Editing Lihou (section)

==History==
[[File:Rambles Among the Channel Islands by a Naturalist Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau hh.jpg|thumb|19th-century drawing of the priory ruins]]
The history of Lihou is closely linked to the history of Guernsey in particular and the Channel Islands in general. The earliest evidence of habitation is [[Mesolithic]] objects recovered from archaeological digs of the 1990s,<ref>{{cite web|title=Archaeology Collections in Detail|date=19 July 2012 |url=http://museums.gov.gg/archaeologydetail|publisher=Guernsey Museums and Galleries|access-date=5 February 2014}}</ref> along with [[Neolithic]] era tombs on the nearby mainland.<ref name=letrepied>{{cite web |title=Le Trépied |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/guernsey/content/articles/2008/10/03/le_trepied_dolmen_feature.shtml |publisher=BBC |access-date=5 February 2014 |date=7 January 2009}}</ref><ref name=lecreux>{{cite web |title=Le Creux ès Faïes |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/guernsey/content/articles/2008/12/05/creux_es_faies_feature.shtml |publisher=BBC |access-date=5 February 2014 |date=8 December 2008}}</ref> The recorded history of Lihou began in 933 AD when the Channel Islands were seized from Brittany by the ruler of Normandy.<ref>{{cite web |title=Writing in an unwritten language: the case of Guernsey French |url=http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/appling/wp6/sallabank.pdf |work=Reading Working Papers in Linguistics |publisher=[[University of Reading]] |author=Julia Sallabank |page=1 |year=2002 |access-date=4 February 2014}}</ref> Lihou and the nearby Neolithic tombs were traditionally believed to have been meeting places for local witches<ref name=letrepied/><ref name=lip>{{cite web |url=http://www.gov.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=78256&p=0 |title=Lihou Island-Priory |publisher=States of Guernsey |access-date=4 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924023234/http://www.gov.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=78256&p=0 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and fairies.<ref name=lecreux/> This led to conflict with church authorities,<ref>{{cite book|title=Landscapes of Guernsey: With Alderney, Sark and Herm|publisher=Sunflower Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pg5bVsP8tzMC&pg=PA40|author=Geoff Daniel|edition=3|year=2003|isbn=9781856912273}}</ref> especially when a priory was established on Lihou dedicated to [[St Mary]] (known locally as ''Our Lady of Lihou'').<ref name=lempriere>{{cite book|title=Portrait of the Channel Islands|publisher=Hale|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iF9nAAAAMAAJ&q=Lihou|author=Raoul Lemprière|year=1979|isbn=9780709176244}}</ref>{{rp|137}} A number of dates have been suggested for the establishment of the priory, with estimates ranging from as early as 1114<ref name=bbc/><ref name=lewis/>{{rp|321}}<ref name=williamberry/>{{rp|68}} to as late as 1156.<ref name=lempriere/>{{rp|38}} Records suggest that the priory was  an ''arrière-fief'' of the Benedictine abbey of [[Mont Saint Michel Abbey|Mont St Michel]] under whose authority it operated.<ref name=bbc/><ref name=lewis/><ref name=williamberry>{{cite book |title=The History of the Island of Guernsey |publisher=Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.16940 |author=William Berry |year=1815}}</ref>{{rp|60}} Ownership of the island was granted to the abbey by [[Robert I, Duke of Normandy]] in the early part of the eleventh century.<ref name=johnjacob>{{cite book|title=Annals of Some of the British Norman Isles Constituting the Bailiwick of Guernsey|publisher=J. Smith|location=Paris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xFoGAQAAIAAJ |author=John Jacob|year=1830}}</ref>{{rp|492}} The priory is thought to have been constructed with contributions from the Guernseymen, who appear to have been fairly affluent at the time.<ref name=williamberry/>{{rp|68}}

[[File:Remains of St Mary's Priory, Lihou Island.jpg|thumb|left|The ruins of St Mary's Priory]]
In the early fourteenth century Lihou may have become the origin of a local legend about a wealthy Bailiff of Guernsey who attempted to have an innocent peasant executed on false charges of theft of silver cups.<ref name=legacy/> In either 1302<ref name=legacy>{{cite web |title=Gautier de la Salle: a "most notorious" henchman |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legends/channel_islands/guernsey/article_2.shtml |publisher=BBC |access-date=5 February 2014 |pages=2 |date=February 2004}}</ref> or 1304<ref name=apa>{{cite book|title=Channel Islands|publisher=APA Productions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H0UsAQAAMAAJ&q=Lihou|oclc=225913106|year=1988}}</ref>{{rp|217}} a priory servant called Thomas le Roer was alleged to have murdered one of the monks. The Bailiff and several assistants attempted to apprehend Le Roer but he did not surrender and was subsequently killed by Ranulph Gautier, one of the Bailiff's assistants.<ref name=legacy/> Gautier tried to find sanctuary in a nearby church and eventually fled to England before returning to Guernsey when the king pardoned him.<ref name=legacy/> However some years later Gautier was tortured to death in [[Castle Cornet]] but it is not known why.<ref name=legacy/>

