386 



THE PRIOPvY AT LIHOU. 



There are many entries of the names of Priors and other 

 matters in the rolls of the Vale Church, but none of note 

 until 1560, when Sire Thomas De Baugy became Prior. He 

 was probably the last, as in 1568 Guernsey was severed from 

 the see of Coutances and transferred to that of Winchester, 

 and the raison d'etre of Lihou then came to an end, De Baugy 

 about this time becoming, first, rector of the Vale, and later 

 of St. Sampson's in addition. 



The above represents the whole of the records I have 

 been able to find of the j)re-Reformation history of the Priory. 

 Probably at the transfer of the Guernsey benefices from 

 Coutances to Winchester, the veneration in which the Priory 

 was held diminished, and it began to fall into disrepair. 

 Heylin in his book " Journeys to France and the Channel 

 Islands," published in 1656, records that it was then in ruins 

 and had been for a long time, but the steeple, which then 

 served as a " sea-marke," was still standing. The tradition is 

 well known that a Governor of Guernsey during the 

 Napoleonic wars ordered the demolition of the Priory in order 

 to prevent its being used by the enemy* ; but Heylin's account 

 effectually disposes of this legend. The steeple, in all pro- 

 bability, fell down in lapse of time, and the story of the 

 Priory having been blown up is certainly mythical and 

 probably invented to account for its ruined condition. 



In 1838 Mr. F. C. Lukis visited it and made certain 

 sketches and plans which are virtually of what may be seen 

 at the present time. He left two sketches, one from the N.E. 

 and the other looking at the N. wall from the S., showing 

 the walls which then existed. Examination shows that 

 fortunately no destruction has apparently taken place in the 

 walls since that date. Mr. Lukis left in his Collectanea, now 

 in the Lukis Museum, a long account of his researches on the 

 site, but the results are very meagre and of not much im- 

 portance. He found a few pieces of glass and pottery, some 

 coins (which have now all disappeared), one or two pieces of 

 carving, of which similar pieces can be seen built into the 

 walls of the farm-house, and a piece of green Egyptian 

 porphyry, which he found in the Sanctuary under the pave- 

 ment and to which he attached great importance. It seems 

 to me, however, that it came into that position by accident as 

 rubbish to fill up under the flooring. Mr. Lukis left no 

 record of discoveries of larger importance, or information of 

 any kind, which would help a subsequent explorer to get any 

 idea of the Priory in its original condition. 



* Tupper's History of Guernsey mentions 1793 as the year in which the Priory 

 was demolished, but a search among the military records of that time at the 

 Headquarter Office does not confirm that statement. 



