Jersey Farm Local Shops

 You will have noticed no reference yet to the largest centre of local shops – The Quadrant.  We will, naturally, get round to it, but it does seem right to reference The Quadrant during the planning period for its much smaller neighbourhood and rival at Jersey Farm.

Jersey Farm homestead closed up and ready for redevelopment in  the 1970s, but consumed
by fire before enjoying its new lease of life as a community facility.
COURTESY TREVOR PARSONS

Jersey Farm residential area had barely been conceived when its larger neighbour was already maturely complete with its retail offering open to the world.  In fact, much of the 1970s seemed to be occupied by arguments about whether or not there should be any houses at all at Jersey Farm; the original plans for the estate (or mini-town as it was referred to) included a northern bypass and two schools, but all were ditched as was a proportion of the housing stock, on the pretext of – well, that's another story!

The range of shops and the Blackberry Jack PH at and around The Harvesters (not, as shown, Harvest Court).  Aim for St Brelade's Place to park the car.
COURTESY OPEN STREET MAP CONTRIBUTORS

The site for services and shops was to be around an upgraded farm house at newly named St Brelade's Place, a reference to the island and its cattle breed raised and maintained at the former farm.  However, a serious fire at the farm house scuppered the plan before it was even begun.  And so the services available to residents today were all new-build.  Today, if you drive along Sandringham Crescent, the main spine road, two other names will stand out before you ever see the word St Brelade's Place, which is a short connecting street round the back of the shops.  The first is the side road joining the main spine, which was given the name Harvesters; the second is the community and family pub on the corner, named Blackberry Jack, referencing a local legend.  The Blackberry Jack is the only public house which is part of a local shopping hub in this series.  Quite an accolade!

The Blackberry Jack community public house, operating under the "Sizzling" brand.

Another boost is the provision of doctor, dentist, pharmacy and post office services.  The local grocery is in the form of a Tesco Express – and without a grocery anchor any local shopping parade would become unstable.  It is supported by three other eating options; Chinese, Indian and a traditional fish 'n' chips.  And to complete a useful collection St Albans Cycles has a bicycle shop, which is brilliant now that we are all being encouraged to revert to two wheels and leave the car at home (or sell it).

Residents of the wider district or Jersey Farm itself will know there is more to the retail back story than is described above. With the early developments already progressing in the mid 1970s, the intended "supermarket" provider was slated to be Key Markets.  Which is when the backlash from a few of the Quadrant traders began.  Key's intention was to service both JF and Marshalswick with one large store – hence the term supermarket we suppose.  In time this brought Sainsbury into the fray, which proposed a larger footprint than Key had proposed or the developer was offering.  The City Council, as the planning authority, urged Sainsbury not to push so hard as there would be no increase in the number of homes at JF.  The term "mini-town" had had its day, St Brelade's Place would be an appropriately sized hub of local shops, expecting common sense to prevail.  As it still does.