Sark

Sark is probably first mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary (Itinerarium Antonini Augusti, part II : itinerarium maritimum) 3rd – 4th century AD together with the other main Channel Islands as Sarnia, Caesarea, Barsa, Silia and Andium, but it is unclear to which it refers. It has been suggested that Silia referred to Sark.[13]^{: 131–132} The earliest record to evoke possibly the name of Sark are the Life of saint Samson and the Life of saint Magloire, bishops of Dol-de-Bretagne. They spell it Sargia,[14] with the neighbouring island Bissargia,[14]^: 41 all the other documents are from the 11th to the 12th century and the forms are : Serc, Serch, Sercum, Serco.[13]^: 124

Richard Coates has suggested that in the absence of a Proto-Indo-European etymology it may be worthwhile looking for a Proto-Semitic source for the name.[15][16] He proposes a comparison between the probable root of Sark, *Sarg-, and Proto-Semitic *śrq "redden; rise (as of the sun); east", noting Sark's position as the easternmost island of the Guernsey group.[17] His theory is based on the early medieval Latin records mentioning Sargia, but many Islands more or less close to Sark have a Latin name ending with -gia, such as Angia (Channel Island), Oye-Plage (Pas-de-Calais, Ogia 8th century) and Île-d'Yeu (Vendée, former Augia). Later records all mention Serc- and not *Sark, that seem to result from a later anglicising of the /er/ group (compare French merveille > English marvel; French Clerc / English clerk, clark cf. Clark). The traditional pronunciation of Sark in the native Norman language is sèr [sɛr], with regular fall of final [k] like clerc in French.[13]^: 124 Finally, no specialist ever identified any Proto-Semitic element in the French coastal toponymy, even on the French mediterranean side. René Lepelley suggests a Scandinavian etymology that would explain the regular and late records of the root Serc- in the documents, according to him, it could be Old Norse serkr "shirt".[13]^: 124 He compares with the name given to an island or a mountain by Vikings sailing from Norway to Greenland : Hvítserkr cf. Hvitserk, maybe Mount Forel,[13]^: 124 so Old Saxon *Serki or Old Norse Serkr > Serc could have been a descriptive landmark for Saxon or Scandinavian sailors. In addition Norman toponymy reveals a mixture of (Anglo-)Saxon and Old Norse (Old Danish) place name elements. The Old English form of sark "shirt" (related to Old Norse serkr) is precisely serċ, syrċ > Middle English serk, serke, sark (through the Anglian variant).

In ancient times, Sark was almost certainly occupied by the Unelli, the Gallic tribe of the Cotentin Peninsula. These people were conquered by Julius Caesar of the Roman Empire about 56 BC in the Gallic Wars. About three decades later under Augustus, Gallia Celtica was subdivided into three parts, with this area a part of Gallia Lugdunensis, with its capital in Lugdunum, now Lyon. A later division was named Lugdunensis secunda (Lyonnaise 2nd). A Unelli town, now Coutances, was named Constantia in 298 by the Roman emperor Constantius Chlorus.

Around 430, the bishopric of Coutances (much later under the archbishopric of Rouen), was established in Coutances, having about the same limits as the Lyonnaise 2nd.

In 933, Sark was included in the Duchy of Normandy, based on the traditional boundaries of the Lugdunensis secunda and the archbishopric of Rouen. Following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the island was united with the Crown of England. In the thirteenth century, the French pirate Eustace the Monk, having served King John, used Sark as a base of operations.

During the Middle Ages, the island was populated by monastic communities. By the 16th century, however, the island was uninhabited and used by pirates as a refuge and base. In 1565, Helier de Carteret, Seigneur of St. Ouen in Jersey, received letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I granting him Sark as a fief in perpetuity on condition that he kept the island free of pirates and occupied by at least forty men who were of her English subjects or swore allegiance to the Crown.[18] This he duly did, leasing 40 parcels of land (known as "Tenements") at a low rent to forty families, mostly from St. Ouen, on condition that a house be built and maintained on each parcel and that "the Tenant" provide one man, armed with a musket, for the defence of the island. The 40 tenements survive to this day, albeit with minor boundary changes. (In 2015, the 450 year anniversary of this event was commemorated with the construction of a modern henge monument, Sark Henge.[19]) A subsequent attempt by the families to endow a constitution under a bailiff, as in Jersey, was stopped by the Guernsey authorities who resented any attempt to wrest Sark from their bailiwick.

