The island’s area is 3 square miles (8\u00a0km2<\/sup>), making it the third-largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick. It is around 10 miles (15\u00a0km) to the west of the\u00a0La Hague<\/a>\u00a0on the\u00a0Cotentin Peninsula<\/a>,\u00a0Normandy<\/a>, in France, 20 miles (30\u00a0km) to the northeast of Guernsey and 60 miles (100\u00a0km) from the south coast of Great Britain. It is the closest of the Channel Islands to France and to the United Kingdom. It is separated from\u00a0Cap de la Hague<\/a>\u00a0by the dangerous\u00a0Alderney Race<\/a>.<\/p>\n As of March 2018, the island had a population of 2,019; natives are traditionally nicknamed\u00a0vaques<\/i><\/sup>\u00a0after the cows, or else\u00a0lapins<\/i><\/sup>\u00a0after the many\u00a0rabbits<\/a>\u00a0seen in the island. Formally, they are known as Ridunians, from the Latin\u00a0Riduna<\/i>.<\/p>\n The only\u00a0parish<\/a>\u00a0of Alderney is the parish of St Anne, which covers the whole island.<\/p>\n The main town,\u00a0St Anne<\/a>, historically known as\u00a0La Ville<\/i>\u00a0(“The Town”), is often referred to as “St Anne’s” by visitors and incomers, but rarely by locals (who, in normal conversation, still most frequently refer to the area centred on Victoria Street simply as “Town”). The town’s “High Street”, which formerly had a small handful of shops, is now almost entirely residential, forming a T-junction with Victoria Street at its highest point.<\/p>\n The town area features an imposing church and an unevenly\u00a0cobbled<\/a>\u00a0main street: Victoria Street (Rue Grosnez \u2013 the English name being adopted on the visit of\u00a0Queen Victoria<\/a>\u00a0in 1854). There is one school (providing both primary and secondary education), a post office, and hotels, as well as restaurants, banks and shops. Other settlements include\u00a0Braye<\/a>, Crabby,\u00a0Longis<\/a>, Mannez, La Banque, and Newtown.<\/p>\n Alderney shares its prehistory with the other islands in the Bailiwick of Guernsey<\/a>, becoming an island in the\u00a0Neolithic<\/a>\u00a0period as the waters of the\u00a0Channel<\/a>\u00a0rose. Formerly rich in\u00a0dolmens<\/a>, like the other Channel Islands, Alderney with its heritage of megaliths has suffered through the large-scale military constructions of the 19th century and also by the Germans during the\u00a0World War II<\/a> occupation, who left the remains at Les Pourciaux unrecognizable as dolmens. A cist<\/a>\u00a0survives near\u00a0Fort Tourgis<\/a>, and Longis Common has remains of an\u00a0Iron Age<\/a>\u00a0site. There are traces of Roman occupation<\/sup> including a fort, built in the late 300s above the island’s only natural harbor.<\/sup><\/p>\n Along with the other Channel Islands, Alderney was annexed by the\u00a0Duchy of Normandy<\/a>\u00a0in 933. In 1042 William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy (later\u00a0William the Conqueror<\/a>, King of the English) granted Alderney to the Abbey of\u00a0Mont Saint-Michel<\/a>. In 1057 the bishop of\u00a0Coutances<\/a>\u00a0took back control of the island.<\/p>\n After 1204, when mainland Normandy was incorporated into the kingdom of France, Alderney remained loyal to the English monarch in his dignity of\u00a0Duke of Normandy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Henry VIII of England<\/a>\u00a0undertook\u00a0fortification<\/a>\u00a0works, but these ceased in 1554.\u00a0Essex Castle<\/a>\u00a0perpetuates the name of the\u00a0Earl of Essex<\/a>, who purchased the governorship of Alderney in 1591. Prior to the Earl’s execution for treason in 1601, he leased the island to William Chamberlain, and Alderney remained in the hands of the Chamberlain family until 1643. From 1612, a\u00a0Judge<\/a>\u00a0was appointed to assist the Governor’s administration of Alderney, along with the\u00a0Jurats<\/a>. The function of the Judge was similar to that of the Bailiffs of\u00a0Guernsey<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jersey<\/a>, and continued until 1949.<\/p>\n During the\u00a0Wars of the Three Kingdoms<\/a>, Alderney was held by a Parliamentary garrison under\u00a0Nicholas Ling<\/a>, Lieutenant-Governor. Ling built Government House (now the Island Hall). The de Carterets of Jersey acquired\u00a0the governorship<\/a>, later passing it to\u00a0Sir Edmund Andros<\/a>\u00a0of Guernsey, from whom the Guernsey family of Le Mesurier inherited it, thus establishing a hereditary line of governors that lasted until 1825.