“With collections recognised by UNESCO, the Jersey Archive is the Island’s national repository holding records on all aspects of Jersey’s history” – Source
The Jersey Archive is a huge collection of photographs and records that document every aspect of the island life, some date pieces date all the way back to 1378. Over these years, the Jersey Archive has amounted over 300,000 photographic records that are open to the public. The archive includes things such as documentation of laws, documentary photography of buildings and areas, public records of houses, churches and other services and films and footage of the wars.
The Jersey Archive works digitally too, users can search the online archive to find the pictures they’re looking for:
We attended multiple sessions at the Société Jersiaise (a place founded in 1873 for the study of Jersey archaeology, history, the ancient language and the conservation of the environment) that works closely with the Jersey Archives. During those sessions, we were taught about the importance and impact of Photo Archives and given access to use archival photographs in our personal projects.
Photo Archives and the future
“Photo archives—collections of photographs held by libraries or museums—have long been essential tools for research in the humanities. As digital technology evolves, will these archives become obsolete, evolve, or take new forms altogether?” – Source
“That is our heritage, whether it be digital or analog. However, both formats have their own issues that need to be addressed if we want future generations to see what we have seen and visually documented.“ –Source
Photo archiving has become very important in the last years, preserving our past and documenting it in a way that future generations can understand and learn from is the driving force behind countless archival projects all over the globe. Since technology is developing at such a fast pace, many present day photo Archives function digitally; photographs are stored as digital copies on huge servers that can be viewed by the public while the actual photographs are locked away and preserved.
I moved to Jersey 3 years ago from Brighton, England.
My first impressions of St. Helier were very positive as the town was much calmer than what I was used to in Brighton; It felt alive but at a much smaller scale – the amount of people, shops and attraction is much less but that doesn’t seem to affect the atmosphere or community.
Compared to Brighton there is a bigger variety of culture in St.Helier, however, it is not as visible and prominent. Brighton is very proud and honoured of its society and does its best to celebrate the diversity in whatever way possible – ranging from carnivals to displays and local holidays.
Personally, I don’t have any strongly negative or positive views of St. Helier, I’m on the fence in a sense, I can see St Helier for its beautiful and fulfilling community as well as its more negative sides. I’m hoping this project will help me establish a more concrete understanding and view of the capital.
Masterplan
Generally, a Masterplan is a high level plan with set objectives and strategies to help develop an area over time. It can also be a document that outlines rules and guidance that must be followed when building in a particular area.
It aims to define what is important about a place and how its character can be conserved, improved and enhanced. There is currently multiple documents that contain the masterplan of North of St Helier. These can be found on the Gov.je website.
What Masterplans provide is an outline of what areas must be protected completely and what areas can be altered. This is usually decided by a group of high ups who specialise and care about the future of St. Helier. What the masterplans above show is the development plans for all the different areas of St. Helier. The future of St. Helier is the one that made me the most curious. The masterplan strives to expand and provide new housing for the growing population as well as supporting the already living population and meeting their needs and expectations.
Furthermore, the masterplan recognises the issues and challenges it will face in order to secure a steady growth in the future. It showcases the multiple workshops that have been held to interact and create a positive relationship with the public. There are multiple documents linked on the page that summarise each workshop, showing the key points and ideas obtained.