In 1844, desperate for funds to continue the operation of the silver mine on the island, the incumbent Seigneur, Ernest le Pelley, obtained Crown permission to mortgage Sark's fief to local privateer John Allaire. After the company running the mine went bankrupt, le Pelley was unable to keep up the mortgage payments and, in 1849, his son Pierre Carey le Pelley, the new Seigneur, was forced to sell the fief to Marie Collings for a total of £1,383[20] (£6,000 less the sum borrowed and an accumulated interest of £616 and 13s).[21]

During World War II, the island, along with the other Channel Islands, was occupied by German forces between 1940 and 1945. German military rule on Sark began on 4 July 1940, the day after the Guernsey Kommandant Major Albrecht Lanz and his interpreter and chief of staff Major Maas visited the island to inform the Dame and Seigneur (Sibyl and Robert Hathaway) of the new regime. British Commandos raided the island several times. Operation Basalt, during the night of 3–4 October 1942, captured a prisoner, and Hardtack 7 was a failed British landing in December 1943. Sark was finally liberated on 10 May 1945, a full day after Guernsey.

In late August 1990, an unemployed French nuclear physicist named André Gardes, armed with a semi-automatic weapon, attempted an invasion of Sark. The night Gardes arrived, he put up two posters declaring his intention to take over the island the following day at noon. The following day he started a solo foot patrol in front of the manor, in battle-dress, weapon in hand. While Gardes was sitting on a bench waiting for noon to arrive, the island's volunteer connétable approached the Frenchman and complimented him on the quality of his weapon.[22] Gardes then proceeded to change the gun's magazine, at which point he was tackled to the ground, arrested, and given a seven-day sentence which he served in Guernsey.[22][23][24][25] Gardes attempted to return the following year, but was intercepted in Guernsey.

Film of walking around Sark in 1948 is held by the Cinema Museum in London Ref HM0364 [26]

Billionaire brothers David and Frederick Barclay had purchased an island within Sark's territorial waters in 1993[22] along with the hotels on the island.[27] In the mid-1990s, the brothers petitioned the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, challenging Sark's inheritance law, which mandated their island be left to David's oldest son. The brothers wanted to will their estate equally to their four children.[28] In 1999, women in Sark were given equal rights of property inheritance, mainly due to the brothers' influence.[29]

Until 2008, Sark's parliament (Chief Pleas) was a single chamber consisting of 54 members, comprising the Seigneur, the Seneschal, 40 owners of the tenements and 12 elected deputies. A change to the system was advocated largely by the Barclay brothers.[27] Their premise was that a change was necessary to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights, though it was suggested that their objection was more likely at odds with certain property tax requirements and primogeniture laws affecting their holdings.[27][30] The old system was described as feudal and undemocratic because the tenants were entitled to sit in Chief Pleas as of right.[31]

On 16 January 2008 and 21 February 2008, the Chief Pleas approved a law to reform Chief Pleas as a 30-member chamber, with 28 members elected in island-wide elections, one hereditary member (the Seigneur) and one member (the Seneschal) appointed for life.[lower-alpha 2][32] The Privy Council of the United Kingdom approved the Sark law reforms on 9 April 2008.[33] The first elections under the new law were held in December 2008 and the new chamber first convened in January 2009.[34][35]

Some Sark residents have complained that the new system is not democratic and have described the powers the new law granted to the Seneschal, an unelected member whose term the new law extended to the duration of his natural life, as imperial or dictatorial. The Court of Appeal had ruled his powers to be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights[36] and his powers were subject to further legal challenges on these grounds.[37]

In 2012 the BBC Today programme reported on local disquiet about the influence on the island of the Barclay brothers.[38] The New Yorker magazine further illustrated the ongoing and escalating tensions between the Barclays and some of the longer-term residents.[39] In 2017 Private Eye also reported on the situation, following the Barclays' decision to close their vineyard and a number of hotels and shops they own on Sark.[40]

In January 2011, the International Dark-Sky Association designated Sark as Europe's first Dark Sky Community[41] and the first Dark Sky Island in the world.[42] This designation recognises that Sark is sufficiently clear of light pollution to allow naked-eye astronomy. Although Sark was aided in its achievement by its location, its historic ban on cars and the fact that there is no public lighting, it was also necessary for local residents to make adjustments, such as re-siting lights, to cut the light pollution.

The designation was made in January 2011, following an audit by the IDA in 2010. The award is significant in that Sark is the first island community to have achieved this; other Dark-Sky Places have, up to now, been mainly uninhabited areas, and IDA chairman Martin Morgan-Taylor commended Sark residents for their effort.[43] After the designation was granted, Sark Astronomy Society worked to secure funds for an astronomical observatory on the island. In October 2015 Sark's observatory was officially opened by Marek Kukula, public astronomer from the Royal Observatory Greenwich.[44][45]

Christopher Beaumont is the current and twenty-third Seigneur of Sark, having inherited the Seigneurie in 2016.

