The Lord Coutanche Library supports the work of the Société Jersiaise by collecting and preserving material relating to Jersey’s history, prehistory and natural environment. Its scope includes the other Channel Islands, Normandy, Brittany and southern England.
To search the library collection select the SJ Library Tab.
The Library is situated at the Société Jersiaise.
Lord Coutanche Library
Société Jersiaise
7 Pier Road
St Helier
Jersey JE2 4XW
Contact: library@societe-jersiaise.org
Hours
Monday, Wednesday & Friday: 9.30am – 1pm and 2pm – 5pm
Tuesday & Thursday: 9.30am – 1pm
Admission
Library use is free to Société Jersiaise Members.
Members of the following organisations may use the Library without charge, upon presentation of a membership card
- Channel Islands Family History Society
- Channel Islands Occupation Society
- Friends of the Maritime Museum
Visitors may use the Library by purchasing a Reader’s Ticket.
Reader’s Ticket Prices:
| 1 Day | £5 | Student £2 |
| 5 Days | £15 | Student £5 |
COLLECTIONS
Printed Material
- The latest local publications and periodicals including selected items from the other Channel Islands
- Archaeology of the Channel Islands and related areas of western Europe
- Histories of the Channel Islands from medieval times to the present
- Natural history, geology and meteorology of the Channel Islands
- Société Jersiaise publications
- Guide books in English and French from 1822 – present
- Almanacs from 1785 onwards (in English and French), which include a record of local events, lists of residents by address and/or trade, persons in public office, militia, shipping movements, etc.
- Newspapers from 1784 onwards (in French and Engish)
- Literature in Jèrriais
- German Occupation books, journals and newspapers
- Journal article offprints
- Indexed scrapbooks and vertical files
Archives
- Documents relating to the history of Jersey
- Family papers and correspondence
- Authors’ manuscripts and research notes (e.g. Philip Ahier, G.R. Balleine, William Davies, E.T. Nicolle, Joan Stevens, Marguerite Syvret)
- German Occupation contemporaneous diaries and reports, Biberach Camp register, German military plans of island defences.
- Ephemera, including entertainment programmes
Family History
- Family trees, published family histories, and family history files
- Indices to the Census returns for 1841 and each decade to 1911
- Transcriptions and index to existing registers of baptisms, marriages and burials from parish church records (c.1540 -1842)
- Listes du Rat (parish rate lists) from 1858; electoral lists
- Index of civil registers (1842 – c.2002) for births, marriages and deaths
- Jersey Merchant Seamen’s Benefit Society Registers (1835-1900). Lists names of seamen and ships registered in Jersey.
Maps and Prints
- Maps of St Helier and the Channel Islands from c.1300, both originals and copies of those held elsewhere
- Plans and drawings
- Original prints of the Channel Islands (e.g. Harwood, Le Capelain, M. Moss, P.J. Ouless, Rock & Co.)