Maison du Mont au Pretre

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Historic Jersey buildings


Maison du Mont au Pretre, St Helier


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H20MaisonDuMontAuPretre2.jpg

Property name

Maison du Mont au Pretre

Other names

  • Mont au Pretre Priory
  • The Priory
  • Poingdestre Farm

Location

Route du Petit Clos, St Helier

Type of property

17th century rural house

Valuations

Sold for £910,000 in 2014 but only £695,000 a year later

Families associated with the property

  • Poingdestre: A previous name for the property was Poingdestre Farm, stemming from its occupation by several generations of that family. Advocate Charles Poingdestre, his father Jean, and grandfather Michel, all lived here. Charles, who was an Advocate from 1772 to 1816, died without children and his nephew Jean, also an Advocate from 1771 to 1789, inherited the house.
  • Richardson: The house was owned by J Richardson in the 1840s and '50s and there were still members of the family living in the area in the 1960s.

Historic Environment Record entry

Listed building

An important example of a 17th century rural house, with a good survival of interesting original features. Shown on the Richmond Map of 1795.

Two-storey, three-bay house. Chamfered window surrounds with accolade lintels. 16-pane windows. Doorway has chamfered round arch. Garden to west with double archway to courtyard - the carriage entrance arch lost and converted to piers with pyramid caps.

To the right of the pedestrian arch is a carved shield with arms of Poingdestre.

Walled east garden (subdivided early 21st century with eastern section now associated with modern house to north). North extension to original house. This may be the site of a chapel as there is no record of a priory. It may have had links to Le Prieuré de l'Islet.

Old Jersey Houses

This property has gone by several names, including, at one time, Mont au Pretre Priory. The entry in Vol One dismisses the accuracy of this name, writing that 'no priory existed anywhere near ... the sites of all recorded chapels in the parish have been identified'.

However, the author did accept that the names Mont au Prêtre and nearby Mont à l'Abbé suggest 'some ecclesiastical connection'. Not far away are Bellozanne Abbey and Bellozanne Priory, the accuracy of which names Joan Stevens also challenged, but the profusion of ecclesiastical links in this area at the north-west of the Parish of St Helier does suggest that there were early establishments for which there are no existing records.

Mrs Stevens admitted that the historian De La Croix, writing in 1859, said that there was a chapel here, but dismisses this claim as being unsupported by historical evidence.

She considered the bedroom to contain the most highly decorated complete granite fireplace in Jersey.

Notes and references

The house when it was thatched, as recently as 1927
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