Les Niemes Farm

Historic Jersey buildings Les Niemes Farm, St Peter Index of all house profiles If you own this property, have ancestors who lived here, or can provide any further information and photographs, please contact us through editorial@jerripedia.org

This photograph was taken by Albert Smith in 1901, a few months before the house burnt down. Its replacement, using some of the salvaged stones of the round arch, is to the right. The west wing, to the left, survived the fire, as did the low wall in the courtyard, shown in both pictures. That has now been removed to facilitate car parking

Property name

Les Niemes Farm

Other names

Tranche des Niemes - converted barn

Location

Rue des Niemes, St Peter

Type of property

Early twentieth century three-bay, two-storey farmhouse, which replaced an earlier five-bay farmhouse, of late medieval origin, burnt down in 1901. The west gable of the earlier house survives.

Valuations

Tranche des Niemes sold for £735,000 in 2005. This transaction probably involved only part of the converted barn

Families associated with the property

• Le Bas: Owners of this property from the medieval period. Their descendants, in the 19th century:
• Le Feuvre: Owners, by inheritance from the Le Bas family, in the 19th century and early 20th century
• L'Amy
• Vibert

Datestones

• PLF 1837 ALB, over the archway of the converted barn, for Philippe Le Feuvre and Anne Le Bas

Historic Environment Record entry

Not included

Old Jersey Houses

The loss of the original building in the 1901 fire will account for its early 20th century replacement getting no more than a passing mention in the article devoted to Les Nièmes in Volue Two

History

Les Nièmes Farm, is on the Fief des Nièmes, in St Peter, and is immediately opposite the grander Les Niemes House, built in 1829 by their then owner, Philippe Le Feuvre. The older farmhouse was burnt down in 1901, leaving only its west gable,

Stevens, Arthur and Stevens, in Jersey Place Names, 1, 382, write "Les Nièmes Farm belonged to Nicolas Le Bas in 1614 and to Le Feuvre by 1837".

The original farmhouse was of considerable antiquity and there remains, in the west gable, evidence that it had been a medieval hall-house. J Bertrand Payne, in An Armorial of Jersey, 163, mentions the long, unbroken, collection of Le Bas family deeds in connection with this property, that have, since then, enabled the compilation of the Le Bas genealogy from about 1300.

Nicolas Le Bas (1672-1737) of Les Nièmes, husband of Elizabeth Dauvergne, was the principal heir in a 1697 partage in which he is given as "Nicolas Le Bas, fils Nicolas, fils Nicolas, fils Nicolas, fils Nicolas." His co-heir was his cousin, Nicolas Le Bas (1672-1715) of St Brelade, "fils Nicolas, fils Nicolas, fils Guillaume ^[1] The former Nicolas was from 1708, Vingtenier of La Grande Vingtaine, as was his grandson and namesake in 1772. The latter, who was a Captain in the Militia artillery, became Centenier of St Peter between the years 1785 and 1788. In the Appairiement of the Fief des Nièmes in 1792, Nicolas is shown as the owner of 66¾ vergées of land, being one of the parish`s larger landowners.

On the east side of the lane, where Les Nièmes House now stands, was another farmhouse bearing the name Les Nièmes. Of this, Stevens, Arthur and Stevens write ^[2] "La Maison des Némes (sic), Fief des Nemes (sic), belonged to Balleine 1579 and 1614, now known as Les Nièmes House, on Rue des Nièmes...Le Feuvre by 1822". The latter was the ancestral home of the Balleine family but they lost it because Philippe Balleine murdered an intruder in the kitchen. He was executed on 24 January 1723. The Le Feuvre owner was the above Philippe Le Feuvre, who had married the heiress of the last Nicolas Le Bas of Les Nièmes Farm, on the west side of the road. This last Nicolas Le Bas had bought La Maison des Némes from Jean Le Brun, fils Jean, whose family had been intermediate owners, since the Balleines. The house was given in 1829 the spelling formerly used by the Le Bas family on the other side of the road. Understandably, there has previously been some confusion between the histories of these two neighbouring properties of virtually the same name, which had been, from the late 18th century until the late 19th century, in the same ownership.

Les Nièmes Farm, it was inherited by George William Le Feuvre, the younger son of Philippe Le Feuvre and Anne Le Bas, his wife. He also inherited "la neuve maison des Nièmes," so described in a Le Feuvre partage of 1840, this being the above Les Nièmes House, while his brother Philippe, inherited La Hougue. Les Nièmes House remained in the Le Feuvre family into the mid-20th century, when it was inherited, in a female line, by the Pocock family, who sold it not long ago.

The rebuilt Les Nièmes Farm is now owned by the Vibert family, who bought it from a L`Amy who bought it from a Le Bas.

Notes and references

1. ↑ Unsurprisingly, even the court registrar, recording this partage in the rolls of La Cour du Samedi, Volume 74, confused the number of Nicolases in the co-heir`s lineage, adding an extra Nicolas
2. ↑ Op. cit., see above reference