The Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society (RJA&HS) has launched a new digital archive, at their AGM on 26May, giving the public online access to nearly 200 years of Jersey’s rural history for the very first time.
The archive, available on the Society’s website, contains more than 15,000 historic images and documents, including annual reports, magazines, newsletters, photographs and records documenting the Island’s agricultural and horticultural life from the 1830s to today.
The archive was created to preserve the Society’s historic records for future generations, while making them easily accessible to researchers, families and the wider public around the world. Previously, most of the documents existed only as paper copies stored in the Society’s library, at the Royal Jersey Showground in Trinity.
The archive documents important aspects of Jersey’s rural life, including shows, events, people, and community achievements. Together, these collections preserve the Society’s legacy while celebrating the contributions and memories of its members and the Island’s farming and horticultural traditions.
Among the highlights are:
- The material relating to the development of the Jersey cattle breed over the last two centuries. The search function allows people to research specific cattle families through the centuries and the Society knows this will be fascinating for Jersey cow fans all around the globe.
- Understanding horticulture in the past: what people were growing; how every single inch of land was planted with productive crops; the development of the Jersey Royal potato; and the extensive variety of plants, fruit and flowers grown in private gardens, as well as commercially.
- The adverts give a real illustrative insight into the culture of the time. The first black and white adverts appear in the Annual Reports in the 1870s, through to colour ones in 1887 onwards.
- Family history – in the historical Annual Reports, the subscribers of the Society are listed by Parish, along with Committee Members and other local figures. This will be a fascinating tool for people exploring their family history.
The Society hopes the archive will become a valuable educational and research resource for Islanders, historians, students, genealogists, schools, and the global Jersey cattle farming community.
Project Manager at the RJA&HS Louise Agnès said:
‘This is something the Society has wanted to achieve for many years, so it is incredibly rewarding to see the digital archive finally come to fruition. These records tell an important story about Jersey’s agricultural and horticultural heritage, and making them accessible online ensures they can be preserved and explored by future generations.
‘We are extremely grateful for the support of the Jersey Community Foundation, whose backing has helped make this project possible.’
The Society plans to continue expanding the archive with additional photographs, interviews and oral history recordings, creating a growing digital resource for future generations.
The archive is available at archive.royaljersey.co.uk.