Before the constitutional reforms of 2008, the Seigneur (or Dame in the case of a woman holding the office) was the head of the government of the Isle of Sark. Many of the laws, particularly those related to inheritance and the rule of the Seigneur, had changed little since their promulgation in 1565 under Elizabeth I of England. For example, the Seigneur held the sole right to keep pigeons or an unspayed dog.[23] The latter right was repealed in 2008.[49]

Until 2013 the Seneschal of Sark was the head of the Chief Pleas. From 1583 and 1675 judicial functions were exercised by five elected jurats and a juge, but since 1675 the Seneschal has also been the judge of the island.

The Seneschal was historically appointed by the Seigneur, but nowadays there is an Appointment Committee consisting of the Seigneur and two other members appointed by the Seigneur.[32]

In 2010, following the decision of the English Court of Appeal, the Chief Pleas decided to split the dual role of the Seneschal.[50] Thus, since 2013 the Chief Pleas has elected its own President, who presides in almost all cases. The Seneschal now presides in Chief Pleas only during the election of the President.

The complete list of all the Seneschals of Sark from 1675 is as follows:[51]

The Seigneurie (49°26.4′N 2°21.7′W)

Pursuant to the royal letters patent, the Seigneur was to keep the island inhabited by at least 40 armed men.[18] Therefore, from his lands, 39 parcels or tenements, each sufficient for one family, were subdivided and granted to settlers, the tenants. Later, some of these parcels were dismembered, and parts of the Seigneurial land were sold, creating more parcels.

Originally each head of a parcel-holding family had the right to vote in Chief Pleas, but in 1604 this right was restricted to the 39 original tenements required by the letters patent, the so-called 'Quarantaine Tenements' (French: quarantaine: a group of forty). The newer parcels mostly did not have the obligation to bear arms. In 1611 the dismemberment of tenements was forbidden, but the order was not immediately followed.

In Sark, the word tenant is used (and often pronounced as in French) in the sense of feudal landholder rather than the common English meaning of lessee. Originally, the word referred to any landowner, but today it is mostly used for a holder of one of the Quarantaine Tenements.

Meeting place for Chief Pleas and the Court of the Seneschal

Seal of the Chief Pleas

Chief Pleas (French: Chefs Plaids; Sercquiais: Cheurs Pliaids) is the parliament of Sark. It consists of eighteen members (conseillers), elected for a period of office of four years. In addition, the Seigneur and a speaker (who is elected by the conseillers) are counted as members; but they have no right to vote. The periods of office are shifted, with the period of half the conseillers starting in the middle of the periods of the other half. Thus, every second year, nine conseillers are elected for the coming four years. The elections are held on the basis of a single multi-member Sark-wide constituency, with the nine candidates receiving most votes being elected. The Prévôt, the Greffier and the treasurer also attend but are not members; the treasurer may address Chief Pleas on matters of taxation and finance.

However, if there are not more willing candidates than the numbers of positions to fill (including any casual vacancies), then all candidates are declared elected, without any actual election necessary. This happened both in the 2014 and the 2016 elections to the Chief Pleas.

Until 2008, the Chief Pleas consisted of the tenants, and twelve deputies of the people as the only representation of the majority, an office introduced in 1922. The Seigneur and the Seneschal (who presided) were also members of Chief Pleas.

Since 2000, Chief Pleas was working on its own reform, responding to internal and international pressures. On 8 March 2006 by a vote of 25–15 Chief Pleas voted for a new legislature of the Seigneur, the Seneschal, fourteen elected landowners and fourteen elected non-landowners.[52][53] But it was made plain by the British Lord Chancellor Jack Straw that this option was not on the table.[54]

Offered two options for reform involving an elected legislature, one fully elected, one with a number of seats reserved for elected tenants, 56% of the inhabitants expressed a preference for a totally elected legislature.[55] Following the poll, Chief Pleas voted on 4 October 2006 to replace the twelve deputies and forty tenants in Chief Pleas by 28 conseillers elected by universal adult suffrage.[56] This decision was suspended in January 2007 when it was pointed out to Chief Pleas that the 56% versus 44% majority achieved in the opinion poll did not achieve the 60% majority required for the constitutional change. The decision was replaced by the proposal that Chief Pleas should consist of sixteen tenants and twelve conseillers both elected by universal adult suffrage from 2008 to 2012 and that a binding referendum should then decide whether this composition should be kept or replaced by 28 conseillers.[57] This proposal was rejected by the Privy Council and the 28 conseiller option was reinstated in February 2008 and accepted by Privy Council in April 2008.[58]

In 2003, Chief Pleas voted to vary the long-standing ban on divorce in the island by extending to the Royal Court of Guernsey power to grant divorces.[59]

In 2017, due to a lack of candidates standing for elections, the number of conseillers was reduced from 28 to 18, with nine elected every two years.

