Le Quesnel menhir
A small group of Section members met up at La Moye in late August to investigate what happened to the Le Quesnel menhir, which stood on the La Moye headland near the quarries there until the 1870s and reputed to be the largest in the Island.
We investigated the nineteenth century texts which described it and agreed that the suggested location in Jersey Places Names (and quoted in the listing under the Planning Law as a site of archaeological importance) is almost certainly wrong. Equally misleading is the only image of the menhir from about 1870 which suggests that it was approaching thirty foot in height! The descriptions mention a height of somewhere half of that size, which would still make it the largest menhir!
Le Quesnel menhir – print from the London Illustrated News 1870
We explored some of the surrounding area and identified the locations of houses on the Richmond and Godfray maps which are good starting points. We looked at the period descriptions of the menhir which are quite explicit where it was and who the owner of the land where it stood was (a Mr Ramié!). Unfortunately, as is quite common, the more well-known texts, including the Bulletin in 2002, do not quote the original descriptions, leaving a reader with quite another proposition as to where it was!
The menhir was described to be close to Mr. Ramié’s farmhouse (whose location is easy to determine as the small parking area off the road which leads down to Gorselands) but also close to the edge of the working quarry (now the desalination plant). That would put it somewhere in the field / area of land adjacent to Kingdom Hall and not on the other side of the road as stated in Jersey Place names and the listing.
The descriptions of the menhir also say that it was erected on top of the surface rather than its base being deeply buried. Supposedly it was possible to put a spade underneath its base and the whole menhir would rock side to side. If that was the case, it would not have taken much to topple the megalith, but the question is what then happened to it bearing in mind that it had already been identified as prehistoric and there were many people (including Mr Ramié) who had expressed an intention that it should be preserved?
We need to do some more research into land ownership changes in the 19th century and further explore the powder house, the interior of which our group has the chance to see with the benefit of access from Jersey Heritage, the present guardians. Rumour has it that the floor is made up of just two very large stones. If that is true, could it be part of the mystery of Le Quesnel menhir?
