Blot on the landscape?
FIRST there was Fort L’Angle.
In time, many referred to it as Fort Le Plomb, but for as long as anyone can remember it’s been plain old Fort Le Marchant, named after the old Lieutenant Bailiff, Eleazar Le Marchant.
But for nigh on half-a-century it’s been a curious relic of a bygone Guernsey that sat distinctly unnerved by the proximity of the French.
As it happens, though, the only gunnery around this way was not triggered by French, or Germans for that matter.
In the mid-1950s when the barracks stood empty and had become a health and safety incident waiting to happen, the Guernsey Rifle Club switched their immediate post-war targets from Vale Castle down this way, where the target ranges could be stretched out as far as 600 yards.
For around 15 years the full-bore shooters, led by the likes of Captain Don Bisset, had to nestle down on the grass and set their sights on the targets in front of the barracks.
Bruce Parker, then a young teacher at Elizabeth College and one of the island’s top shooters, recalled the ugly building which loomed large over the area.
‘Even as a teenager, I couldn’t help being taken aback by the sheer beauty of the headland where our full-bore shooting competitions and practice were held at L’Ancresse,’ recalled Bruce.
‘Nobody has ever argued with my claim ever since that it’s one of, if not the most stunning shooting range in the world – to the west, superb views across rocks and the bay itself, onwards to Chouet. To the north, the deep blue sea and, on a good day, the Casquets and Alderney on the horizon.
‘The only blot on the landscape, of course, was the dreadful, pock-marked, dark brown Fort Le Marchant.
‘I could never quite understand how the same man, Eleazar Le Marchant, could have lent his name to the prestigious sixth-form library at the College and all its wonderful books [the room still bears his name] and this awful fort.
‘Had we been armed with heavy mortars and not .303 rifles, I think we’d have blasted away the building ourselves. Happily, however, the States did it for us.’
Read Rob Batiste's full story on Fort Le Marchant in today's Guernsey Press