Bailiwick of Guernsey laws and United Kingdom Acts of Parliament can (the latter as in the case of all the other Channel Islands) be extended to Sark. Normally the consent of Chief Pleas is obtained for this, but the Supreme Court ruled in R v Secretary of State for Justice [2014] UKSC 54 that it need not be.[60][61] Sark does not make its own criminal laws;[62] the responsibility for making criminal law was assigned to the States of Guernsey by Section 4(3) of the Reform (Sark) Law 2008.[63]

The executive officers on the island are:

• The Seneschal (Chief Judge, formerly also President of Chief Pleas) and Deputy
• The Prevôt (Sheriff of the Court and of Chief Pleas) and Deputy
• The Greffier (Clerk) and Deputy
• The Treasurer (Finances) and Deputy
• The Connétable (or Constable) is the senior of two police officers and police administrator and the Vingtenier is the junior police officer.

The Seneschal, Prevôt, and Greffier are chosen by the Seigneur, while the Treasurer, Constable and Vingtenier are elected by Chief Pleas.[32][64]

The list of current Officers of the Island of Sark:

• Seneschal – Victoria Stamps, following the resignation of Bethan Owen
  • Deputy Seneschal – awaiting appointment
• Prevôt – Kevin Adams[65]
  • Deputy Prevôt – Joanne Godwin[66]
• Greffier – Trevor John Hamon[66]
  • Deputy Greffier – Gary Hamon
• Treasurer – Wendy Kiernan
• Constable –
• Vingtenier –
• Speaker of Chief Pleas – Lt. Col. Reginald Guille MBE[65]

Among the old laws of the Channel Islands is the old Norman custom of the clameur de haro. Using this legal device, a person can obtain immediate cessation of any action he considers to be an infringement of his rights. At the scene, he must, in front of witnesses, recite the Lord's Prayer in French and cry out "Haro, Haro, Haro! À mon aide mon Prince, on me fait tort!" ("Haro, Haro, Haro! To my aid, my Prince! I am being wronged!"). It should then be registered with the Greffe Office within 24 hours. All actions against the person must then cease until the matter is heard by the Court. The last clameur recorded on Sark was raised in June 1970 to prevent the construction of a garden wall.[23]

Since 2009 a resident of Sark has operated a weekly online newspaper called The Sark Newspaper (earlier: The Sark Newsletter).[67] The publisher is a former longtime employee of the wealthy Barclay brothers, who own the small neighbouring island of Brecqhou.[68] The publication has compared the local government of Sark "to fascist Germany in the 1930s". In 2014 over 50 residents of Sark filed complaints with the police about accusations made by the paper.[69]

Since 2011 a quarterly magazine called Sark Life, which promotes a positive view of the island and welcomes contributions, is published by the Sark-based publishing company Small Island Publishing.[70]

Sark's economy depends primarily on tourism and financial services. Sark has no company registry and relies on Guernsey's financial services commission.[72]

Sark is fiscally autonomous from Guernsey, and consequently has control over how it raises taxes. There are no taxes on income, capital gains or inheritances. There is also no VAT charged on goods and services, but import duties (Impôts) are charged on some goods brought onto the island at around 70–75% of Guernsey rates. However, the island does levy a Personal Capital Tax, a Property Tax, a Poll Tax ("Landing Tax") on visitors coming to the island, and a Property Transfer Tax (PTT) on residential properties when they are sold.

The island has its own tax assessor (in 2016, this remained Simon de Carteret),[73] who collects the Property Tax, PTT, and the Personal Capital Tax (direct tax).[74] Currently, the Personal Capital Tax ranges from a minimum of £450, to a maximum of £9,000 or 0.39% per annum (whichever is the lower).[75] In 2014, there were 5 taxpayers who paid the maximum amount of £6,400 (PCT and Property Tax combined), and 6 who paid zero tax. Residents over the age of 69 do not pay the PCT. If a resident chooses not to declare the value of their personal assets, they can elect to pay a flat-rate under the Forfait method.

In 2006, Property Transfer Tax replaced the feudal Treizième.[76] This used to be calculated by dividing the purchase price of any of the 30 tenements or 40 freehold properties on Sark by 13. The proceeds from doing this were then paid directly to the Seigneur. When the Treizième was abolished, the Chief Pleas introduced an indexed-linked pension of £28,000 per year, payable to the Seigneur.

