Local matters: Life on the Grande Rue

Life on the Grande Rue – the St Martin’s version that is – gets ever busier.

Some south-east parish locals might even say it’s too busy, in terms of traffic being unbearably mad.

No wonder then that when junior constable Carla Bauer asked for suggestions as to how her parish could be improved in terms of traffic, housing, community buildings and facilities, she was inundated with representations, more than 200 of them.

A draft plan may be forthcoming this way some time soon but, for now, concerned folks of this parish just wait and hope.

It is fair to say of all the island’s Grande Rues, the most southern has changed more than the others of the same title.

You only have to study the periodical Ordnance Surveys of the past century and a quarter.

What was a fairly quiet, main thoroughfare linking the east with the more open roads to the west, has become manic.

And, what’s more, virtually every inch of the Grande Rue’s flanks have been filled with buildings and even more are planned.

Long-standing residents such as Henry Davey would argue it’s all becoming a trifle too much. This ‘Rue’ can’t accept much more.

The Daveys could lay claim to being the road’s longest resident family, there being a Davey living at Mount Hope Terrace opposite M&S for more than a century.

Their presence owes everything to the efforts of 21st-century Henry’s grandfather, also Henry, who had his workshop across the road where today the M&S store stands.

From there grandfather Henry ran a carpentry and undertaking business, building the terrace of cottages where, initially, some family resided.

Today’s Henry recalls his grandfather and workshop, as well as a quaint story of grandad initially refusing to allow his son to drive one of the funeral cars. ‘If I let you have a car, people will think I’m charging them too much.’

This, of course, is the road which made men such as George Valpy, the builders John and Stephen Rabey and the baker Senner, renowned not only in the area but island-wide.

It is also the road which generations of football players and fans have utilised to reach the home of Henry Davey’s beloved St Martin’s AC in Blanche Pierre Lane, the road where the Queens Hotel has quenched the thirst of men for well over a century and still goes strong.

It is the road which allows churchgoers to reach its Methodist church every Sunday and, at the opposite end, where Le Lacheur’s Garage signalled the turn off into Les Merriennes.

It’s the road you need to navigate to arrive at Ogiers footwear and clothing store, get your petrol at Jacksons, arrive at the parish hall and stylish relatively new community centre.

It is where you will find the little Green Hut that dates back to beyond Henry Davey’s childhood of seven decades ago, and the road thousands of children have branched off to reach the parish school and the boxing club in off-shoot lane Route des Coutures.

And talking of off-shoots, Rue Maze, Route des Camps and Les Merriennes also feed into the story of the Grande Rue, the second of which switches by name to the main road at the junction which takes football followers down to Blanche Pierre Lane.

That means Valpys creeps just into the Grande Rue, having initiated itself much further away. Jersey in fact.

George Valpy was a Jerseyman by birth, but spent the greater part of his working life here.

Valpys was started more than a century ago, in the 1890s, by George P Valpy and his wife, Marie. Based in Trinity Square, their shop sold various hardware products, and their horse-drawn delivery van was regularly spotted loaded with supplies as it went to the island’s trading hotspots.

In the following years the business’s base moved to Ville au Roi and then on to Grande Rue in the early 1900s, where it was, at that time, located opposite the current Ogiers shops.

In 1935, Mr and Mrs Valpy built a house – still on Grande Rue, next door to the current location of the shop. The house included a lean-to extension from which the hardware store operated.

Prior to the Occupation his delivery van, with him at the wheel, was a familiar sight all over the island.

With electric lighting hard to come by for the agricultural shows, he was the man to provide the Tilley lamps that lit up the tents and did so at his local South Show right up until his death aged 73.

The business and family expanded onto its current location and by 1953 the Valpys’ only child, Phyllis, and her husband, William de la Rue, had taken on the full running of the business.

By 1974 retirement beckoned and the de la Rues sold the business to a building firm. Fast forward to 1980 and Colin and Sheila Torode, who were looking to expand their home-based electrical repair business, took on the retail shop. Still under the same ownership, this was the beginning of Valpys as we know it today.

Colin and Sheila worked tirelessly to build the business and form new associations and relationships with household brands, while embedding the ‘can-do’ attitude to provide a great customer experience.