<\/p>\n Henry Le Mesurier prospered through\u00a0privateering<\/a>, and moved the harbour from Longis to Braye, building a\u00a0jetty<\/a>\u00a0there in 1736. Warehouses and dwellings were built at Braye, and the export of cattle generated wealth for the economy. The Court House was built in 1770 and a school in 1790. A\u00a0Methodist<\/a>\u00a0chapel was constructed in 1790, following\u00a0John Wesley<\/a>‘s visit in 1787. An\u00a0Optical telegraph<\/a>\u00a0tower was constructed above La Foul\u00e8re in 1811, enabling signals to be relayed visually to Le M\u00e2t in\u00a0Sark<\/a>\u00a0and on to Guernsey \u2013 early warning of attack during the\u00a0Napoleonic Wars<\/a>\u00a0was of strategic importance. With the end of those wars privateering was ended and smuggling suppressed, leading to economic difficulties.<\/p>\n The last of the hereditary Governors,\u00a0John Le Mesurier<\/a>, resigned his patent to\u00a0the Crown<\/a>\u00a0in 1825, and since then authority has been exercised by the\u00a0States of Alderney<\/a>, as amended by the constitutional settlement of 1948.<\/p>\n The\u00a0British Government<\/a>\u00a0decided to undertake\u00a0massive fortifications<\/a> in the 19th century and to create a strategic harbor to deter attacks from France.<\/sup>\u00a0These fortifications were presciently described by\u00a0William Ewart Gladstone<\/a> as “a monument of human folly, useless to us … but perhaps not absolutely useless to a possible enemy, with whom we may at some period have to deal and who may possibly be able to extract some profit in the way of shelter and accommodation from the ruins.” An influx of English and Irish laborers, plus the sizeable British garrison stationed in the island, led to rapid Anglicization. The harbor<\/a>\u00a0was never completed \u2013 the remaining breakwater (designed by\u00a0James Walker<\/a>) is one of the island’s landmarks, and is longer than any breakwater in the UK.<\/p>\n Queen Victoria<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Prince Albert<\/a>\u00a0visited Alderney on 9 August 1854.<\/sup> The Albert Memorial and the renaming of Rue Grosnez to Victoria Street commemorate this visit.<\/p>\n At the same time as the breakwater was being built in the 1850s, the island was fortified by a string of 13 forts, designed to protect the harbor of refuge. The accommodation quarters of several of the forts have been converted into apartments; two are now private homes; and one, Fort Clonque<\/a>, at the end of a causeway that can be flooded at high tide, belongs to the\u00a0Landmark Trust<\/a>\u00a0and can be rented for holidays. Scenes from the film\u00a0Seagulls Over Sorrento<\/a><\/i>\u00a0were shot at Fort Clonque in 1953.<\/p>\n Some of the forts are now in varying stages of dereliction, the most ruined being Les Hommeaux Florains, perched on outlying rocks, its access causeway and bridge having been swept away long ago. Houmet Herb\u00e9 resembles a\u00a0Crusader castle<\/a>\u00a0with its squat round towers. Like many of the forts, it included such apparently anachronistic features as a\u00a0drawbridge<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0machicolation<\/a>, which were still common in military architecture of the period.<\/p>\n In June 1940, the entire population of Alderney, about 1,500 residents, were evacuated. Most went on the official evacuation boats sent from mainland Britain. Some, however, decided to make their own way, mostly via Guernsey, but due to the impending occupation many found themselves unable to leave and were forced to stay on Guernsey for the duration of the war. A few Alderney people elected not to leave Alderney with the general evacuation. However, boats from Guernsey came and collected them before the\u00a0German Army<\/a>\u00a0arrived, on the basis that it was best for their personal safety. During the\u00a0Second World War<\/a>, the Channel Islands were the only part of the\u00a0British Isles<\/a>\u00a0that was\u00a0occupied by Germany<\/a>, although other parts of the Empire were occupied by the\u00a0Axis powers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The camps were built by the\u00a0Nazi<\/a>\u00a0Organisation Todt<\/a>\u00a0(OT) to house the labour used to build\u00a0fortifications<\/a>\u00a0including\u00a0bunkers<\/a>, gun emplacements, tunnels, air-raid shelters and other concrete and field fortifications. Lager Norderney, containing Russian and Polish\u00a0POWs<\/a>, and the\u00a0Lager Sylt<\/a>\u00a0camp holding\u00a0Jewish<\/a>\u00a0slave labourers<\/a>, were transferred to\u00a0SS<\/a>\u00a0administration in March 1943 under the control of\u00a0Hauptsturmf\u00fchrer<\/a>\u00a0Maximilian List<\/a>. There are 397 graves in Alderney, which when added to the men who died in ships, takes the total to over 700 out of a total inmate population of 6,000 who lost their lives before the camps were closed and the remaining inmates transferred to France in 1944.<\/p>\n On the return to their island, Alderney evacuees had little or no knowledge of the crimes committed on their island during the occupation, because by December 1945, the first date civilians could return home, all the slave labourers had been sent away and the majority of the German troops left behind were not senior staff. Evidence, however, was all over the island, with concrete fortifications and graveyards for the prisoners kept there during the occupation.