THE CASTEL CHURCH. 



BY THE REV. G. E. LEE, M.A., F.S.A. 



In an article written in November, 1874, for the " St. James's 

 District Magazine," the late Sir Edgar MacCulloch says that 

 the parish of the Castel " was originally known as La Paroisse 

 du Grand Geoffroy or du Grand Sarrazin" It is well to note 

 that this name has no other authority than that of the fabulous 

 Dedicace des Eglises, a work which is certainly not earlier 

 than the end of the 16th century. The first mention of the 

 Church by name occurs in a Bull of Pope Adrian IV. dated 

 in 1155, by which the Abbey of Mont-St-Michel is confirmed 

 in its possessions in Guernsey, including the Church of Sancta 

 Maria de Castro, which formed part of a grant made to the 

 Abbey by Duke Robert of Normandy, father of William the 

 Conqueror. The Chateau du Grand Sarrazin recalls the 

 name of Tombeau du Grand Sarrazin, given to a dolmen 

 w T hich formerly existed in the north of the island. The name 

 Sarrazin was not unfrequently given to pirates of ancient 

 times, and I am inclined to think that the Castel or Castrum 

 which gave its title to this Church, was one of those rude 

 fortifications of early times which are so common in our islands 

 and on the adjacent mainland. 



The Church, like others in our islands, consists of two 

 naves and chancels of equal length, a fine tower and spire 

 dividing the northern nave from the chancel. Examining the 

 building from the outside we find at the west end of the 

 northern nave a modern porch, the gable behind it having no 

 buttresses. The south gable has two buttresses of two stages. 

 The west windows date from 1836 and replace two smaller 

 squareheaded openings. On the south side of the Church the 

 nave has only two buttresses, while the chancel has four. 

 Three of the big windows are dated respectively 1836, 1762 

 and 1750. The first is in the place of a squareheaded window 

 like that adjoining the first buttress of the chancel. The large 

 window in the choir is an original one and may be of the 15th 

 century, still further east is another squareheaded opening 



