History

The north end of the island is made up of beautiful beaches and the vast grassy common, where woolly mammoth roamed millions of years ago. Recent archeological digs have uncovered evidence of a prehistoric beach.

Neolithic settlements and tombs have been found dating back from ~8000BC when the first settlers arrived. There are many around the common and 
on the hillsides of Petit and Grand Monceau.

Three ceremonial bronze axes and imported French pottery of significant value were found during a dig in 2022, indicating a surprisingly affluent settlement on herm in the late Bronze Age (~1200BC).

In medieval times the position and solitude of Herm Island held great spiritual appeal for those seeking the monastic life. Missionary monks visited in the sixth century, including followers of St Tugual, a Celtic missionary. A chapel was dedicated to his memory, its first record in ecclesiastical literature being 1251. The church has been restored and is still used today.

From the middle 900s to 1569 all the Channel Islands came under the jurisdiction of the Duchy of Normandy. Herm was then handed over by Norman dukes into the control of Norman monasteries. Monks lived on the island for several decades, farming and giving religious instruction.

Between 1570 and 1737 Herm was used as a playground for the Governors of Guernsey. Wealthy gentlemen sailed over from Guernsey to hunt, shoot and fish. The island was stocked with pheasants, partridges, swans and rabbits. The island was then leased as farmland, and an inn was established in 1810.

Herm then changed dramatically: it became a centre for granite quarrying as Britain entered the Industrial Revolution. Tough Herm granite was ideal for road and bridge building, and it was supplied for the maintenance of London Bridge, and the steps of St Paul's Cathedral. The remains of several quarries can still be seen beyond Rosaire Steps, beneath the Obelisk on the common and in Valley Panto an old quarry was converted into a beautiful Zen Garden by residents during the pandemic lockdown in 2020.

During the quarrying era the first large community since prehistoric times was formed and the harbour, roads and pathways were constructed. 
400 quarrymen were estimated to be working on the island. To cater for their needs, accommodation, a forge, blacksmiths, brewery, bakery and a prison were built. A railway crane lifted blocks to ships waiting in the harbour. Herm' sindustrial era was over by the late 1800s.

In 1889 Prince Blucher von Wahlstatt, grandson of the famous Prussian Field Marshall Gebhard Blucher who fought with Wellington at Waterloo, bought the island lease. During his 26 year stay, he tidied up the island, transforming it into his private kingdom. One of his children, Count Lothair, was born on the island. At the age of 69, Prince Blucher married a young woman named Princess Wanda Radziwell. Her sister, Princess Louise, went on to meet and then marry the Prince’s son, Count Lothair. Both couples lived on the island but were forced to leave at the outbreak of the First World War.

Soon after the war, it was agreed that Herm should be handed over to a tenant who would care for the island, allowing its natural beauty to be enjoyed by everyone. From 1946 to 1949 the island was occupied by Mr A G Jeffries. In 1949 Peter and Jenny Wood took over the lease, and it then remained in their family but was managed by Adrian and Pennie Heyworth, the daughter and son-in-law of Peter and Jenny until September 2008. The lease of Herm is now owned by John 
and Julia Singer, island managers for the Starboard Settlement Trust, who run the island as a not-for profit business, ensuring all income and a substantial additional annual investment is ploughed back into the ongoing upkeep and enhancement of the island.