It may be only a few miles off the mainland of the British Isles but Guernsey and its Bailiwick has its own distinctive identity, so in no particular order here are a few facts to whet your appetite
- The Bailiwick has its own parliament, stamps and coins
Image by Paul Carrington on flickr | CC - Alderney is home to the distinctive (and very rare) blond hedgehog
- Sark is the world’s first Dark Sky Island
- Victor Hugo wrote some of his best known works while in exile in Guernsey, including Les Misérables. His home, Hautville House, is administered by the city of Paris, France, and so is essentially a little piece of France in the British Isles
House of Victor Hugo by Graham Skuse on flickr | CC - Along with the other Channel Islands, Guernsey was the only British territory to be occupied by Germany in the Second World War
- Guernsey has a speed limit of just 35 and the island of Sark has no cars!
- The local telephone boxes are painted yellow and all the post boxes are blue
Velvia Blue by John Wilkinson on flickr | CC - The Bailiwick has grown a number of great music acts including “Of Empires” and, Robert J Hunter, who recently hit no.1 in the iTunes blues charts, is originally from Alderney
- The Albion pub in St Peter Port is the closest Public House to a church in the British Isles
The Albion House by Stefan Sch. on flickr | CC - The Little Chapel in St Andrews is said to be the smallest functioning chapel in Europe, if not the world and believed to be the world’s smallest consecrated church.
The Little Chapel by Shaun on flickr | CC
Article Thumbnail: Phone Boxes by Thomas Peddle on flickr | CC
