Farming after Liberation: the road to recovery

Hamptonne Country Life Museum / Open until 17 May

This exhibition, tells the Occupation story of Hamptonne and examines how farming recovered after Liberation. As Jersey’s major industry before and after the Second World War, it was seen as vital that farming should prosper following the Occupation. By May 1945, Islanders were concerned that the unique Jersey breed of cattle was under threat due to looting and food shortages, and many felt the decimated farms would never get back to pre-war production. They could not have been more wrong. Learn the surprising story of how farms survived the Occupation and thrived following Liberation.

A Day to Remember

Hamptonne Country Life Museum / Open until 17 May

Immerse yourself in this captivating ten-minute projected film, ‘A Day to Remember’. As the magnificent events unfold, we hear from Islanders who witnessed them, as well as evacuees in England and deportees in Germany.

Drawing upon archive film and an immense library of stills, we experience the anticipation of freedom, the final surrender on 9 May 1945 and the arrival of Force 135, set to clear away the aftermath of war and make the Island safe again.

The Occupation collections contain some of the most unique objects in Jersey’s museum collections, serving as evidence of the ingenuity, creativity and bravery of Islanders in the face of hardship. During the five-year period in which Jersey was occupied by German forces, Islanders battled severe shortages of food, supplies and materials, and were forced to make, reuse and repurpose anything they could.

Whilst occupied, German forces outlawed the use of radios, and in 1942 ordered that all Islanders must hand these into the authorities. It is estimated that over 10,000 wireless sets were confiscated in the month following the issuing of this order. Many Islanders, struggling with the lack of news about the progress of the war, risked imprisonment by keeping radio sets and listening to illegal broadcasts during this time. Some even made homemade crystal radios, a simple form of radio receiver that was generally small and therefore easy to hide. The crystal radios that we have in the collection are reminders of what Islanders endured during the war years, and they allow us to keep sharing stories such as this one. Hundreds of people, like Mr Holley, put themselves at enormous risk by keeping wireless sets when this became illegal, and surviving objects, like the walnut radio, are a testament to the bravery of Islanders.

There are many examples of crystal radios in the museum collection, but perhaps the most unique example is one which consists of parts of a radio carefully hidden inside the shell of a walnut. This walnut radio was created by Bernard Holley, a radio engineer who worked at W. H. Cole’s wireless shop in Halkett Street from the late 1930s.  Keep reading…