Corbière Lighthouse, Jersey

Just one more card for today.. but it comes from a new country! Or not really a new country, but definitely a new postal entity or whatever you want to call it. It's kind of weird that this is my first postcard from Jersey, considering that it's not too far away from England and still sort of part of the UK. I've only received parcels from there before as a lot of internet companies are based there thanks to the lack of VAT on goods over there. ...mmmm, and Jersey Royal potatoes are really yummy! :P



This postcard shows the Corbière Lighthouse in the extreme south-western point of Jersey in St. Brelade. It was lit on 24 April, 1874, for the first time, and was the first lighthouse in the British Isles to be built of concrete. The lighthouse was built to designs by Sir John Coode. The lighthouse tower is 19m high and the lamp stands 36m above high water spring tides. The beam has a reach of 18 nautical miles, and was automated in 1976.

The lighthouse is situated on a rock which is a tidal island. A causeway links the lighthouse to shore at low tide. There is an alarm to warn visitors to clear the causeway as the tide rises, however there have been casualties among the unwary or unlucky. A plaque adjacent to the causeway commemorates Peter Edwin Larbalestier, assistant keeper of the lighthouse, who was drowned on 28 May, 1946, while trying to rescue a visitor cut off by the incoming tide.

Rebecca, who sent me this card, tells me that years ago there was a racehorse named Corbiere in the Grand National and thousands of people in Jersey bet on it. It nearly bankrupted the bookies when it won, but a lot of people in Jersey were celebrating.



The stamp is from a set of 6 stamps issued earlier this year, featuring a selection of six coaches which have graced the roads of Jersey. The one here shows the Rambler Tour Chevrolet, c.1935.