Time for one more adventure - in a different location

The term of office of Jersey’s Lieutenant-Governor, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton, comes to end at the end of June. He talked to Alasdair Crosby

As this edition of RURAL goes to print, plans for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee are well under way and the main festivities will already have happened shortly before the publication date of the present issue. June will be the final month in office for the Lieutenant-Governor, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton. Together with Lady Dalton, they will be leaving the Island on 30 June after five and a quarter years.

Asked what their future plans were after their departure, he said: ‘I’m told I’m going to be retiring. I think that’s probably right. I’ve attempted to retire four times so far. ‘We decided to go somewhere completely different: we thought we had time and capacity for one more adventure, so we decided that Scotland was the place. A new adventure in a different location, another beautiful part of the British Isles. We shall be living near Stirling in Perthshire, an area of the country we think is beautiful, open and fresh.

‘There are lots of things that we want to do, and quite frankly, we are looking forward to having the opportunity and the time to enjoy living in that part of the world and to exploring the scenery and the countryside and making easy short trips to enjoy the Scottish countryside.’

Sir Stephen has always had an interest in what might be called ‘environmental’ subjects, so it is appropriate that the Queen’s Green Canopy tree planting project is taking place at the moment in Jersey, as it is across the Commonwealth. It is a unique tree planting initiative created to mark the Platinum Jubilee in 2022, which invites people to ‘plant a tree for the Jubilee’ to create a legacy in honour of The Queen’s leadership of the Nation, which will benefit future generations.

Sir Stephen continued: ‘Jersey has its own place in this pan-Commonwealth project. The key thing for me about this is that although trees are not the most efficient way of capturing carbon, they are a visible symbol, an important part of saying to people: everyone can contribute to making the environment better. That’s really important.’

Another project in which he has taken great interest and which remains ongoing is the possible restoration of La Gigoulande Mill in St Mary.

‘We’ve made huge progress,’ Sir Stephen said. ‘It’s just disappointing that we have not got to the stage of finally getting planning permission to restore it. But we have cleared the ground, restored the millpond and established a formal survey by York University that says that there’s nothing there now to prevent us from going on to the next stage (if we get planning permission) to rebuild the mill and the cottages.

‘It would be a project of which the Island could be very proud. It would be technologically very important for the whole of the British Isles, given the fact that there are only three double wheel overshot mills in the whole of Britain.

‘But there is no point in doing that unless we can ensure that there is an income to maintain it in the future. Without that, there is no point in completing the restoration.’ Could there be some income generating application to a restored mill, perhaps by producing a commercial product?

‘Absolutely, and if the mill were to become a working mill in the future, it need not have to work all the time; the wheels could be turned on and off at regular intervals. So long as visitors could see them working, they needn’t be in use all the time. There could be periods in the summer when visitors could stay there and that would generate an income to look after it.’

“I’m told I’m going

to be retiring. I think that’s probably right. I’ve attempted to retire four times so far

Both Sir Stephen and Lady Dalton have always taken an interest in local art and artists.

‘We have been very impressed with the quality of some of the art,’ he said. ‘We were at the Eisteddfod in March to present the awards to this year’s winners. Some of the artwork there was just fantastic and some of the needlework was amazing, as was the outstanding ladies’ flower arranging.’

In the hallway of Government House are 20 paintings and three photographs, all by local artists and photographers and designed to show the prominent visiting guests the quality of Island art and artists.

‘We very strongly believe that it would be a great advantage if there were a bigger and better facility to exhibit local art. The Island is crying out for somewhere that would display it. There is so much available and people would certainly visit a gallery that exhibited it.’ He continued: ‘I would like to encourage more artists to do work inside the Island’s interior. So many of the paintings and drawings seem to be of the coastline, which, as we are an island, is not too surprising. But it would be nice if there were more on the Island’s interior countryside as well.

‘The standard of music is also really good – we remember the productions we used to attend at the Opera House when we first came. So, there is a demand for it and also, musicians like coming to the Island - and it’s great to see them here.

‘It is just important that we need to find a way of providing the facilities to enable them to play their concerts or for the Island to exhibit its art creations and treasures.’