Saint Saviour, Guernsey Explained

St. Saviour
Settlement Type:Parish
Mapsize:150px
Coordinates:49.45°N -2.6231°W
Subdivision Type:Crown Dependency
Subdivision Name:Guernsey, Channel Islands
Leader Title:Electoral district
Leader Name:West
Unit Pref:Metric
Area Total Km2:6.2
Population Total:2765
Population As Of:2019
Population Density Km2:auto
Timezone1:GMT
Timezone1 Dst:UTC+01

St Saviour (Guernésiais: Saint Sauveux;) is one of the ten parishes of Guernsey. It is situated on the west coast of the island, west of the parish of Castel, east of St Pierre du Bois, and south of Perelle bay.

People from Saint Sauveux were nicknamed "fouormillaons" in Guernésiais, the insular Norman language of the island. The postal code for street addresses in this parish begins with GY7.

Features

St Saviour is home to the States of Guernsey reservoir, providing a water supply to the whole island.[1] [2]

The parish contains many protected historic constructions,[3] including the parish church, St Saviour church[2] [4] and outside it, the parish war memorial;[5] the 14th century St Apolline's chapel;[2] [6] the Victorian Fort Richmond; the artillery batteries of Mont Chinchon and Perelle of Napoleonic Wars vintage, numerous German fortifications of World War II and several Neolithic sites principally at Le Crocq and Le Catioroc (Mont Chinchon).

The once extensive megalithic site at Le Crocq now consists mainly of two menhirs, although the hedge boundaries in the area contain many of the stones from the destruction of the monument a couple of hundred years previously.[7] At Le Catioroc again there is a lot less than historically; this area featuring more than any other in the witchcraft trials of the 16th and 17th century and appears to have suffered some deliberate destruction, though Le Trepied Dolmen remains.[8]

World War II fortifications, built during the 1940-45 German occupation of the Channel Islands include the St Saviours Tunnel complex beneath the church[2] and parts of the Batterie Mirus,[9] although there are other PAK (Anti Tank), FLAK (Anti Aircraft), artillery, machine gun installations.

Abreuvoirs - places for cattle to drink - are also found in Saint Saviour.[10]

Politics

Saint Saviour comprises part of the West administrative division with Torteval, Forest and St. Pierre-du-Bois

In the 2016 Guernsey general election there was a 3,188 or 74% turnout to elect five Deputies. Those elected (in order of votes received) being Al Brouard, Andrea Dudley-Owen, Emilie Yerby, David De Lisle and Shane Langlois.

The parish is managed by twelve elected officials known as the Douzane.[11]

Twin towns

Saint Saviour is twinned with:

Notes and References

  1. Web site: St Saviours Reservoir . Visit Guernsey.
  2. Book: Dillon, Paddy . Channel Island Walks . 9781852842888 . Cicerone Press Limited, 1999 . registration .
  3. Web site: PROTECTED BUILDINGS . Environment - Guernsey government.
  4. Web site: St Saviour's church.
  5. Web site: St Saviour's Parish Memorial, Guernsey . Great War CI.
  6. Web site: St Apolline chapel . Church of England.
  7. Web site: Le Crocq, La Longue Pierre . Megalithic Guernsey.
  8. Web site: Le Trépied . BBC.
  9. Web site: Batterie Mirus . Festung Guernsey . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160307103249/http://www.festungguernsey.supanet.com/batterie_mirus.htm . 2016-03-07 .
  10. Web site: Guernsey Abreuvoirs . La Société Guernesiaise.
  11. Web site: St Saviours > Douzaine. Paroisse de Saint Sauveur. 16 September 2016.