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Royal Navy<\/a>\u00a0blockaded<\/a>\u00a0the islands from time to time, particularly following the\u00a0liberation of Normandy<\/a>\u00a0in 1944. Intense negotiations resulted in some\u00a0Red Cross<\/a>\u00a0humanitarian aid, but there was considerable hunger and privation during the five years of German occupation, particularly in the final months when the Germans themselves were close to starvation. The Germans surrendered Alderney on 16 May 1945, eight days after the\u00a0Allies<\/a>\u00a0formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of\u00a0Nazi Germany<\/a>\u00a0and the end of\u00a0Adolf Hitler<\/a>‘s\u00a0Third Reich<\/a>, and seven days after the liberation of Guernsey and Jersey. 2,332 German prisoners of war were removed from Alderney on 20 May 1945, leaving 500 Germans to undertake clearing up operations under British military supervision.<\/p>\n The people of Alderney could not start returning until December 1945 due to the huge cleanup operation needed simply to make the island safe for civilians. When the islanders returned home they were shocked to see the state of the island, with many houses completely derelict: the Germans had burned anything wooden, including front doors, for fuel. Archival and object evidence of the general evacuation in 1940 and the subsequent occupation of Alderney can be found in the\u00a0Alderney Society Museum<\/a>.<\/p>\n A series of tunnels also remain in place on Alderney, constructed by forced labor. These are in varying degrees of decay, being left open to the public and the elements.<\/p>\n For two years after the end of the war, Alderney was operated as a communal farm. Craftsmen were paid by their employers, while others were paid by the local government out of the profit from the sales of farm produce.<\/sup>\u00a0Remaining profits were put aside to repay the British Government for repairing and rebuilding the island. The local people resented being unable to control their own land; this led to the United Kingdom\u00a0Home Office<\/a> setting up an enquiry that led to the “Government of Alderney Law 1948”, which came into force on 1 January 1949. The law organized the construction and election of the States of Alderney<\/a>\u00a0and the justice system; and, for the first time in Alderney, the imposition of taxes. The legislature and judiciary were separated. The position of Judge, who had headed the island’s government since the resignation of the last Governor in 1825, was abolished, and the Jurats were removed from their legislative function.<\/sup><\/p>\n Because of the island’s small population, it was believed that the island could not be self-sufficient in running the airport and the\u00a0harbor<\/a>, or providing services that would match those of the UK. Taxes were therefore collected into the general Bailiwick of Guernsey revenue funds at the same rate as in Guernsey, and administered by the\u00a0States of Guernsey<\/a>. Guernsey became responsible for providing many government functions and services.<\/p>\n The 20th century saw much change in Alderney, from the building of the\u00a0airport<\/a>\u00a0in the late 1930s to the death of the last speakers of the island’s\u00a0Auregnais<\/a>\u00a0language, a dialect of the\u00a0Norman language<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alderney is similar to the other Channel Islands in having sheer cliffs broken by stretches of sandy beach and dunes. The highest point is on the central plateau of the island at 296 feet (90 meters).<\/p>\n Alderney and its surrounding islets support a rich flora and fauna. Trees are rather scarce, as many were cut down in the 17th century to fuel the lighthouses on Alderney and the\u00a0Casquets<\/a>. Those trees that remain include\u00a0cabbage trees<\/a>, due to the mild climate \u2013 often miscalled “palms” but of the\u00a0asparagus family<\/a>), and there are some small woods dotted about the island.\u00a0Puffins<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Burhou<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0gannet<\/a> on Les \u00c9tacs (popularly called Gannet Rock) just off Alderney are a favorite of many visitors to the island.<\/p>\n About a quarter of\u00a0Alderney hedgehogs<\/a>\u00a0are of the “white” or “blonde” variety, which does not carry fleas.<\/sup>\u00a0These are not albinos, but descent of rarely met blonde\u00a0European hedgehogs<\/a>, with a blonde pair released on the island in the 1960s.