Mike Michaelson | Discover Views, German Heritage In River Valley

Seeing Sark

The Past Of Europe Lives In Channel Islands

The view looking east and out to the sea from the granite cliffs of Sark.

On Sark only the ruling potentate can keep pigeons or a female canine, and all islanders once paid their sovereign a yearly tax on chimneys, which amounted to one chicken. These same chimneys still boast an interior stone ledge where a passing witch can warm herself, hopefully foregoing the nefarious urge to scuttle down into the fireplace and wreak havoc amongst the household.

No, this is not a hot spot of the Dark Ages, but a modern island of ancient lineage--indeed Europe's last feudal fiefdom--and it owes its allegiance to the Queen of England, though not in her capacity as monarch of the British Empire, but as successor to the Dukes of Normandy.

This intriguing, mythic isle, one of a handful of ocean-encircled land spits called the Channel Islands, lies between England and France, but is sited much closer to France's Normandy coast.

In the 6th Century, the Welsh saint, Magloire, journeyed to Sark with his band of followers and built a monastery. Today, one of its ancient walls still forms part of the present ruler's stone-sheltered garden. The French, Flemish, British and various and sundry pirates squabbled over the island until 1565 when a lord (called a Seigneur) of the neighboring island of Jersey drove out the pirates. Queen Elizabeth I, with great gratitude, issued a charter to Sir Helier de Carteret who became the first Seigneur of Sark.

This ancient charter has changed hands several times since, but the present ruling Seigneur, Michael Beaumont, can trace his family's tenure to his great-great-great grandmother, Dame Mary Allaire Collins, the daughter of the colorful privateer and notorious brigand, John Allaire.

Over 65,000 tourists flock to Sark every summer to enjoy its four square miles of rugged cliffs, hidden smuggler's caves, the charming gardens and grounds of the Seigneurie (ruler's mansion), but most of all the archaic Norman customs and ambience, which still survive today.

Three languages are spoken on Sark: English, French and the old Norman-French patois which, some say, is similar to the antiquated French spoken in America's Louisiana bayou country by the descendants of Acadians (Cajuns) chased out of Nova Scotia in the mid 1700s.

No cars are allowed on the island and 100-year-old, horse-drawn carts ferry visitors about the unpaved byways of Sark. Guests arriving for a stay at one of the island's 5 hotels and 10 guesthouses are met at quayside (most people usually fly from England to the island of Guernsey, then take a ferryboat to Sark) where they and their luggage are loaded onto tractors. The only motorized vehicles allowed on the island save for electric invalid carts, these farm machines chug slowly through a rock tunnel and up a steep hill where visitors are then transferred to venerable yellow-wheeled carriages called victorias.

Most of the 600 inhabitants are descended from the original 40 families who settled the island with de Carteret and they still believe strongly in their Seigneur and hold fast to their Norman traditions. Not so long ago, a tenth of islanders' cereal crops had to be given in yearly tribute to the Seigneur who, in turn, looked after the welfare of every islander. He still looks after their welfare today.

Curious customs are still the rule of the day, many existing with good reason though they seem bizarre at first blush. For instance, the Seigneur--or La Dame if the ruler is a woman--is the only island resident allowed to keep a bitch. (Because 300-foot-high cliffs rise out of the sea all around the island, it was feared the more flighty female pooches would chase valuable sheep over the promontories to watery graves.) Too, there is a stiff fine for shooting a gull or stealing its eggs, for the piercing cries of the adult birds warn fishermen off dangerous rocks in the choppy sea.

Sark is really two islands, Great and Little Sark, connected by a steep and narrow isthmus called La Coupee which looms 250 feet above the sea. Before German prisoners lined it with stout iron railings at the end of World War II, young children crossing from Little Sark to Great Sark for a day's schooling were known to drop to their knees and crawl across the 100-yard expanse when the wind was high.

Since 1974, Michael Beaumont has been Seigneur of this feudal throwback where, by law, the century-old, two-man jail can confine prisoners for only 72 hours (longer sentences are served on the Island of Guernsey). Prior to his tenure, his grandmother, Sibyl Mary Collins Beaumont Hathaway, ruled as La Dame for 47 years. It was this courageous and much-loved monarch who made lovely little Sark famous in modern times.

When the Germans occupied the island from 1940 to 1945, Dame Sibyl refused to desert her islanders though offered the chance. To the watching world's amazement, she kept the German generals at bay with a shrewd combination of hauteur, wit, intelligence and inimitable charm. Sark fared badly during the occupation: Islanders were twice deported to German prisoner-of-war camps, and near the end all Sarkese faced imminent starvation.

It was the Dame who devised a nighttime raid on the island's grain supply, grinding it at midnight in the Seigneur's mill then doling it out to her subjects.

This spirited woman and her second husband, Bob Hathaway, also secreted an illegal radio set in the mansion's trunk room. After listening to nightly BBC broadcasts, the Dame built up her subjects' morale by quietly disseminating the uncensored war news from London. This infraction of German wartime rules was punishable by death.

Today, the ancient isle has returned to a peaceful pace: Fishermen sail out daily to catch the famous Sark lobsters; tourists ramble with delight on the beaches and in the rainbow-hued, anemone-bedecked pirate's caves; and the much-vaunted island witches still warm their derrieres on a special stone slab created in consideration of their nasty natures. As Dame Sibyl once said of her ancient empire, "What was good enough for William the Conqueror is good enough for us!"

One hopes they don't change a thing.

If You're Going To The Channel Islands...

Back to top