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

 and was found on the slopes near the church, hidden in bracken and gorse, in 1840 and restored to the church. An ornate wooden cover for the font

Baptismal font

A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...

 was provided in memory of H. G. Shepard, long-time warden

Churchwarden

A churchwarden is a lay official in a parish church or congregation of the Anglican Communion, usually working as a part-time volunteer. Holders of these positions are ex officio members of the parish board, usually called a vestry, parish council, parochial church council, or in the case of a...

 at the church.

Above the font there was presumed to have existed, up to 1843, a smokers' gallery. However, this supposition, first mentioned by Tabb, has no documentary evidence.

A processional cross dating from the 13th century is to be seen in the Lady Chapel

Lady chapel

A Lady chapel, also called Mary chapel or Marian chapel, is a traditional English term for a chapel inside a cathedral, basilica, or large church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary...

; this was found buried in the church.

Nearly all the stone used in the building of this church came from the beach; limpet

Limpet

Limpet is a common name for a number of different kinds of saltwater and freshwater snails ; it is applied to those snails that have a simple shell which is more or less conical in shape, and either is not spirally coiled, or appears not to be coiled in the adult snails.The name limpet is most...

 shells can be noted on the stonework.

The stained glass is the work of Henry Thomas Bosdet and replaced plain glass windows dating from the Reformation iconoclasm

Iconoclasm

Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes...

.

The carved text on the pulpit is a rendering of Proverbs

Book of Proverbs

The Book of Proverbs , commonly referred to simply as Proverbs, is a book of the Hebrew Bible.The original Hebrew title of the book of Proverbs is "Míshlê Shlomoh" . When translated into Greek and Latin, the title took on different forms. In the Greek Septuagint the title became "paroimai paroimiae"...

 25:11: "Telles que sont les pommes d'or emaillées d'argent, telle est la parole dit comme il faut [A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in filigree work]."

Before the restoration of Balleine in the 1890s, the whole of the interior stone work was covered in plaster which was whitewashed; the plaster was removed to show the granite, and the whole re-pointed with cement. Balleine's restoration also saw Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...

 woodwork in the choir stalls and pulpit and modern paving in the chancel; it is made of five different types of Jersey granite and represents the waves breaking on the sea-shore.

The altar slab, weighing about 15 hundredweight

Hundredweight

The hundredweight or centum weight is a unit of mass defined in terms of the pound . The definition used in Britain differs from that used in North America. The two are distinguished by the terms long hundredweight and short hundredweight:* The long hundredweight is defined as 112 lb, which...

, contains the five crosses cut by the bishop at the time of the church's consecration; the five crosses represent the five wounds of Christ.

Legend

The legend has the site of the church being placed in the centre of St Brelade's Bay and moved by night by fairy

Fairy

A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...

folk from their sacred site to where it now stands, until the workmen got the message and left it where it now stands.

External links

• Website of the Parish Church