In Jersey in the Middle Ages an ancient right of sanctuary for outlaws existed which enabled those accused, and possibly guilty, of crimes to take refuge in one of the twelve parish churches or its nearby cemetery. This was a parallel, although not a close one, to the establishment in Old Testament times in Israel of cities of refuge in which a person who had unwittingly killed another could live without fear of reprisal.
Such ecclesiastical arrangements did not however outlive the Reformation but what has remained for later generations is the ability to find a different but more enduring sanctuary for time and eternity in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Committed to the preaching of the good news about that Saviour is the fellowship which meets at Tesson Chapel at the present time.
THE BIBLE CHRISTIANS
The story of Tesson Chapel must of course begin prior to its construction and even prior to the purchase by contract dated 2nd November 1861 of the initial small piece of land (44 feet by 30 feet) on which it now stands by trustees representing the Bible Christian Society. The work of the society, which was later to become a part of the Methodist denomination, was commenced in Jersey on 2Oth August 1823 when Mary Ann Werrey arrived from England to evangelise the Island.
In 1825 the Society erected a small chapel in Great Union Road St Helier. Improvements were made in 1849 to their small chapel at Great Union Road which enabled it to seat 700 when opened in January 1850. That chapel was further enlarged in 1864. It was from the work at Great Union Road that a Sabbath school for children developed in St Lawrence Valley.This Sunday school was a satellite work of the main St Helier Sunday school and a lease for two rooms at "St. Lawrence Valley" for £3 per annum was agreed in June 1858, it being decided at the same meeting to take down the partitions dividing the rooms.
THE WORK COMMENCES
The year 1861 however became a turning point for the Sunday school at St Lawrence Valley because the elders of Great Union Road chapel in October of that year received a report from a special committee appointed relative to the building of a chapel in the valley. On November 2nd 1861 trustees purchased the land from Mr and Mrs Richard Simes for £5.
The chapel building itself was erected on a piecework basis with certain individuals responsible for each aspect of the construction. The work commenced in November 1861 and went on through to the summer of 1862. One record shows a total cost including land of just over £163, another £135. A part of the money needed was borrowed for the purpose from individuals and by June 1866 £60 of debt remained outstanding.
In 1867 Bible Christian Trustees on the island laid the foundation stone of a new church designed to seat 1200 people was laid in Royal Crescent, Don Road, St Helier on the site of an old theatre and, whereas by 1880 no debt was outstanding for St Lawrence chapel, the total circuit debt was £3,305.
What of the spiritual work of during this time however? Well, the first recorded service at their St Lawrence chapel was on 7th September 1862. The chapel was part of the circuit that appointed and supported two full time ministers and it participated in the missionary endeavour (for which the Bible Christians were noted) by having missionary speakers on a weeknight. The key work however remained with the Sunday school. Also the circuit Sunday school outing was held each year at St Lawrence Valley ‑ in 1864 for 350 persons, in 1869 the 'Mill Room' being requested (presumably a room in Tesson Mill) for 200 and in 1871 the chapel when 100 persons were expected.
In 1864 the chapel had 9 members (compared with 179 for the circuit), in 1870 15 members and in 1874 6 members. By 1880 the membership had fallen to three (circuit ‑ 243) and the scene was beginning to be set for another change.
DECLINE AND CLOSURE
In 1883 a decision was taken to close the chapel and to request the trustees to sell it. Eventually, on 29th October 1888, the trustees auctioned the property and the reserve price of £80 was reached. The net proceeds were shared among circuit chapels.
THE TURN OF THE CENTURY
The buyer of the chapel in 1888 was Mr William Pellier. His daughter, Elsie Mary, who later became Mrs Pitts, inherited the chapel on his death in 1893. The building was brought back into use as a chapel in 1897. Sunday 18th July in that year saw the first of the fortnightly evangelistic services that were held at 3pm each Sunday afternoon. An advertisement in the 'Nouvelle Chronique' heralded the opening and the chapel was identified as 'proche le Moulin de Tesson' – near Tesson Mill. The chapel became known for a while as Rock Chapel.
From the summer of 1904 onwards, Miss Pellier leased Rock Chapel to Mr Philip Sorsoleil Langlois. Mr Langlois' connection with the chapel was to continue until his death in 1933 and was to be extended through his daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren – and their spouses - to the present day.
