Channel Islands Album ‐ 7 of 8
Happy Days at Maison des Landes in St Ouen, Jersey, Channel Islands, 1982 to 1985

  

Rehearsals and Recordings
Manicou • Senators •
Bare Essentials • Crosswinds
 
  

Album 1
Exploring the Island
First Days at Les Arches
 
  

Album 2
Fun at Les Arches
Getting an Audience
 
  

Album 3
Friends at Les Arches
Whoops Upside Your Head
 
  

Album 4
Au Revoir
End of Season
 
  

Album 5
Back in Blighty
Return to Les Arches
 
  

Album 6
Feesh and Cheeps
The Geordies
 
  

Album 7
Maison des Landes
Pastry KP
 
  

Album 8
Skintight
Inn on the Park
 
  

By 1982 I'd had enough feesh and cheeps in the Commodore to keep me going, even until today.  I answered an ad in the Jersey Post for KP at Maison des Landes up in St Ouen and got the job after an interview with the manager, Gerry Halsey.  The hotel was set up by the Lions Club of Jersey to provide holidays for disabled people and accommodated 20 guests and their helpers.  The job included accommodation and what a beautiful place to work, up in the heights overlooking the 5 mile road.  No wonder it's expanded manyfold since I was there.  Got to see many shows, bands and theatre and all the tourist sites on the island with the guests.  Even while I was there, a new large indoor swimming pool was constructed ‐ we had plenty of opportunities to test it, with permission of course.  I was once honoured when one of the drivers, Peter, invited me to an interesting boozy night to 'stir the Black Butter', something rare for a foreigner.  It was really a cider pressing and apple stew pressing and continuous stirring but full of ritual and tradition.  Out of the kitchen window we'd see the latest thing to the west ‐ hang gliding with proponents floating up and away and sometimes down and away over the cliff! Cyril and Gay Cotterell were from Portsmouth.  Forgive me for not remembering the names of two staff (Jersey beans) in the pinnies 'Alison' and 'Carol' in the photo.  'Alison''s well behaved kids are in the next photo.  Managers Gerry and Jenni Halsey are in front.  'Lucy' (guessing again), whose home was along the road from the Hotel, was the sister of a coach driver who after a short illness passed away ‐ he had once owned Sands on the five mile road and would deliver lobster and fish to the hotel.  We all attended his funeral.  Josh Patel was our chef extraordinaire, the great Henri Le Marquand lived in St Aubin and kept the beautiful gardens, coping superbly with hotel maintenance and often in the kitchen for a 'pot of tea'.  Steve and Rachel, driver and waitress came from Hertfordshire.  There were other part time helpers and missing from the photo is Ann's sister Helen and me. Angels haha! The quiet, well‐behaved children of 'Alison'.  They will be in their 50s by now I should think. Mr Josh Patel ‐ mad keen on surfing he had a great choice on the five mile road.  A brilliant chef and kitchen manager, his family came from Uganda ‐ they had been refugees from Idi Amin.  I still have two of his chefs knives ‐ gifts from Josh. Hoots mon.  A mug shot of Helen and her sister Ann Broad, getting out of the kitchen into the sunshine for a break.  They translated the Glasgow venacular for me and Josh.
Here's Ann avoiding Josh's precious surfboard. I remember Josh buying this in a corner shop specialising in surfing and sea gear along from Bona Togs in Les Quennevais. Be careful Josh, thems are special precious goods. Me and Ann Broad, she married Chris Broad, chef at Royal Jersey golf club.  I think he might have moved jobs on to La Moye golf club. My KP uniform.  On some party evenings, the conga line would dance through my quarters while I was sleeping. Steve's girlfriend, the lovely Rachel. Josh, Gerry Halsey and me enjoying one of the many BBQ lunches. Behind Chef Josh, staff quarters.
