Nez du Guet
Le Câtel de Rozel is a well-researched Iron Age promontory fort situated on a hill known as La Connette above a bay called Le Sauchet. To the east of Le Sauchet is a promontory known as Nez du Guet, which a 17th century survey for the Board of Ordnance described as a headland with a look-out. Anyone taking in themagnificent view from there today when the weather is fine will immediately see the strategic value of this place
“We know that in the early part of the 18th century there was a guard house at Nez du Guet because in 1742 the States noted the ruinous state of the guard house and ordered its rebuilding and the addition of storage buildings or magazines.
A boulevard (a fortified stretch of promenade suitable for cannon) was also to be built.
By 1795 Rozel Fort was a rectangular building with a semi-circular gun emplacement to the north and a zig-zag boulevard down to the harbour.
By 1817 a second battery had been added and in 1834, when more land around the fort had been acquired, it was extended to accommodate 50 men, 90 barrels of powder and five heavy traversing guns.
There is a datestone of 1836 over the carriage arch, bearing the monogram of William IV. There are also two contemporary cannons at the fort, both six-pounders cast in the late 1770s or early 1880s. One bears the royal cipher of George III, who died in 1820.
Conversion to house
In 1922 the War Department sold all its property in Jersey to the States and in 1929 Alfred Eugène de Penha converted the fort into a house in the Arts and Crafts style. In 1937 Olga Carson (née Lemprière) purchased the house and, directly or indirectly, it stayed in the family until 1957.
During the Occupation the fort was garrisoned by four non-commissioned officers and 21 men and packed a considerable punch. In addition to a 10.5cm French artillery piece (now transplanted to Noirmont Point) a 3.7cm anti-tank field gun was installed in its own emplacement, described as ‘unique to Jersey and possibly the whole Atlantic Wall’.
There were also two mortars, seven machine guns of various calibres, a flame thrower and three searchlights. The fort boasted considerably more firepower than the Rozel Harbour strongpoint.
The fort’s owner from 1953-1957 was R J B Bolitho,who was something of a colourful character. Known to hisfriends as “Pullthrough” Bolitho from his tall and skinny frame as a young officer during the War, he married Roselle, the youngest of the three daughters of Reginald and Clementine Lemprière.
He became closely involved in the Ecrehous Case, argued in the International Court of Justice in The Hague and decided on 17 November 1953. He had built a cottage on Blanc Île to replace one that had originally been owned by his father-in-law and which had slid into the sea in the1920s. So determined washe to be in on the action that he sailed his own boat to The Hague and attended the proceedings.
In 1957 the fort was acquired by S E Parkes, who at the same time acquired the adjacent land. He extended the house considerably and created the basis for the house as it stands today. His wife developed the gardens that cling to the rocks below.
In 1997 the property was acquired by the present owner who has developed it into a fine and original family house
