Route Seven
Quetivel Mill to Elizabeth Castle
Distance = 6.4 km / 4 miles
Approximate Time = 21 minutes
Terrain = Mostly flat
Directions
keep following the cycle path and then when you get to Tessson Mill carry on straight past Bel Royal Motors and Paperclix. Then turn left and right onto the cycle path. Cross the road and you will be on Victoria Avenue. Make sure you are on the left cycle path. Keep on the cycle path and then you will be their.
History
A hermit called Helier came from Belgium and made his home on the rock at the back of the Castle. He lived there for a few years and it is said warned the islanders of sea raiders coming to raid the island. Finally the raiders were able to surprise Helier and killed him by cutting his head off with two axes. The story says that Helier picked up his head and walked towards Jersey so he could keep warning people on the island. This was one of the miracles that gave Helier his sainthood and the main town of Jersey is now called St Helier after him and has two yellow axes crossed on a blue background.
An abbey was built on the rocks and there were monks here for hundreds of years.
Construction of the castle was started in the 1555 when the power of the cannon meant that the existing stronghold at Mont Orgueil was insufficient to defend the Island and the port of St Helier was vulnerable to attack by ships armed with cannons. It was named by Sir Walter Raleigh after Elizabeth I who was Queen of England at the time the castle was built. Barracks for soldiers were built as well as houses for the Captain of the Jersey Militia and the Governor of Jersey.
During the English Civil War, Prince Charles, who would later become King Charles II sought refuge at the Castle and stayed there twice in the mid 1600s. After he left the second time, Royalist supporters stayed in the Castle whilst the island was taken by Parliamentarians and the castle was bombarded by a 51 day siege, in which the Abbey was destroyed. Eventually the Royalists surrendered the castle and left.
During the Napoleonic Wars, a Georgian hospital was built at the Castle to help treat some of the survivors from that war, particularly Russian and Dutch soldiers.
In 1781, the Battle of Jersey happened and the French were sent to Elizabeth Castle to get the surrender of the Captain of the militia, Captain Mulcaster. He refused to surrender and the British soldiers on the island were then committed to fighting the French force. The soldiers at Elizabeth Castle couldn’t get to St Helier to help in the fighting because the tide came up and they were cut off. That’s when they decided to build Fort Regent for the soldiers instead of Elizabeth Castle.
During the Occupation of Jersey, the Germans built two bunkers and gun emplacements at the Castle .
