exhibitions 2008

.

Romantics in the Channel Islands
4 March to December 2008
The Romantic movement which flourished in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, has great relevance today. Not only did painters such as Turner, poets like William Blake and Lord Byron and novelists as enduring as Jane Austen help to create the modern world, their legacies influence how we now perceive the arts and the environment.

The Channel Islands rugged coastlines, extreme weather, atmospheric light and lush interiors were perfect ingredients for the early 19th century Romantics. This exhibition in association Guernsey Museum and Art Gallery, will bring together for the first time the work of many of the artists such as John Le Capelain in Jersey, Peter Le Lievre in Guernsey and Sarah Louise Kilpack who were inspired by local scenes. It will also explore Romanticism in other art forms and will include the work of one of the Channel Islands most famous exiles, Victor Hugo.

The Mammoth Hunters of La Cotte
30 September 2008 to April 2009
A quarter of a million years ago, Jersey was an outcrop of rocks in a vast frozen landscape frequented by herds of woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros. These long extinct beasts were stalked by bands of our early ancestors, Palaeolithic hunters who trekked across the tundra-like landscape in pursuit of their main source of food.

One such band pitched camp in a cave on an open headland, leaving layers of more than 140,000 fabulous remains which today form the internationally archaeologically important cave site and collection of La Cotte de St Brelade. First excavated in 1910, and most famously in the 1960's by a party from Cambridge University which includes the Prince of Wales.

Maritime Museum

A Life's Work
From 4 July 2007
An exhibition of star objects from the local diver, Tony Titterington's collection, including a sonar, early 19th century material from the wreck of the Determinée and never before seen material from World War II.

HMS Havick
HMS Havick was a quarterdeck sloop, originally Dutch built in 1784. After its capture and commission by the Royal Navy it served in the English Channel until wrecked in St Aubin's Bay by a terrible storm in November 1800. The HMS Havick exhibition includes conserved items from the wreck and a fine model handmade by JHT conservator Neil Mahrer. The items on display give an insight into the lives of ordinary seamen in Nelson's Navy, as well as relating the trauma of the fateful shipwreck.

La Hougue Bie

Le Câtillon Hoard

In 1957 a hoard of about 2,500 Celtic coins, representing tribes in Armoric in Gaul as well as southern Britain, was unearthed on farmland nearby Le Câtillon, Grouville. A new display was created in 2007 to celebrate

the 50th anniversary of the discovery of one of Jersey’s most important archaeological finds.

Bronze Age Hoards

A display featuring more than 400 objects from two recently discovered Bronze Age hoards. The hoards contain many axes, spears and swords, but also a number of rare items of international significance.

The Forgotten Forest

Sponsored by David and Anne Crossland.  The story of the lost prehistoric landscape buried beneath the sands of St Ouen’s Bay.

Hamptonne Country Life Museum

The Jersey Cow — The Rural Face of Jersey

Sponsored by Jersey Dairy

Nothing symbolises the Island more than the Jersey cow, renowned worldwide for the purity of the breed and with the most beautiful of bovine faces, which have adorned countless souvenirs from traditional milk jugs to tea towels. The exhibition tells the story of the Jersey and the development of

the dairy industry up to the present day.

The Camera Never Lies — The Making of

Under the Greenwood Tree

In 2005 Hamptonne was transformed into the fictional Wessex village of Mellstock for a major ITV drama adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Under the Greenwood Tree, starring Keeley Hawes as the heroine, Fancy Day. Hamptonne’s starring role is told by using pictures taken during filming and set props and costumes, including a dress worn by Miss Hawes.