L'Ancresse

'The Anchor') is an area in the Vale, Guernsey, comprising a common and several beaches covering 737 Vergées (298 acres).

According to tradition, Robert II, Duke of Normandy (the father of William the Conqueror) was journeying to England in 1032, to help Edward the Confessor.

He was obliged to take shelter in Guernsey in L’Ancresse Bay and in thanks for assistance, gave land now known as the Clos du Valle, to the monks.

[1]: 299 Founded in 1890, the first Golf Club brought together a number of people interested in wielding gnarled sticks to try to send balls into holes cut in the grass.

This caused several cases of litigation between 1895 and 1908 as the laws of the common forbade the cutting of grass, or the removal of turf or sand.

The Germans established numerous fortifications including:[6] For the millennium, a 20 ft stone, found in the bay, was erected as a menhir on a hill in 1999 and unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II.

: 291  Grazing is currently the sole right of ‘habitants’ – residents living on or immediately adjacent to the Common.