In this Christmas special we will be sharing our Jèrriais roots, which explore festive Jersey traditions, to how Christmas is celebrated by our vibrant multicultural community today.  

We want to give special thanks to our fantastic guest speakers; Tracy from Jersey Heritage, Lesley Katsande, Alex Silva, Marcel Bucur & Anna Jolda 

A very special thank you also goes out to our listeners! We have loved bringing you the Small Island, Big Story sessions this year and look forward to sharing more stories with you in 2025! Don’t forget to subscribe!

Support Jersey Heritage in 2025 by becoming a Member or if you have time, consider volunteering!  Find out more here.

In the latest episode of our ‘Small Island, Big Story Sessions’ podcast, hosts Mel and Perry are joined by Dan Morrison, author of 'The Prince and the Poisoner'. When Dan visited Jersey recently, he came on the podcast to tell us about a murder in 1930s India that rocked the Raj and how the investigation was linked to Jersey through Deputy Police Commissioner E. Henry Le Brocq, who was in charge of Calcutta’s detective department.

Dan is a former New York crime reporter and currently deputy world editor at ‘USA Today’, shares his research into this fascinating story with a Jersey connection, and how he stumbled across it whilst researching something completely different.

Discover your family history with Jersey Heritage, it's easy to get started visit our website to find out more Jersey Archive | Jersey Heritage.

In this episode Mel and Perry welcome Jersey's very own British and European surf champion, Arlene Maltman. Arlene shares her incredible story of being a female surfer in a male dominated sport.

Mel and Perry will talk about the heritage of surfing in Jersey, how the names of surf spots have become part of our intangible cultural heritage and how surfing has put Jersey on the map.

Arlene shares how people's attitudes to women in the sport has changed and how the industry supporting women surfing has developed.  She also shares her memories of Jersey as a European hotspot for surfing culture.

So grab your board and join Mel, Perry and Arlene for a surf through history.

We’re asking practitioners, community groups or ICH champions to share their traditions, language, knowledge, habits, beliefs and customs to create a list of the Island’s intangible cultural heritage.  Share your stories by visiting our website.  ICH | Jersey Heritage

How would you feel if your sexuality was illegal? How would you form relationships?  Where would you go and what would you do? Hosts Mel and Perry read between the lines of the LGBTQ+ history in the Channel Islands. They speak to Vic Tanner Davy who'll be sharing some the stories of interesting characters, the challenges they faced and the history of legislation that make life difficult for them.

Vic Tanner Davy is Head of Programmes for Jersey Heritage and ex-CEO of Liberate a charity focussed on equality, diversity and inclusion across the Channel Islands. He has delivered hundreds of training sessions and public speaking engagements on its behalf, educating and engaging with people on the subject of equality, diversity and inclusion.

Support the work of Jersey Heritage in telling the Island's stories by becoming a Member. 

In today's episode, we are going to be exploring the lost dolmen of La Coupe, a series of ancient stones on the sea shore in Jersey, that have given local archaeologists and geologists much to deliberate.

Are these stone just a jumbled mass on the sea shore, or are they actually a megalithic monument?  If so, how did they get there?  Where they carefully placed there in prehistoric times or did coastal erosion mean they tumbled from a hill top near by? 

Join hosts Mel and Perry with special guest Paul Chambers, Head of the Aspiring Jersey Island Geopark project, to discuss the mystery surround the lost dolmen. Find out why we call these megalithic structures are called dolmen in Jersey (an incorrect term) and the prehistoric origins of Jersey.

Paul also talks about the Aspiring Jersey Island Geopark project, an Island-wide initiative to become a Geopark.

To find out more about the Geopark project visit the Jersey Island Geopark website.

You can read more about the Igneous Origins of Jersey on the Jersey Heritage website. 

To support Jersey Heritage, become a Member or make a donation here.

From conger soup to pigeon pie, and everything in between.  Mel and Perry are joined by food historian, Dr Annie Gray.  Taking a tour through food from preparation to digestion, the pod takes you back through the history of food, how recipes have developed throughout the years with the introduction of new ingredients and how we eat food now.  This is a mouth watering episode of The Small Island, Big Story Sessions. 

Annie works across TV and radio, and has been the resident food historian on BBC Radio 4’s award-winning culinary panel show, The Kitchen Cabinet since its inception in 2012.

If this pod inspires you to find out more about Jersey's food history, come to Jersey Museum and visit our Bouan Appétit! exhibition. 

You can support our charity by becoming a Jersey Heritage Member. 

Join Mel and Perry as they talk to Director of Archives and Collections, Linda Romeril, about a list people who were executed and the executioners themselves- a document that covers crimes and executions of the 14th – 18th centuries.  Who were the executioners and who were they executing and why? 

This podcast episode contains discussions on sensitive topics which could be distressing to some listeners.

The Executioners List is held at Jersey Archive.  If you'd like to discover the history of Jersey then become a Member.  If you'd like to start your own research project, subscribe to our Archives and Collections online.

In today's episode, we are going to be diving into jersey's rich maritime history. We'll be focusing on the shipwrecks of the Channel Islands with local historian and former Jersey heritage curator, Doug Ford.  We'll be sharing stories of life at sea and the perils of navigating our treacherous waters which take us into darker stories of cannibalism and survival.


Support our charity by becoming a Jersey Heritage Member, why not visit the Maritime Museum in St Helier and join as a Member at the same time.  Jersey Heritage: Discover Our Island Story.

In today's episode, Mel and Perry are going to be talking to Paul Lister, he'll be sharing first hand experience of what it was like to work in a Cold War bunker here in Jersey. Hidden in a street in the heart of St. Heller, this Jersey Command Center was used to pass and receive messages of potential nuclear fallout around the UK and Europe. We are really lucky today to be joined by Paul Lister, who worked in the Cold War Bunker in the late 1980s.

If you'd like to visit the Cold War bunker in Jersey then you can find out how on our website Cold War Bunker | Jersey Heritage.

If you'd  like to support our work, telling the Island's stories, please consider supporting us through Membership or a donation.  Support | Jersey Heritage

Join Mel and Perry as they talk to Harry Le Feuvre, Digital Access Manager at Jersey Archive.  Harry will be sharing his research into the fascinating lives into Kenneth and Kathleen Le Sueur  their collection of letters and photographs encompass their tales of distance travel, romance and possible espionage!

If you are enjoying the Small Island, Big Story Sessions then consider supporting Jersey Heritage by becoming a Member.  Your support will help us to continue to tell the Island's stories.  Find out more on becoming a supporter on our website jerseyheritage.org