It became a true family affair. Colin’s parents and Sheila’s father assisted with varying roles in the shop and office as the business expanded and the Torodes’ two young daughters, Lisa and Kate, also helped out with tasks such as weighing nails and filling paraffin jugs – something you wouldn’t see happening these days, especially for a couple of children under 10 years old.

As the business continued to expand, the demand for increased retail and storage space saw the couple build the first of three extensions, doubling the size of the floor space.

The second extension was built in 2001 to accommodate more retail and storage space for home appliances, which had become the shop’s flagship products. In 2014, a third extension was added.

Islanders have come to rely on Valpys, as well as Senners for their bread and, may I say, for that wonderful gache.

Today it is Martin Senner who burns the early-morning oil to produce all that bread and those wonderful buns, Martin being the fourth generation to commit his life to baking.

It all started in Vauvert when his great- grandfather, C Senner, set up his small business before upping sticks and moving to Les Camps at some stage between 1925 and the Occupation, by which time Albert Senner was working alongside his father.

By then, 1955, the young Brian Senner, Martin’s father, was spending a couple of years at Southampton Technical College learning the trade and, aged 18, becoming not only the youngest baker on the island but also the only one to hold a National Diploma in Bakery Confectionery.

Martin subsequently stepped into his shoes, but, and here is the bad news folks – there in no fifth generation Senner on hand to continue the business. A disaster for gache, often described as the best on the island.

What’s the secret?

‘My dad had the recipe, basically the same recipe that I use, which I know was his father’s. It goes back a long time, pre-war for sure,’ Martin said.

‘To me, it’s something I’ve kind of taken for granted. It’s something that I’ve always known.

‘There’s no special hidden recipe with it. If you speak to different people, they’ll always have a different recipe, but it all comes out basically the same.

‘In the olden days, all the different bakers had secret ingredients that they put in, but now there’s no bakers left, all the old recipes, I presume, for commercial purposes, are long gone.’

He mentions that his dad actually liked it better a couple of days old and toasted rather than fresh.

‘If you ask any proper Guern, they’ll tell you that the only way to serve it is with Guernsey butter. That’s how I would say it’s best eaten,’ he added.

Long before the Senners came on the scene, the local baker was Mr Le Dain in Rue Maze.

The 1920s was a period when Mr Partridge ran the Queens, Luff & Co were the Coop of the day at their Manor Stores site and Mr Domaille operated a successful hairdressing business.

Two more renowned Grande Rue men dating back a century were builders John and Stephen Rabey.

J and S Rabey had been founded around the turn of the century and while the base was just off the Grande Rue in Rue Maze where Stephen, the renowned parish deputy lived, John set up his home at Elmville in the main stretch.

On the domestic scene the brothers were a combined force outside of building homes.

While Stephen was one of the parish’s greatest ever politicians, John was wrapped up in parish work, serving as constable and a leading member of the street church, Les Camps Methodist.

Fast forward to the 1950s and Grande Rue was a popular destination for those wanting a new push-bike or one that needed mending.

Herbie Tostevin’s cycle business stood on the footprint of the modern-day MotorMall, while on the site of today’s Coop was another garage where the Daveys would take their accumulator batteries used for televisions and radios, for re-charging.

For your everyday shopping, it was possibly a quick visit to grocers J Cox and Mrs Drinkwater, or if a wider choice was required, then Luff & Co at the Manor Stores site.

Jules was the hairdresser on hand this way, Dr Andrade the main man at the Les Merriennes doctor’s practice.

It was a busy old ‘street’ 70 years ago, but nothing like now and you have to wonder just how much more development, how many more cars and lorries, it can take.

Road widening, the likes of which was made in front of the constables’ building in 1954, is out. Just impossible.

Developers, seemingly, are not so concerned and more fringe housing is planned, adding to the congestion, both human and motorised.

Where will it end, you might ask?

Carla Bauer is just one that would like to know and Cynthia Cormack, her fellow douzenier, has her own fears.

‘We are acting on your behalf to protect St Martin’s from becoming a “Hong Kong” of buildings with no green space available,’ she said late last year when the parish launched its community plan.

Additional research by Terry Dowinton.