Brecqhou

Brecqhou
Bailiwick of Guernsey
Brecqhou from north of Sark
Location
Area:	74 acres
Data

Brecqhou (or Brechou) is an island in the sea just west of Sark, to which fiefdom it belongs Its area is variously recorded as 74 acres or 200 acres. It is one of the Channel Islands and part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey.

Brecqhou is privately owned. It constitutes a tenement of Sark, and although this status has been disputed by Brecqhou's current tenants, the indefatigable Barclay brothers, their challenges to the rule of the Seigneur of Sark have been defeated.

Name of the island

The name Brecqhou derives from the Old Norse] brekka ("slope" or "escarpment") and holmr ("island").

Geography

The island is separated from Sark by an extremely narrow sound (Le Goulliot Passage) which, according to legend, has only once been traversed by boat in a high tide. However in reality it is traversed frequently by yachts during each summer and by fishing boats year round and even forms a part of the route taken by occasional powerboating events in the islands.

Tenants

In Sark, the word tenant is used, and often pronounced, as in French in the sense of holder of land on feudal terms rather than the common English meaning of lessee. The landholdings of Sark are held by 40 tenants representing the parcels of the 40 families who colonised Sark. As the Sark government puts it: "There is no true freehold, all land being held on perpetual lease (fief) from the Seigneur, and the 40 properties (Tenements) into which the Island is divided (as well as a few other holdings in perpetual fief) can only pass by strict rules of inheritance or by sale."

The relevance of the Seigneurial privileges and of the obligations that distinguish "feudal" from "civil" landowning has decreased, most of the obligations being connected to agriculture and defence.

Since 1929, the island of Brecqhou is connected to the title of the tenement La Moinerie de Haut, one of the 40 tenements whose owner had to keep a gun for the defence of the fief and, until 2008, had a seat in Chief Pleas. Originally, La Moinerie de Haut, named after the mediæval monastery whose site is close to it, was a parcel of land in the north west of Sark that was, at that time, owned by the Seigneur himself. When Sibyl Hathaway sold the island of Brecqhou to Angelo Clarke in 1929, she transferred the seat in Chief Pleas connected to this parcel to Brecqhou. This was no greater loss for her, as she owned more than one tenement and every member of Chief Pleas was entitled to only one vote.

Since 1993 the tenement of Brecqhou has been owned by the David and Frederick Barclay, the co-owners of The Daily Telegraph newspaper and former co-owners of The Scotsman. Under the Reform (Sark) Law 1951, the tenant is David Barclay. Since the purchase the Barclays have been in several legal disputes with the government of Sark, and have expressed a desire to make Brecqhou politically independent from Sark. They drive cars on the island, and have a helicopter, both of which are banned under Sark law.

The Barclay brothers brought a legal challenge in the Royal Court of Guernsey and then the Privy Council asserting that Brecqhou was never part of the fief of Sark, that letters patent establishing the fief do not mention the smaller island and that the Seigneur's former ownership of Brecqhou did not merge it into the fief. The lawsuit raged over 1996–2000 but was ultimately rejected. It did lead to the founding of a Brecqhou relationship sub-committee of Sark's Chief Pleas in 2006, and to a dreadful revenge by the brothers on the Seigneur's authority using the European Convention of Human Rights with partial success.

Matchan's flag and stamps

Flag of Matchan

There is no flag of Brecqhou, but a former tenant, Leonard Joseph Matchan, devised a personal flag (identical to the Sark flag, with the exception that the Matchan arms was emblazoned on the bottom right). Although frequently considered the island flag, this was only a personal flag, and is not in use any more.

Matchan also issued stamps in 1969. Matchan occupied Brecqhou until his death on 6 October 1987. The current tenants have issued postage stamps annually since 1999.

Pictures

• 
  An aerial view of Brecqhou
• 
  The Barclay Brothers' recently-built mansion on Brecqhou
• 
  Brecqhou, from the south east

References

• Le Dicotentin, Lepelley, Cherbourg 2001, ISBN 2-913920-06-3