Garden BBQ Vicki from Tupton near Chesterfield, waitress and all rounder. Vicki again, her family came to visit.  Photos from the Potteries. A well deserved award to Mr Henri Le Marquand for all he did and continued to do at the hotel.  He managed to get me a marble for pastry and even helped me repair a 2nd hand car.<br /> <br /> They had all kinds of special aids for disabled guests at the hotel, bath hoists, stair lifts and all sorts of handles and gadgetry everywhere in the rooms to help guests and provide more independence in their mobility. Next it was Gerry and Jenni Halsey's turn for a well deserved accolade.  Ron Breedon from Pontefract was the salt of the earth.  Me on the right. After a few surfing trips with Josh I was starting to get more fit.  Here we are: me, Josh, Ann and Chris Broad. Ann and Josh, me and Elsa, I think at the Hawaiian. Me, Joyce, Blondie, Ann, Chris and Josh out on the tiles. One of the helpers, Joyce, and I went out to see Mount Orgueil Castle.
In the kitchen I learned pastry and would make fresh milk rolls for dinner for the guests, birthday cakes whenever a guest had a birthday.  I would make an extra snack sweet or savoury for the guests packed lunch as they were out sightseeing during the day. I managed to achieve a 2nd and 3rd place at the Salon Culinaire with the above birthday cake and the fan torte the previous year. Towards the end of season.  Up 24 hours.  Here's Peter the Scots Chef on my right, seconded from another Hotel to make the mushroom Duxelle for the Beef Wellington.  I made the brioche and Josh put it all together with the trimmings.  I also made 3 black forest gateaux, but the manager went bananas when I turned out the creme caramels that I'd put in to set ‐ they were a flop ‐ literally ‐ as they did not gel but Josh rescued them with quick remake. Some cakes what I made.  I liked the German recipes in particular.  A few extra requests for a 21st birthday, petite fours, pumpkin pie were fulfilled.  Anything with a bit of booze in it sold out double quick with the guests. Some more cakes I made at Maison des Landes.  Milk rolls (2nd to last pic) were a regular served with dinner. A room with a view and one from a few hundred yards away, of the five mile road.  Way over to Corbiere.  Here a hawk might hover and on the steep hillside the vraic gathered from the beach below was spread over new potato crops. We all went south to watch the RAF aerial display, including the red arrows and the incredibly noisy but spectacular Hawker Harrier Jumpjet doing it's mid‐air stop. Gay Cotterell, Ann and part time staff, plus one hungry chap.  Could he be the son of the lady on the right? Jenni Halsey and her daughter Vanessa ‐ 'Nessa', who one morning, found the enormous mushroom in middle of the lawn. My beautiful bike and views of the hotel.  The Manager's flat was up those stairs with a beautiful panorama of St Ouen's Bay and beyond through a huge corner picture window.  They were very kind and invited me for dinner there a few times
Over two of the years when I was there Gerry and Jenni Halsey wintered in Spain in their Winibago, and hired me to do the caretaking a la Shining. Redrum!  They left two large chest freezers for me to leech grub from which was more than enough to keep me going.  By this time I'd joined the Jersey band Skintight so there was lots of commuting on the bike to St Helier for rehearsals not to mention the gigs all over the Island. See Jersey Album 8 One of the drivers, Peter number 2, enlisted me to accompany him once a week when we entertained the guests.  We did all the standards ‐ I enjoyed it and he was very good with the jokes and the blarney.  One time a piano player I knew had booked a holiday and pleaded with me to stand in for him in what then was a restaurant and is now .. <a href="https://www.jersey.com/shopping/listings/jersey-pearl/" target="_blank">Jersey Pearl</a> ..my first and last solo gig!  I was doing my best when in walks a cadaverous looking Jimmy Young with guest.  Didn't get too many bad looks so I must have done ok but with my tiny repertoire I did take a lot of breaks! One of our guests, the pretty Jacki, would come to my window for a chat most days. X

Album 6 ‐ Feesh and Cheeps
© Malachy McCauley  January 2026
Album 8 ‐ Skintight