“There’s been fighting going on since 955 AD,” said Josh Dearing, skipper of the Jersey Seafaris who had just taken me aboard the Maîtresse over a beautiful stretch of the English Channel, “but the buildings have been here since the 1800s.” Dearing – who doubles as a tour guide – took me to the Maîtresse’s fictional village, its stone buildings in various states of ruin and decay. “They were built by fishermen from the port of La Rocque [in southern Jersey]as well as miners and quarries [who were] after the island’s granite,” Dearing said. Foragers for bryophytes – algae used as fertilizer – would also land here. On the island’s north shore are the ruins of a former hospital, used to treat miners’ injuries during the mining period in the 19th century The buildings are located on the only part of the island that does not disappear with the tide.For the same reason, this is the only remnant of land in the Minquiers that supports greenery, in the form of fragrant pelargoniums – planted by fishermen who used the soft their leaves as toilet paper. Dearing pointed out a beautifully carved graffiti on the outside wall of the hospital, with the initials “C BS” above a date: 1865. Most of the buildings date from this time. Today, some of the cottages are still used by fishermen, but most are privately owned by a few Jersey families, who will spend a night or two at Maîtresse when the weather is good. There are no permanent residents, no hotels – or anywhere else – for tourists to stay. Cottage sales are rare and owners are protective of their property.
