Lihou
Encyclopedia
Lihou (ˈliːuː) is a small tidal island
Tidal island
A tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands many of them have been sites of religious worship, such as Mont Saint Michel with its...
(95 vergée
Vergée
A vergée, or vergee, is a unit of area, a quarter of the French acre. Other spellings include vergie and vrégie. It is not an SI unit. The SI unit of area is the square metre.The term derives from Latin virga...
s; 38½ acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s; 15.6 hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
s) that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
. It lies off the west coast of Guernsey
Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
and is the most westerly point in the Channel Islands. Coordinates: 49°27′38.16"N 2°40′4.44"W. The island was bought by the States of Guernsey in January 1995. Lihou is connected to Guernsey at low tide
Tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....
by an ancient stone causeway
Causeway
In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...
between the island and L'Erée headland. It is part of the Parish of St. Peter's
St Peter's, Guernsey
St Peter's , known officially as Saint Pierre du Bois is a parish in Guernsey...
. Lihou's bird and marine life makes it an important conservation area
Conservation area
A conservation areas is a tract of land that has been awarded protected status in order to ensure that natural features, cultural heritage or biota are safeguarded...
.
History
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
, Lihou's name contains the Norman language
Norman language
Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. Norman can be classified as one of the northern Oïl languages along with Picard and Walloon...
suffix "-hou
-hou
-hou is a suffix found commonly in Channel Islands and Norman names. It is the Norman language version of the Old Norse holmr, meaning a small island, and often found anglicised elsewhere as "holm". It can still be found in modern Scandinavian languages, e.g...
" of Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
origin.
On the island are the ruins of the priory
Priory
A priory is a house of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the Premonstratensians, and the...
of St. Mary which is believed to have been established by Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
monks in the 12th century. The monks of the priory were by no means generally popular with the local people, who suspected them of devil worship. This animosity may be due to the monks' insistence on rights of wreck
Jus naufragii
The jus naufragii , sometimes lex naufragii , was a medieval custom which allowed the inhabitants or lord of a territory to seize all that washed ashore from the wreck of a ship along its coast...
. Until 1415 it was under the control of Mont Saint Michel and thereafter under Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
until the Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
when it was closed and fell into disrepair.
The house on Lihou was used for target practice by heavy artillery during the German Occupation of the Channel Islands
Occupation of the Channel Islands
The Channel Islands were occupied by Nazi Germany for much of World War II, from 30 June 1940 until the liberation on 9 May 1945. The Channel Islands are two British Crown dependencies and include the bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey as well as the smaller islands of Alderney and Sark...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It has now been rebuilt as accommodation for school groups, and is used as an educational resource.
Vraic (seaweed
Seaweed
Seaweed is a loose, colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae. The term includes some members of the red, brown and green algae...
) was harvested and dried on frames set up on the beach. A 1927 factory building produced iodine
Iodine
Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The name is pronounced , , or . The name is from the , meaning violet or purple, due to the color of elemental iodine vapor....
from seaweed. All traces of the industry disappeared during the German Occupation.
The Lihou family name is included in parish records which go back as far as the early 15th century and there are a number of groups who study the ancestry of the Lihou's. More recently a group was set up using the social networking site 'Facebook' which links Lihou's around the world.