‘Your Home, Your Story’ (YHYS), which is kindly sponsored by Antony Gibb Historic Buildings Consultants, is the Archive’s main outreach programme for the year ahead and focuses on a variety of properties across the Island, the history of their surrounding neighbourhood and the people who lived there.

The locations were chosen following an enthusiastic response from the community at the end of last year after Islanders were asked to nominate their home to be researched for the project.

Stuart Nicolle, Jersey Heritage’s Senior Archivist, said: “We were overwhelmed by the fantastic response from the community towards discovering more about their house history and the area in which they live. We received over 150 nominations that covered a wide variety of properties, including cottages, larger houses and blocks of flats. We then had the difficult task choosing which ones would be the subject of our monthly talks. For anyone whose home was not chosen, we hope their enthusiasm is not dampened and they take the opportunity to come to the Archive and find out more about their property, with the help of our staff.”

The YHYS talks will take place at Jersey Archive at 10am on the third Saturday of every month. They will also be recorded and added to www.jerseyheritage.org for anyone who was unable to attend in-person.

Following initial talks about newly-opened records this month (21 January) and new pieces added to the Jersey Heritage collections during 2022 (18 February), the first talk about homes is on Saturday, 18 March. The talk will focus on house history in general and there will also be an opportunity for anyone interested in researching their home to book a one-to-one session with a member of Archive staff. The following months will cover homes in different parts of the Island, such as Les Quennevais, Boulivot, Bellozanne Valley, St Peter’s Village and the area between Egypt and Ebenezer.

The Archive will also continue to be open to the public from 9am-1pm each Saturday and there will be an opportunity to take a behind-the-scenes Archive tour in December.

Antony Gibb, Principal of Antony Gibb Historic Buildings Consultants, said: “We’re really pleased to be sponsoring this programme of research this year. I think it will throw up some fascinating details. I’ve already heard from a number of people whose homes have been chosen for investigation, and they’re excited to find out more about where they live. I’m certain what is discovered will underline why living in a house with history is so rewarding. And I hope that our professional and personal interest in conserving, reusing and retrofitting historic homes will be shared by others during the course of 2023.”

Full ‘Your Home, Your Story’ programme 2023:

21 January – Records Opening in 2023

18 February – New Collections in 2022

18 March – House History Talk and Research Morning

15 April – Your Home, Les Quennevais’ Story

20 May – Your Home, Pontac to St Clement’s Church’s Story

17 June – Your Home, Boulivot’s Story

15 July – Your Home, Bellozanne Valley and Tower Road’s Story

19 August – Your Home, Between Egypt and Ebenezer’s Story

16 September – Your Home, Trodez’s Story

21 October – Your Home, St Catherine and Fliquet’s Story

18 November – Your Home, St Peter’s Village’s Story

16 December – Tours of Jersey Archive

Places for the talks can be reserved by calling 833300 or emailing archives@jerseyheritage.org.