Landmark · St Brélade
Sacred Heart Church, St Aubin
A Roman Catholic church in St Aubin, designed by Julien Barbier of Paris, its foundation stone laid by Bishop Cotter in 1936.
- Parish
- St Brélade
- Type
- Landmark
- Rarity
- Common
- Tide
- Not tidal
The story
A Roman Catholic church in St Aubin, designed by Julien Barbier of Paris, its foundation stone laid by Bishop Cotter in 1936. Building began in 1937 but was delayed by the war, and the church was opened and blessed on 8 June 1947 by Bishop John Henry King. Set into the masonry of the west front, about halfway between the main door and the belfry, is a ship's anchor in granite of a slightly different hue. It appears on no plan or drawing: it was cut in secret by Joe Le Guyadier, a Brittany-born mason working on the church, to mark the scuttling of a German pocket battleship off Montevideo on 18 December 1939. He told nobody, and the story emerged only after his death in 1956. The same mason later cut the victory V into the flagstones of the Royal Square during the Occupation.
