Text Box: The Troy Family Website

Jersey. Channel Islands, Great Britain / New Zealand

 

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Text Box: Troy Family
Text Box: Our home (now sold )

Text Box: We live in a secluded area in the Parish of St. Peter surrounded by seven acres of fields, cotils and woodland. Some parts of the house date back to 1815 and we have a record of all the owners that have lived in it since that date. Previous to it having its present name it was called Les Luanes (early spelling of Les Louannes) in 1849. We think there must have been a disaster of some kind like a fire because after this the house at the top of the lane took its name also the house faces south now instead of east as the early maps show. The name of our house (Beau Vallon Farm) means “beautiful little valley farm.”

©Troy Family publications 2001-24

All rights reserved

 

Updated every 3months .

Last update Jan 2024

 

Jersey

March 24

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Website administrator Maurice R. Troy

Grand daughter Natalie

The main house has seven bedrooms. The main  ensuite bedroom is 24x18 with south facing balcony,  30ft kitchen, two utility rooms, separate dining room with open fire place, lounge with open fire place, large beamed living room 30x24 with all purpose log burning stove in the walk in fireplace . There is also incorporated in the main building a one bed roomed flat. Oil fired central heating and part double glazing throughout. There is another flat on the first floor of the detached Coach house.

The rear of the main house has a heated swimming pool and a play area for the grandchildren. In the yard there are more outbuildings  and stables. Note the bell I have restored on the side of the chimney, this was used to call the farm hands for lunch years ago and used a lot by Val when needing to call me whilst in the fields working.

Two of my foster children Jamie & Kayleigh and Paul my son-in -law helping me collect hay bales from the hay field

Jamie and Kayleigh enjoying the ride

 My classic tractors which had lots of use.

The coach house is a separate building and may predate the house. The upper half is a one bed roomed accommodation which Marianne used before she married.

My little helper Natalie painting her new bedroom with me for when she stays.

First night at granny and papa’s house in her own room. Note the original small Victorian fire place

Left: Looking east from what we call the top field towards the farm which can just be seen

Left: Looking over St Peter’s valley towards the parish of St Lawrence. At the end of this field you can look down the valley and see La Collette in St Helier.

Right: the just harvested hay field

Right: Part of the front garden and start of the drive. This used to be a huge greenhouse with its own boiler room. Still marked on the Jersey ordinance survey map.

Left: Natalie playing with her dad Paul in what we call the middle field. This field is excellent for early new Jersey potatoes. But due to the down turn in agriculture they are no longer viable to grow anymore.

Right: Keeping it clean around the sand school is quite easy with the new grass cutter.

Left: Me supervising a minor task in one of the fields.

©Troy Family publications 2001-23

All Rights Reserved

 

Right: Working late with one of my favourite helpers Natalie taking the dustbins down the drive ready for the morning.

Left: Our unusual weather vane. When the cock bird vane broke I replaced it with a Labrador with her pup because of our own Labrador. See my page on our animals..

Above: After travelling up the drive you turn the corner and see the house. Note the picture on the right has two of my Morris Minors parked outside. See my page on Morris Minors.

Our lounge where my youngest daughter Marianne used to practice her violin and piano before passing her grades. A painting of our horses hangs above the fire place painted  by my friend Paul Cousteils in the 1970’s who now lives in Canada

My father put this granite seat in the garden of the house where I grew up in St Clement. I moved it to my bungalow in St Lawrence and again when we moved here to St Peter. In some of early pictures of me in “my life” page show this seat. Very sentimental.

Below is me aged seven on that same seat.

The old coach house

Rest of drive to reach the  public roadway

The old pump which is not used anymore. The farm has three water sources, two open wells and one deep bore well

Bat boxes. We have owl boxes as well

The view from our chalet in the woods

Fancy fowl pens for breeding. The bigger free range chicken and turkeys are kept behind the stable block. Nice eggs! See animals page.

We loved the house the moment we stepped through the door in 1984 to view it. It had a warm friendly feeling to it ideal for bring up a young family. Unfortunately a few months after moving in the mortgage (commercial) rate reached 17.5%, my middle daughter had a serious horse riding accident and it was a real struggle. However we overcame all of that and never regretted the move. The previous owners had lived here for 21 years and brought up a large family. The family before that had passed the farm to their son, had a nice bungalow built on the edge of one of the fields and retired there. Previous to that again there is a lovely story to tell of the two sisters of which the eldest inherited the farm when their father died. It seems everyone purchasing the property always stays in for well over twenty years and that includes us. Once you turn in the drive you feel you could be anywhere in the world.

Looking west

The bore well is over 100ft  and water has never been less than twenty feet from the top. It is only twenty feet from the Lavior ( unfortunately covered over) in our lane which overflows down the road all through the year. This Lavoir according to the history books was renown for its medicinal properties, it has even been known to cure blindness, supposedly. Because we are so high its odd to see the spring flowing out the ground. Over the years I have purchased over 350 trees and planted many cuttings as this is a great passion of mine.

Right. The workshop

Right: Our chalet in the woods

The Morris Minor workshop

Notice how Cloudy has eaten the lower part of the ivy whilst loose in the yard. No ill effects thank goodness.

Left: Natalie making cakes

Right: The stables

Our home in the late 1800’s

Another picture of our home in the late 1800’s, In the 1901 census head of the household was George Phillip Fleury 50 farmer, Jane M Fleury 48 sister, Harriet L Fleury 36 sister and Alfred Le Masurier 16 a horseman on the farm born in St Martin .

View from front of the house

Note: All the building, restoration and decoration  work has been carried out physically by myself and I’m very proud of that fact .Look at our first home

Val working hard in the kitchen trying to feed the ten of us. She is a good cook just like her mother was.

Above: Myself Maurice starting on the kitchen.

If you have any comments you would like to add about this website please contact the website administrator

 

maurice@troyfamily.co.uk

 

 

 

Our chalet in the woods with tree top views down St Peter’s valley.

Note. 

 

My new

 

troyfamily co.nz

 

web site has started .

 

Link to it on my

“What’s new page”

The names and history of all the owners of our house since 1825 to be published soon.

Over looking the tree tops of St Peters valley down to St Helier.

 

I found our live in French farm hand who was deported from Jersey for a crime whist living with us living in our chalet for a about a week. I took him to the police and he served time in prison then was allowed to stay on the island.

I put a series of lamp posts down my drive to the road.

Previous to us owning the farm it had over 25 verges of fields stretching to where the airport now is but had been sold. Luckily over time  I was able to buy some of the fields back into our farms ownership again.

All my own block work, roof and doors I made.

The little Pipistrelle bats swoop  over our heads so fast in the late evening. Fascinating.