An individual is considered to be a resident for tax purposes if they have remained on the island for at least 90 days in any tax year.[77]

Sark has no public company registry, and no company law. In January 2017, a private organisation called the "Sark Company Registry" was set up. The project was initially opposed by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission,[78] but that opposition ended with nothing, since no law could prohibit private registration of companies. None of managers of the private registry or any company registered by them was ever sanctioned.[79]

Resident population on Sark by gender and residence at one and five-yearly intervals.

Data from the 1971 Bailiwick of Guernsey report.[83]

Data from the 1971 Bailiwick of Guernsey report.[83]

Although there is no record of literature about Sark in Sercquiais, Guernésiais and Jèrriais literature has included writing about Sark; for example by such authors as Edwin John Luce,[101] Thomas Grut,[102] George F. Le Feuvre,[103] and Denys Corbet.[104]

• Algernon Swinburne wrote a poem, In Sark, which appears in the collection A Century of Roundels.
• Arthur Conan Doyle's Sir Nigel (1906) includes a sub-plot where Black Simon of Norwich, a man at arms travelling with Sir Nigel Loring to war, obtains permission from Sir Robert Knolles to go ashore to Sark under cover of darkness. He takes his friend the archer Samkin Alward with him and beheads the (so-called) King of Sark in payment of a wager.
• John Oxenham wrote Carette of Sark (1907) and his 1910 novel A Maid of the Silver Sea uses the mines of Little Sark as its setting.
• The novel Mr Pye, by Mervyn Peake, is set on Sark. The book has been adapted for radio and television. The TV series, filmed on Sark, starred Derek Jacobi and Judy Parfitt, and featured a number of islanders. Peake lived on the island for several years as a painter before he began writing. The setting of his best known novels, the Gormenghast series, may have been inspired by Sark.
• Dame of Sark, the memoirs of the 21st Seigneur Sibyl Mary Hathaway, who was present during the German occupation, were made into a play and television drama of the same name.[105] Dame Sibyl also wrote Maid of Sark, an historical romance published in 1939; set in the sixteenth century, it incorporates events related to the defence of the island against the Bretons.
• The novel Appointment with Venus by Jerrard Tickell is set on the fictional island of Armorel, which is presumed to be based on Sark. The 1951 film of the book used Sark as a principal location.
• Sarah Caudwell's The Sirens Sang of Murder (1989) is partly set in Sark.
• The Last Kings of Sark: A Novel by Rosa Rankin-Gee is a 2015 coming-of-age story set in Sark.
• The 2016 novel Iron Chamber of Memory by John C. Wright is set in Sark.
• The 2018 novel Dark Sky Island by Lara Dearman is set in Sark.

Maurice Leblanc's novel L'Île aux Trente Cercueils (translated in English as The Secret of Sarek) features an island called Sarek, off the coast of Brittany, and bears obvious similarities to Sark. In the story, gentleman-thief Arsène Lupin rescues Véronique d'Hergemont from a local superstition requiring the death of thirty women to appease vengeful spirits.

Irish musician, composer and singer Enya's 2015 album Dark Sky Island was inspired by Sark's designation as the first 'dark sky island'. Certain songs on the album, the title track especially, explore the stars, skies and nature.

• The 1986 television adaptation of Mr Pye by Mervyn Peake and starring Derek Jacobi was filmed on the island. The original novel is also set on Sark.
• Sark featured in the 6th episode of the fourth series of The New Statesman, The Irresistible Rise of Alan B'Stard.
• Part of the seventh episode of the second series of World War II television drama Enemy at the Door takes place in Sark. La Coupée features in a number of scenes.
• Sark, and in particular the Gouliot Caves, features in episode 8 of series 3 of the BBC television series Coast.
• Sark was featured in Episode 3 of the 2009 ITV television series Islands of Britain, presented by Martin Clunes.
• Series 7 and 8 of the BBC Two six-episode television series An Island Parish follows the Anglican priest and Methodist minister on Sark. It was first broadcast in 2013[106] and 2014.[107]
• One of the episodes of Bergerac called "Burnt",[108] was mostly filmed on Sark. Bergerac was a Jersey-based BBC and Australia's Seven Network detective drama starring John Nettles and was filmed between 1981 and 1991. It featured a fight on and over the edge of La Coupée.
• Sark and its football team featured as a topic in series 7 episode 2 of the web series Citation Needed, hosted by YouTuber Tom Scott.[109]