The Reformation reached Jersey hard. Under Edward VI, commissioners including Sir Hugh Paulett were appointed in 1550 to sell off church property on the island, and the parish churches lost almost all their bells, keeping one each. According to Jerripedia's history of Jersey bell ringing, the bells deemed surplus were sold, the proceeds meant to go towards fortifications.
They never arrived. The story is that the ship taking the bells to France went down on the way. Some accounts put the loss at the entrance to St Malo harbour. The version that became one of Jersey's ghost stories puts it out on Les Minquiers, the vast and treacherous reef that lies south of Jersey between the island and the Breton coast, where the sea uncovers miles of rock at low tide.
And the bells still ring. Fishermen and sailors out near the reef, it is said, sometimes hear church bells under the water, and the belief attached to them is grim: whoever hears the drowned bells of Jersey will not come back to land. Jersey Post chose 'The Bells of Les Minquiers' as one of six island ghost stories for its 2022 Europa stamp issue.
Sunken bells that ring as an omen are a familiar theme from Brittany to Wales. What gives Jersey's version its edge is that the loss of the bells was real: the island's churches were stripped, and the bells never came back. Whether they sank, and where, is another matter. We have found no contemporary record of the wreck, and the stamp announcement does not give the story in detail.
Comments