The Section meeting on 21st August began with a report on a house which will be familiar to many readers, a thatched house called La Caumine which is located on South Hill on a site overlooking Havre des Pas. The report was prepared by Charlotte Bailey at Jersey Heritage who joins the Section occasionally to discuss buildings with potential for listing. The building was designed for Florence Eugenie Luce (wife of Ralph Renouf) in 1935 on a plot of land belonging to George Deslande Laurens. The house incorporated features salvaged from a ruined farmhouse in St Martin. The architect was Leonard Bennett. The house was sold in 1939 to French Consul Henry Duval.
La Caumine is a reminder of the popularity of houses built in the inter-war period in a variety of traditional ‘cottage’ styles, of which Neo-Georgian was the most widespread and enduring.
Paul Harding gave part one of a fascinating account of the Vernacular Architecture Group 2025 Annual Conference, which was held in Salisbury. The conference involved visits to some of the outstanding buildings in the City. A more complete report will be given later in the year when Paul has presented part two of his account.
A question raised by Stuart, to which no definitive answer appears to have yet been found, is why there is no evidence of timber framed buildings in Jersey when these were once found in St Peter Port and they survive in great numbers in northern France. This is clearly a subject worthy of further research.
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