THE VALE CHURCH AND PRIORI. 



On the occasion of the visit of this Society to the Vale 

 Church and Priory on July 15th, 1903, the Rev. G. E. Lee, 

 M.A., F.S.A., gave an extremely interesting description of 

 this ancient Church. Mr. Lee has, for a great many years, 

 made a special study of our parish churches, and no one is 

 better qualified than he to supply authentic historical data 

 to replace the traditional myths which are commonly asso- 

 ciated with these sacred edifices. Mr. Lee's knowledge of 

 church architecture also enables him to point out exactly 

 those features which are of special interest to ecclesiolo- 

 gists ; and, therefore, it is much to be hoped that the 

 other churches of this island will be described in the same 

 way as those of St. Peter-in-the-Wood and the Vale. The 

 following are the principal points in Mr. Lee's remarks on 

 the present occasion. 



At an early date, probably many years before the 

 conquest of England by the Normans, the Abbey of Mont 

 St. Michel established a small priory in the neighbourhood 

 of this church. Some time between 1028 and 1034, Duke 

 Robert of Normandy, the father of the Conqueror, gave 

 half of the island of Guernsey to the great Abbey. This 

 gift included the parishes of the Vale, the Castel, St. 

 Saviour's and St. Peter-in-the-Wood. In 1155 a Bull of 

 Pope Adrian IV. mentions the Vale Priory among the 

 possessions of the Abbey, and also names the little dependent 

 cell of St. Mary of Lihou. In the following year Robert de 

 Torigni, one of the most famous of the Abbots of the 

 Mount, visited Guernsey. It is said of him : Ses entreprises 

 le Jirent cherir des roys, reverer des reynes, et generalement 

 aymer de tons. He built the western towers of the great 

 Abbey, and to his time, 1154-1186, Mr. Lee is inclined to 

 ascribe the building of the earlier part of the existing Church 

 of the Vale. The Church is again mentioned in a Papal Bull 

 of Alexander IV., 1178. In 1218, King Henry III. ordered 

 Philip d'Aubigne, Bailiff or Warden of the Isles, to restore 

 to the monks of St. Michel all their rights and privileges in 

 the Vale. The King at the same time renounces the claim, 

 hitherto made bv himself and his ancesters, to three yearly 



