Douet de Rue

Historic Jersey buildings Douet de Rue, St Mary There are two properties of this name either side of the St Mary/St Lawrence border. This one is Rue du Douet, St Mary, and the other, distinguished as Douet de Rue Farm, is in the continuation of the road, now called Rue du Douet de Rue, in St Lawrence Index of all house profiles If you own this property, have ancestors who lived here, or can provide any further information and photographs, please contact us through editorial@jerripedia.org

The lack of any similarity between this building and the house pictured on the right is explained by the HER entry below. This is the original building, possibly with 15th century origins, which is now an outbuilding of a much later house

Property name

Douet de Rue ^[1]

Location

Rue du Douet, St Mary ^[2]

Type of property

15th century house, now an outbuilding of a much later property

Valuations

The property, wrongly listed as Douet du Rue, sold for £3.8 million in 2013

Families associated with the property

• de Rue ^[3]
• Pirouet: In 1941 Mark Edward Pirouet (1906- ) was living here with his wife Louisa Jane, nee Surcouf (1905- ) and their children Doris Louisa (1929- ) and Morris Edward (1933- ). Unusually Morris Edward was recorded on the back of both his father's and mother's registration cards, but his sister only on her mother's.
• Le Breton C F Le Breton was farming here in 1968 when the farm was featured in a Jersey Evening Post article

Datestones

• IAT 1676 ? - For Jean Arthur

Historic Environment Record entry

Listed building

Former farm group of medieval origins, with later additions from 17th to 20th century. The earliest house displays Jersey’s vernacular tradition in the use of local materials and details, including accoladed lintels and chamfered round arch doorway. Shown on the Richmond Map of 1795.

Principal interest is early house (now wing to later development). Two-storey, four-bay. Wide central doorway has chamfered round arch with narrow single voussoirs and wide keystone. Two large windows at ground floor level with four smaller windows on the first floor. All windows have chamfered surrounds and accoladed lintels.

19th century house and outbuildings. Interior of early house recorded to contain two reconstructed corbelled fireplaces with chamfered joints. The one in the room on the left has a quadrant bracket in the left hand angle, placed high up, and likely for a lamp. The south gable fireplace lintel is carved with a shield with the date 1676 (likely a later addition).

Old Jersey Houses

A surprisingly brief entry in Volume 1 for a building of this age does not mention the datestone which is included in the list in Volume 2.

The entry, which concentrates entirely on minor architectural details, acknowledges the antiquity of the house:

"Now an outhouse, this must be a very early house indeed. The round arch, facing west, has only single voussoirs, rather narrow, with a wide keystone, and is iteslf unusually wide. There was a tourelle staircase, but the stone steps have been removed and the actual tower is falling down."

Notes and references

1. ↑ The Rue part of the name is not a reference to road, but to the de Rue family after which the house is named
2. ↑ Not Rue du Doret as shown in HER
3. ↑ Although the de Rue family's presence in St Mary is mentioned in an article on the history of the family in the 1899 Annual Bulletin of La Société Jersiaise, there is no mention of this property