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| The Island of Jersey Basking in the warmth of the channel island sunshine, just 14 miles off the coast of France lies the wonderful island of Jersey!
Jersey is the largest of the channel islands measuring 44sq miles at high tide, and 92sq miles at low tide. Famous for Bergerac, potatoes and jersey cows.
Jersey has been an Island for approximately 8,000 years, although the earliest evidence of human activity dates back 250,000 years when bands of hunters used the caves at La Cotte de St. Brelade as a base for hunting mammoth
Settled communities in the Neolithic period- builders of the ritual burial sites known as dolmens, replaced the nomadic bands of hunters. 
Even in those days, Jerseymen were trading with Brittany and the south coast of England. The Island was known as Angia until the Vikings arrived in the 9th century when it became Jersey. Very little else is known about the Island until the 11th century
The Channel Islands were politically linked to Brittany until 933 when William Longsword, Duke of Normandy, seized the Cotentin peninsula, including the islands, and added them to his domain. In 1066, Duke William of Normandy defeated Harold at Hastings to become King of England, allowing the islanders to joke that England is Jersey's oldest possession! Even today, the Loyal Toast in the Island is often to "The Queen - our Duke" and acknowledges the fact that Jersey's relationship with England is through the Monarch.
The 20th century was dominated by the occupation of the Channel Islands by German troops (1940-1945), which saw about 8,000 Islanders evacuated, 1,200 deported to camps in Germany and more than 300 sentenced to prison or concentration camps in mainland Europe. Twenty died as a result. Liberation Day - May 9 - is still marked as a public holiday.
In the early 1960s, the industry, which was to have the most impact on the Island, started to develop. Today, the finance industry is the largest employer and by far the largest contributor to the exchequer.
The Island of Jersey is split up into twelve parishes.
The areas are not simply ecclesiastical divisions - although there is a parish church in each of the parishes - but civil divisions.
St Helier, JSY
Updated 31 July 2010 20:50
Mostly Cloudy | 17°C | High: 19°C
Low: 16°C
Wind: 14 kph
Humidity: 88%
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Sunday
19° / 15° | 
Monday
18° / 16° | 
Tuesday
19° / 16° |
Wednesday
19° / 16° |
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Most of the parishes have villages, centred around the church, school and parish hall. All the churches have a perquage path, which leads to the sea (all parishes touch the sea at some point around the coast) in order that, in the past, criminals would have a means of escape from the Island.
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