Jersey Heritage Podcast

In this episode of the *Small Island Big Story Sessions*, we're exploring the life of 'the Jersey Lillie' born Emilie Charlotte Le Breton on October 13 1853, Lillie Langtry has been famous for her acting career, her immense beauty and her presence, and often she's been talked about due to her somewhat scandalous affairs.

Today we are going to be looking at the other side of Lillie, the entrepreneur, the witty woman of London's high society, we're going to be looking at her achievements and exploring who she was as a person. 

To support our charity and our mission to tell Jersey's stories you can make a donation on our website Support | Jersey Heritage.

Described as "15 minutes of mayhem" by historian Doug Ford, find out more about Jersey’s famous battle which took place in the Royal Square in St Helier, Jersey on 6 January 1781. Hosts, Mel and Perry are joined this month by Doug Ford, who’ll talk through the battle, how French forces, led by Baron de Rullecourt, landed at La Rocque in the early hours of the morning and tried to take the Island by force and how the battle was won, with the loss of Major Peirson.

If you want to discover the more of the story, then come to Jersey Museum.  The Battle of Jersey features in ‘La Terr’rie d’Jèrri’ our FREE exhibition at Jersey Museum.

Support our charity by making a donation and help us tell more stories of our Island. Fundraising | Jersey Heritage

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.