<\/sup>\u00a0The island had its own breed of cattle, called the\u00a0Alderney<\/a>. The pure breed became extinct in 1944, but hybrids remain elsewhere, though no longer on Alderney. In August 2005, the west coast of Alderney and associated islands, including\u00a0Burhou<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Ortac<\/a>, were designated as\u00a0Ramsar wetlands of international importance<\/a>. The\u00a0Alderney Wildlife Trust<\/a>\u00a0helps to manage the two\u00a0nature reserves<\/a>, at Longis and Vau du Saou.<\/p>\n The island is surrounded by rocks, which have caused hundreds of wrecks. There are treacherous tidal streams on either side of the island:\u00a0the Swinge<\/a> between Alderney and Burhou, just outside the harbor, and Le Raz between the island and the Normandy mainland. The\u00a0Corbet Rock<\/a>\u00a0lies in the Swinge.<\/p>\n The economy has gone from depending largely on\u00a0agriculture<\/a>\u00a0to earning money from the\u00a0tourism<\/a>\u00a0and finance industries. E-commerce has become increasingly important, and the island hosts the\u00a0domain name registry<\/a>\u00a0for both Bailiwicks and dozens of gambling website operators. Alderney has a full regulatory authority in operation.<\/p>\n Alderney is served by\u00a0Alderney Airport<\/a>. There are several flights each day from\u00a0Southampton<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Guernsey<\/a>, with links to many parts of the United Kingdom and Europe.\u00a0Aurigny<\/a>\u00a0serves the island with\u00a0Dornier 228s<\/a>.<\/p>\n Boats sail regularly between the island and France, and to the other Channel Islands. A high-speed passenger ferry is operated in summer to Di\u00e9lette in the commune of\u00a0Flamanville, Manche<\/a>\u00a0in France, and to\u00a0St Peter Port<\/a>, Guernsey. Weekly freight services, also carrying passengers, link\u00a0Poole<\/a>\u00a0and St Peter Port. A 12-passenger boat operates services to\u00a0Cherbourg<\/a>,\u00a0Sark<\/a>\u00a0and St Peter Port.<\/sup>\u00a0Alderney is 72.5 miles (116.7 kilometres) from\u00a0St Malo<\/a>\u00a0and 70.3 miles (113.1 kilometres) from\u00a0Poole<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are boat trips, water-taxi services and water and fuel access to visiting yacht crews. The busiest time is during the peak months of June, July and August as nearly 30,000 yacht crew members visit this harbor every year.<\/p>\n Because of the island’s size, vehicular transport is often unnecessary, although taxis, cars and bicycles are used. The\u00a0Alderney Railway<\/a>\u00a0is the only remaining\u00a0railway<\/a>\u00a0in the Channel Islands giving a timetabled public service, with scheduled trains to the lighthouse during the summer and special occasions such as Easter and Christmas. There is an occasional bus service around the island.<\/p>\n The\u00a0flag of\u00a0Alderney<\/a>\u00a0was granted on 20 December 1993. The flag is composed of\u00a0St George’s Cross<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Alderney’s coat of arms<\/a>\u00a0in the centre, and a lion holding a\u00a0sprig<\/a>\u00a0on a green background with a golden border.<\/p>\n The flag of Alderney was granted on 20 December 1993. The flag is composed of St George’s Cross with Alderney’s coat of arms in the center, and a lion holding a sprig on a green background with a golden border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[66,59,26,5,6,7,29,60,13],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9593,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250\/revisions\/9593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Alderney-on-the-Map-300x269.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/St-Annes-Church-300x187.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>History:<\/h2>\n
Pre-Victorian:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Alderney-within-the-Channel-Islands-300x280.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/1890-map-of-Alderney-and-adjacent-islands-300x166.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Victorian era:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Queen-Victoria-213x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Second World War:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/8\/8a\/Lageplan_Konzentrationslager_Aldeney_B.jpg\/220px-Lageplan_Konzentrationslager_Aldeney_B.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Detailed-View-of-Alderney-300x254.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Since 1945:<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Alderney-Farm-House.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Geography:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Blond-Hedgehog-300x232.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Economy:<\/h2>\n
Transportation:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Alderney-Airport-199x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Flag of Alderney:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/08\/Flag-of-Alderney-300x150.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>