Landowner battles special protection for 'Medieval farming fields'

Friday 18 November 2022

A St. Ouen landowner has launched a battle against the "unfair" decision to afford grade one listed status to two fields believed to represent a rare example of the island's medieval agricultural landscape.

Fergus Winchester is objecting to the inclusion of two fields in La Rue de la Campagne as part of a larger listing including some 60 fields described by the Planning Department as "rare group of surviving medieval strip, unenclosed, fields of international importance".

Mr Winchester, who was advised in September that his two fields would be included in the site of special interest in spite of his objections, lodged a formal appeal last month with the Judicial Greffe against the decision.

In that appeal, Mr Winchester argues: "[The fields] have no evidence of earlier prehistoric activity. They retain no evidence of early farming methods. These fields have simply been used as a convenient boundary line."

Following correspondence between Mr Winchester and the Planning Department earlier this year, Jersey Heritage's archaeology listing panel met in July to discuss his objections that the fields were never strip fields and would have been impossible to farm in the medieval period because of their topography and their propensity to flood.

Arguing that the decision was "unfair and incorrect", Mr Winchester said that the fields were neither medieval nor unenclosed, and he claimed that the Planning Department had amended the schedule and its description of the site to support its listing, something he claimed was unjust.

However, the supplementary report prepared by Jersey Heritage, incorporating the listing panel's advice, states that the balance of evidence suggests that the fields should remain part of the listing.

"It was noted that previous studies have consistently identified these as part of a group of surviving medieval strip fields, the largest and least disturbed example of the original pre-enclosure landscape of Jersey... In summary, the research shows that the fields are named 'les champs du Val au Feuvre' back to 1778, which identifies them as fields at that time," the report states.