Historic Jersey buildings
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Property name
Chestnut Farm
Location
Mont-a-l'Abbe, St Helier
Type of property
Farmstead now divided into separate residential units
Valuations
No 3 Chestnut Farm sold for £890,000 in 2008, and only £875,000 five years later. No 1 sold for £640,000 in 2017
Families associated with the property
- Le Geyt dit Le Maillier At the time the property was owned by the Le Geyt family it was not called Chestnut Farm. It was nameless in their time (up to 1812), as were many rural Jersey properties. The next owners, Bailhache and de Quetteville, had no name for it, but when the late 19th century chestnuts had grown, the then owner, a Mr Le Brun, called it, by 1900, Chestnut Farm. There is another Chestnut Farm at Ouaisne, which has no connections to the Le Geyt dit Maillier family but received its name from its own chestnuts.
Datestones
The central arch has 1698 on the keystone
Historic Environment Record entry
Listed building
Historic farm group, which sits on a junction between La Grande Route du Mont a L'Abbe and St John's Road, developing since circa 1400, is a fine example of Jersey architecture. It encompasses a rare survivor of a Medieval hall and notable farmhouse range of 17th/18th century origins. Also of particular note is a unique triple entrance arch of circa 1600 origins, a rare ash-house and a bake house.
The converted 19th century outbuildings on the west of the site are also of historical interest and included for their exterior character and group value only. The farm group was extensively renovated in the late 20th century but retains historic features from each stage of its historic development.
Shown on the Richmond Map of 1795. Renovated in the 1990s, when the main house was divided into three dwellings and the farm buildings converted to residential.
The group comprises a south-facing, four-bay, two-storey farmhouse (now 3 Chestnut Farm) with a three-bay wing to the east (now Les Arches, 2 Chestnut Farm), linking to an earlier three-bay, two-storey house to the east (now 1 Chestnut Farm). Parallel to the north are three single-storey detached outbuildings including a converted ash-house and bake house with stone chimneystack to the east gable. Attached to the west is a two-storey wing (now No 4 Les Hirondelles) connecting to a two-storey converted outbuilding range (now 1 and 2 Les Marronniers) that runs north-south along La Grande Route de Mont a L'Abbe.
At the northeast of the site are pigsties. The farm group is fronted by a garden with, at its apex, a triple arched granite gateway. The associated buildings and structures are of significant group value.
Old Jersey Houses
- "In the house, the windows are quite asymmetrical and uneven in size, and very small. One, the smallest of all, still has its iron bars. There is also a fireplace on the first floor, this whole section of the building being now [1]used for storage. The round arch is wide, and its proportions appear wrong, but one steps down to enter it, so the appearance is deceptive. The left hand section of the house is also of some age, with at least one very ancient ceiling beam, concave and in the untouched shape of the tree from which it was hewn. The central portion is much later, but links up the two other wings, both older than itself. There is good reason to believe that this property was home to the Le Geyt dit Le Mailleur family from as early as the 15th century. It remained in their hands until 1812.
Pre-restoration photographs
These pictures were taken by Guy Dixon on a visit to Chestnut Farm in 1996, before a major restoration project meant that some of the original features were lost for ever

Notes and references
- ↑ 1965
- ↑ As the term was obsolete after 1690, the afterthought will have been a 17th century one to an already oldish MLG. To be now that faint, and the letters larger than 17th century fashion dictated, I think we have a 16th century engraved stone. The two Matthieus Le Geyt who owned the property prior to the 18th century were Matthieu (1465- ) who should have inherited about 1515-1520 and Matthieu (1627- ) who might have been expected to own the place in about 1670.