WN Fliquet and Batterie Haeseler

WN Fliquet/Flicquet

(never did work out whether the C is required or not, although recent roadsigns suggest no C)
This was located in the peaceful bay...

.. behind St.Catherine's breakwater.

The Resistance Nest was tasked with defending the island from a liberating invasion as always, and also to protect the building housing the Jersey end of a telegraph cable to France which was still operational and useful to the occupying forces.

The excellent jerseywartours.com WN Fliquet page (I can't compete without a drone!) tells us there were two machine guns, a mortar, a 10.5cm field gun and a small searchlight here.

A truncated Conway tower (1780s) was put into use by the Germans - spot the door a little stronger than the original 18th century ones!

.. and another doorway on the inland side.
Just to the left...

.. an entrance to a shelter.
And up on the bank there...

.. this.

A little way up the lane is the cable house. Someone doesn't want you to look inside.

On the other side of the tower is this small concrete structure...

.. but it's not worth borrowing their garden for a few moments, as there's nothing much to see up there.

Next, we headed up the hill.
"What an anchor", she mumbled. I may have misheard.

A little higher, we had a view of the sealed up top of the tower, that requires no drone to see :)

Batterie Haeseler

Again, do check out jerseywartours.com Batterie Haesler for information on"14./ HKAR 1265" and its 4 x 15cm K18 field guns with a 15.5 mile range, and the multi purpose defence gun now on display outside the Jersey War Tunnels.

The battery was situated in fields on the headland between Rue de La Coupe and Rue de La Perruque, to deal with any threat coming from the nearby French coast from the summer of 1944 onwards. Until August '44 the batterie had been in Guernsey (Batterie Scharnhorst). There were 2 heavy and 4 light machine guns to defend the battery, along with 3 x 5cm mortars and 2 x 2cm Flak 38 guns, also a 1.1m searchlight.
  

Locations of all the bits and pieces. The obs post looked like it might coincide with a structure I found on an old map, the site of a promising bulge in the hedge seen on aerial maps like this. We decided to pay a visit so that you don't have to...

.. and found just wooden ruins of an old shed! Didn't spot anything else of interest...

.. except nice views of the breakwater...

.. closer.

So, this is one of those batteries where there's no point 'trespassing' (we broke no laws) because there's not a lot to see!





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I know what I did this summer

I have taken a few sets of pics this summer, but before I start publishing those I'll kick things off with the odds and ends that have made me whip out the camera...

One for postbox enthusiasts, the pillarbox relocated from Liberation Square to the Waterfront.

By St.Ouen's Pond, a new cutting through a bird-watching mound...

..which originally covered a bunker...

.. two months later, and we can see the plan coming together - a new bird-watching construction which will make use of the bunker as an educational facility.

At the other side of the island, low tide and some people for scale... really rams home just how big a project the breakwater was in the 1840s!

Nearby, the sand sculpture man is still creating awesome masterpieces.

This rotting tree trunk at the roadside looks just like a croc, no?

A new tenant for this Bath St property at West's Ctr - Sweet Nelly's ices.

This curved property at Greve d'Azette/Green Rd has yet another tenant (so so many over the years!)...

.. Mesquita's Stores

Farther along the road, and the tatty (see on Google Maps) White Horse has been tarted up into an 'eatery' with the side building removed.

The hotel at Greve de Lecq is currently being flattened.

The Battle Funfair was billed as a travelling "theme park" this year, despite being nothing like a theme park - having no theme other than "look really deserted after the first cheap night". This ride is hundreds of feet higher than I could stomach :)

The shelter and rest stop on the Devil's Hole walk needs some attention.. please...

..it has been there for quite some time if this sweet graffiti from 1967 is anything to go by. Two honeymoon couples here at the same time - that's sooooo 60's Jersey, isn't it? How far our Tourism 'industry' has declined :(

At the top of the walk, the Priory Inn has a new playzone called Little Devils which is one all parents should check out - it's a cheap way to keep them busy and wear them out!


While you're there, check out the little studio at the entrance to the pub car park - Glyn Burton's glasswork skills are very impressive.

Summer in St.Ouen's Bay...

.. La Rocco Tower undergoes some essential repairs. It's open for viewing on the NTJ Open Day next weekend, btw.

Looking the other way, towards the lighthouse.

If I'd have bothered to get out of the car, instead of shooting through the windscreen, I might have had a clearer pic!

Happy Landings.

Airport fire crew go for a drive.

There were actually 3 double-deckers in a row, which was unusual enough to make me stop and whip out the camera, but by the time it switched on, zoomed and focused, one had gone past.

I'm saddened to see that Jersey Water have closed the land at Mt Rossignol, to the west of Val de la Mare reservoir, which used to be open (see on Google Maps). Nice peaceful area with great views, a real shame that we've lost access.

Archirondel Tower...

.. and St.Catherine's Tower.

If you're going to use the word 'scrap' be careful in 3D situations where the first letter will often be obscured!

Finally, to Flicquet/Fliquet (never did work out whether the C is required or not)... and a small concrete structure looks a bit occupation-y ...

.. but it's not worth borrowing their garden for a few moments, as there's nothing to see up above.

The back of St.Cath's.

The truncated tower.

Climb : Up above St. Catherines

Another ambition finally realised - I've always wanted to clamber about on the headland at Verclut, St. Catherine's Bay (aerial pic/map).... although I must say once in a lifetime is probably enough! It was one of my trickiest explorations so far, and only possible at this time of year when the bracken/weeds undergrowth is seasonably dead and withered. If you're tempted to have a go, do check whether it's public land and not privately owned as a 'back garden' to the cafe... :)

It all starts reasonably enough, a little bit of steep climb then it's just sloping ground with enough open areas to get about...




... easy to get to look down onto the bunker tunnels entrance.

But then there's no way up, the undergrowth is too dense. So we head the other way...







.. towards the back of the cafe...






.. and closer...







.. it's fairly easy to reach.







Up a bit higher... yippee, a german occupation gun position.







With a view over Flicquet, it still seemed too tricky to proceed...







.. until we decided to have a go at what looked like a path around a narrow open bunker tunnel of sorts. Here we are looking back at the other end of the small tunnel, having made it around. This stretch is near the edge with a good drop, walking on spongy undergrowth with hidden holes. Dodgy!




Up a smally rocky slope and we reach the summit, an open flat area where the cafe's old aerial mast lies felled and abandoned.






View to the end of the breakwater...







.. closer.







There isn't much evidence of anything else manmade up there, save for this concrete in a ditch.







Nice views of Flicquet from up here...








.. closer, the old Jersey Round Tower...






.. with the top lopped off by the occupying forces for a gun position now capped off and plugged with a concrete blob.







The easiest way around now is by heading away from Flicquet, reaching an area overlooking the sailing clubhouse...








.. closer.






Distant views are wonderful...

.. over to Archirondel and the other breakwater 'harbour arm' that was never completed...




.. Seymour Tower out at sea in the distance, and the Anne Port side of Gorey Castle...







.. closer.







It's not so bad up on top, mainly gorse, some brambles, new bracken shoots emerging for the spring, rabbit droppings aplenty...






.. but enough open spaces to move about in...







.. to reach the vertigo views like this :)








Farther around...







.. and over the gorge created when rock was quarried out of the previously uninterrupted headland for the construction of the 1847 breakwater.








One final traipse over springy undergrowth and...







.. there's that abseiling cliff I must have a go at one day.

Now to head back before the sun sets completely.......