Saints Bay Loop Tower is now a Boxing Day tradition

They were on a walk 10 years ago when they realised its condition was deteriorating, and contacted Guernsey Museums in order to gain permission to stabilise it and restore it.

‘We wanted to bring it up to a good standard where it wasn’t going to fall over the cliff,’ said Gary Murchie.

‘We took on the renovation of it in 2015 and now we’re at a stage where it is serviceable and can be shown off to the general public.’

The exterior of the property was fully repointed and scaffolding was put up around its entirety.

All of the floors and interior were removed and the team worked under the heritage and museum guidelines to restore it.

‘Everything had to be put back exactly the same as it was taken out,’ said Mr Murchie.

‘We had a dendro analysis (tree dating) done on the floorboards to find out what timber it was.

‘We assumed it would have been elm but it was pine, which we think was likely taken from the St Peter Port shipyards.’

The loop or loophole towers are often misinterpreted as Martello towers, but were pre-Martello, built around 1778.

Their construction was thought to pre-empt possible French attacks as a result of the American War of Independence, however they were never used for that purpose.

Of the 15 that were originally built, one was demolished to make way for housing at the Halfway, another for tramlines on the east coast, and a third was destroyed by the Germans during the Occupation.

‘It’s been a labour of love to restore it back to what it would have been at the time of its original build,’ said Mr Murchie.

‘Since we’ve done the renovation, all that’s left is for us to maintain it the best we can, but we have to work on funds and donations and we would love to open it more, but getting volunteers is a problem.

‘Boxing Day is the most popular day for people to come and have a look.

‘A lot of people who donated are swimmers at Saints Bay so they’ll usually pop in for a cup of tea after swimming and it’s become a bit of an annual thing.’

Updates and information about how to donate or volunteer can be found on the Saints Bay Loop Tower 14 Facebook page.