SARK

LOCATION AND COMMUNICATION LINKS

Sark, all 1,274 acres of it, lies in the English Channel, the smallest of the four major Channel Islands in the shelter of the French coast. The largest, Jersey, lies to the south-east and Guernsey, Sark’s nearest shopping centre, is an hour’s boat ride away to the west. The only way to get to Sark is by boat; aeroplanes are not even allowed to fly over it under 2,000 feet. The Isle of Sark Shipping Company provides a year-round link to St Peter Port, in Guernsey, with six ferries each weekday in the summer and a boat to bring in papers and post in the winter. Catamarans run to Sark from Jersey in the summer.

GEOGRAPHY

Sark looks like a diamond (Big Sark) perched on a tear-drop (Little Sark), the two linked by an impressive isthmus, 250 feet high and barely 10 feet wide, a beauty spot with spectacular views of Guernsey and Jersey to the east and west.

The coastline is no less spectacular. Sark is the one Channel Island with no wartime defences; it doesn’t need them. The cliffs rise perpendicular from the sea with a few paths descending to storybook beaches with caves and wide sands, rocks and fascinating wild life in

just a few places. There is no natural body of fresh water on Sark, and very few streams. Although the island is volcanic in origin, the 2,000 million year old rocks have been so twisted and heat treated that they are porous, the granite and schists acting as aquifers. The violent geological past results in quartz crystals, including the amethyst Sark stone, which are found occasionally on the beaches.

The cliffs mean that there is only one road down to sea level from the plateau 300 feet up, where people live. High above the sea, it is sometimes difficult to believe that Sark is an island! The wooded valleys and high banked, unmetalled roads could be deep in the countryside; in the spring the spread of wild flowers delights naturalists.

Sark is famous for its great beauty, its peace and the fact that no cars are allowed on the island. Transport is by foot, bicycles and, usually for visitors, by horse and carriage. Tractors may be used for haulage and agriculture, but not as taxis!

POPULATION AND MAJOR CENTRES

The population is about 550 and there are no major centres; the people live scattered over the top of the island, although there is one short shopping street at the top of the harbour hill. There the post office is found, along with two banks, a jeweller’s, some cafés and a few other shops. The Anglican Church is near and so is the Medical Centre, where the island’s one doctor lives. Sark has no hospital, no dentist and no vet. There are five hotels, most of which only open in the summer, and seasonal staff for hotels, guest houses and carriage driving increase the resident population in summer.

HISTORY

Sark is the last feudal state in the western world. It was inhabited in early times, with a cromlech indicating a Neolithic settlement nearby and the ruins of a monastery reminding us of past religious communities. One was set up in 565 AD, lasting until 850 AD, a solitary monk setting up a retreat in the ilOOs. Sark was part of the diocese of Coutances, on the Normandy peninsula during this time, and remained so until 1567 AD.The Black Death and the wars between England and France took their toll of the Serquiaise and by 1374 the island was uninhabited.

That all changed when in 1563, when the Seigneur of St. Ouen, in Jersey, following an attack on Sark by the French, applied to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to recolonise to prevent permanent French settlement. This

was granted, and in 1565 Helier de Carteret was awarded Sark as a fief on condition that he kept it inhabited, had 40 men with muskets to defend the island and paid the Crown the twentieth part of a knight’s fee annually.

Helier de Carteret divided the island into 40 farms, or Tenements, and charged each Tenant with supplying an armed man for the defence of the island. A Tenant must also swear allegiance to the Crown and takes a seat on Sark’s parliament.

That is how Sark stands today. It is still a fief hauber and the present Seigneur, Mr Michael Beaumont, holds Sark in perpetual lease from the Crown, provided that he keeps it inhabited, can produce 40 men with guns to defend the island if called upon to do so and pays the Crown the twentieth part of a knight’s fee every year - that is £1.79 today!

GOVERNMENT

The result of this history is the smallest independent state in the Commonwealth. Sark has its own parliament, Chief Pleas, and makes its own laws. Lawbreakers are brought before the Seneschal by the Connêtable and the Vingtenier and may be kept in the tiny two-cell prison beforehand. Sark raises its own taxes, which do not include income tax, and decides how to spend its income. Sark pioneered free education in the British Isles, passing a law in 1829 decreeing that every child on the island must attend school.

The school was built at that time on the understanding that it could also be used by Chief Pleas; parliament still meets in the Senior School, the meetings held at the major church festivals, Christmas, Easter and Michaelmas. Chief Pleas has 12 elected Deputies today who sit with the Tenants, so that the 550 Sark residents can have 52 members of parliament. Sark may be feudal, but it is not undemocratic!

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

‘Bo’jour’, as a Sark patois speaker would say! As you will have gathered from the• sprinkling of words through this account, French plays an important part in Sark’s communications. Official notices are still written in French, and the older Sark residents still chat to each other in Serquiaise, a dialect of Norman French, barely comprehensible to most French speakers. Time and changing life styles mean that the language is disappearing. Local residents marry English partners and the patois is no longer spoken at home. Everyone now speaks and understands English.

The traditions of story telling and singing, recording the island’s history and legends, produced a community well able to entertain itself, with concerts and plays, dancing, gardening and crafts an important part of the social life. Incomers have grafted active Music and

Theatre Societies to this tradition, and Sark has a lively DIY cultural life; this is no place to sit back and watch, if people do not participate, nothing will happen..

ECONOMY

Sark Was a self-contained fishing and farming community until discovered by the Victorians, who were the forerunners of today’s tourists. The great beauty and peace of Sark has been attracting people for over 100 years now, and visitors bring in the larger part of the island’s income through impôt (a small tax on alcohol and tobacco) and a landing tax. There are cottage industries, like knitting, pottery and glass-blowing and farming and fishing still supply some island needs, but carriage rides, cafés, guest houses and hotels are important ways of earning a living.

SPORT AND LEISURE ACTIVITIES

The only drawback to living in a small community is that team games pose a problem. There are not enough players to make two teams! In the summer the additional summer staff make football games possible, but local sporting interests inevitably centre on individual skills rather than team games. Fishing is a year round occupation, as is clay-pigeon shooting. Distance running has been popular; Sark has had runners in the London Marathon, and it takes dedication to train for that when the longest running circuit round the roads is 2.5 miles. There is an annual road race, the Sark Ten, attended by runners from Guernsey and Jersey.

People wonder why swimming and rowing are not more popular, but the tides and currents round Sark are extremely dangerous; locals spend enough time rescuing visitors who do not understand this. The swimming pools on the island are outdoor, and usually emptied in the winter. In the summer residents are usually so busy that they have little time for relaxation! Except for the Island Games, of course! A b’tot!!

Paul Williams