Jersey was once joined to France, and the sea has been taking bites out of its west coast ever since. At the very lowest spring tides, St Ouen's Bay uncovers dark stumps and peat on the lower beach, the remains of woodland that grew there when the sea level was lower.
Those stumps have a story. According to Visit Jersey, more than 650 years ago a manor house called Le Brequette stood near L'Etacq, at the northern end of the bay, surrounded by forests of oak. Then came the storms. The sea broke in and consumed the whole estate, house, woods and all. The legend ends with the evidence: when the tide is low, you can still see the black tree stumps of the petrified forest.
Drowned-land legends are common on the Atlantic coasts, from the Breton city of Ys to Cantre'r Gwaelod in Wales, and they often grow up exactly where a real submerged forest shows at low water. Jersey's west coast also has the story of the Spanish wreckers of 1495, drowned by the sea a year after their crime, and both stories reflect a real memory that this shore has been reshaped by the sea and by sand.
We have found no documentary trace of a manor called Le Brequette, and the pin is placed only approximately off L'Etacq.
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