The priory was seized in 1414 by King [[Henry V of England]] along with a number of [[Alien priory|alien priories]].<ref name=lip/> In the first three centuries several Priors were appointed, sometimes with short tenures, but in 1500 Ralph Leonard was installed as Prior for life.<ref name=bbc/> However within decades the Priory was abandoned, with evidence of Thomas de Baugy being the final Prior around 1560.<ref name=bbc/> There is also evidence that the priory was allocated in 1566 to John After, who had also been appointed as the [[Dean of Guernsey]].<ref name=ogier/>

[[File:Remains of wall, Lihou - geograph.ci - 138.jpg|thumb|The remains of walls on Lihou]]
In 1759 the Governor of Guernsey, [[John West, 1st Earl De La Warr|John West]],<ref>{{cite web |title=The London Gazette |url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/9226/pages/1/page.pdf |publisher=The Stationery Office (part of the UK National Archives) |access-date=23 February 2014 |date=December 1752}}</ref> had the priory destroyed to prevent French forces from capturing the island during the [[Seven Years' War]].<ref name=bbc/> In the early nineteenth century a farmhouse was built on Lihou<ref name=bbc/> and the island was listed as being owned by Eleazar le Marchant, who held the post of lieutenant bailiff of Guernsey.<ref name=lewis/>{{rp|322}} In 1815 Eleazar made an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to suppress the seaweed industry based around Lihou.<ref name=johnjacob/>{{rp|189}} In a book published in the same year, William Berry noted the presence of an "iron hook of a gate hinge" on some rocks approximately three miles off the coast of Lihou, along with the remains of old roads, and surmised that Lihou may have been significantly larger in the past but that the sea had eroded a considerable portion.<ref name=williamberry/>{{rp|134–135}} During  the remainder of the nineteenth century and the start of the twentieth century the island changed hands between a succession of owners, including James Priaulx in 1863, Arthur Clayfield in 1883 and Colonel Hubert de Lancey Walters in 1906.<ref name=bbc/>

During World War II the Channel Islands were occupied by the Germans from 1940 to 1945 and Lihou was used for target practice by the German artillery,<ref name=lihouisland/> causing the farmhouse to collapse completely.<ref name=bbc/> During the summer of 1952 the ruins of the priory were studied in some detail by [[John Le Patourel|John]] and [[Jean le Patourel|Jean Le Patourel]].<ref name=marr>{{cite book|title=Guernsey people |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZqU-AQAAIAAJ&q=Lihou |publisher=Phillimore |author=James Marr |year=1984|isbn = 9780850335293}}</ref>{{rp|127}} In 1961 Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Wootton purchased Lihou. Wootton had plans to develop the island, beginning in the following year by clearing the area of the old farmhouse in preparation for the building of a new farmhouse, with construction work continuing into 1963.<ref name=bbc/> He organized summer camps for young adults on the island and imported sheep from the [[Orkney Islands]] that could eat seaweed.<ref name=marr/>{{rp|172}} In 1983 Wootton decided to emigrate to [[Prince Edward Island]], in Canada, and the island was sold to Robin and Patricia Borwick.<ref name=apa/>{{rp|219}} In 1995 the island was bought by the States of Guernsey.<ref>{{cite web |title=Billet d'État |url=http://www.gov.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=3844&p=0 |publisher=G.R. Rowland, Bailiff of Guernsey |access-date=23 February 2014 |page=12 |date=28 November 2007}}</ref> The ruins of the priory are possibly the most extensive religious relic in Guernsey.<ref name=lihouisland/> There have been several studies and excavations of the ruins, including archaeological investigations in 1996,<ref>{{cite web|title=The priory of Notre Dame, Lihou Island, Guernsey|url=http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/mprg_eh_2010/fullrecord.cfm?ref_id=3635&|publisher=La Société Guernesiaise|access-date=4 February 2014|author=Sebine H.|pages=153–164|year=1997}}</ref> and in 1998, when several twelfth-fourteenth century graves were unearthed.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Archaeology Section report for 1999: Lihou Priory archaeological excavations, 1998 and 1999 seasons|journal=Report and Transactions of la Société Guernesiaise|volume=24|url=http://www.biab.ac.uk/contents/24932|author=Heather Sebire|year=1999}}</ref>