THE BRETHREN CONNECTION
Mr Langlois had, prior to 1904, married Miss Ann Bichard. Husband and wife, principally through their friendship with Mr and Mrs Monet, had close connections with the Open Brethren meeting at Lyric Hall in Cattle Street, St Helier and later in Belmont Hall, Belmont Road, St Helier. Mr Monet partnered with Mr Langlois in the commencement and maintenance of an evangelical work at the chapel.
Not surprisingly therefore those attending the chapel came under the ministry of the lay speakers connected with the pen Brethren. However, Mr Langlois was happy later to link Tesson Chapel, as it became known, to a Fellowship of Undenominational and Unattached Churches and Missions which included Jersey churches in Halkett Place (St Helier), and at Maufant (St Saviour), Les Tours (St Clement), Sion (St John) and Mitspa (Trinity). He preached himself, in both French and English, and was the superintendent of Tesson Chapel and of the meetings held there up until the time of his death in 1933.
An afternoon Sunday school was started in the mid‑1920's and Hilda Langlois, Mr Langlois' elder daughter and her husband Mr George Querée took up that work which at one stage had around fifty children attending.
In the 1930s services were sometimes held in the open‑air just outside the chapel. Those who heard the good news of forgiveness through the Lord Jesus Christ in that way were the many French farm workers who came over year by year to help with the manual harvesting of the potato crops. One may have no doubt at all that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ was preached there throughout those years and that the teaching would have been based solely on the Bible as the Word of God and on Jesus as Lord of All.
PROPERTY TRANSFERS
On 1Oth October 1925 a change of ownership of the chapel occurred when Mr Langlois purchased the freehold together with the adjacent côtil for £200. The freehold was therefore part of his estate when he died. The 'partage' which took place in 1933 between his two daughters, Mrs Hilda Ann Queree and Mrs Emily Rose Coutanche, resulted in the former inheriting the chapel.
Mrs Queree and her brother‑in‑law Mr Philip Coutanche watched over the fellowship that continued to gather. Mr and Mrs Queree had no children but the son and four daughters of Mr and Mrs. Coutanche were all brought up at the chapel. They and their respective marriage partners comprised a substantial part of the congregation during the remainder of the 1930s.
Just before the Second World War Mrs Queree arranged and paid for a small extension to the chapel behind the west gable and to the north. The extension comprised a small room for Sunday school activities plus a toilet reached from outside the building.
THE GERMAN OCCUPATION AND POST WAR YEARS
All through the occupation of Jersey by German armed forces the work at the chapel continued. The shortage of heating fuel in the early 1940s gave rise to the placing of a wood-burning stove in the centre of the chapel with long pipes reaching to the chimney in the north wall.
The main source of speakers during that time and the 1950s and 1960s remained the Belmont Hall Brethren Assembly. The twelve Coutanche grandchildren swelled the numbers attending (after the occupation years) participating with others in the Sunday school and as part of the fellowship.
Mr and Mrs Querée and Mr and Mrs Coutanche jointly maintained the fellowship at Tesson Chapel during that time. Mr John ("Jack") Le Breton who had married Phyllis, one of Mr and Mrs Coutanche's daughters, was an able preacher and teacher at the Chapel. It was not surprising therefore that on her death in 1970, Mrs. Queree bequeathed to him by will the property of the chapel and additionally of the car park which had been formed on her land in the meadow across the road.
With a view to the long-term maintenance of a Christian testimony at Tesson Chapel, Mr Le Breton quickly set about placing both the properties in the hands of trustees to be held for the purposes of non-denominational meetings of evangelical Christians there.
THE TRUSTEES
In 1971 therefore the realty of Tesson Chapel was conveyed into the hands of nine trustees – mostly family members. Mr Philip G Le Moignan who had been connected with the chapel since 1908 and who had been an organist there for many decades was also appointed, as was Dr David Carnegie, who at the time was a senior lecturer at London Bible College.
The trustees - at present six in number - are the successor overseers of the work of the chapel, which functions as a non-denominational independent evangelical fellowship with a statement of its Christian doctrinal position set out in the Trust Deed under which the property was transferred to them.
THE LAST THREE DECADES OF THE 1990s
During the years leading up to the end of the 20th century, the chapel has not only been blessed with the Christian ministry of many visiting preachers but also, from time to time, of committed pastors.
In 1986 the fellowship appointed as Pastor the Revd Clifford M Measday, who, for over twenty‑one years, had been the minister of the Jersey Baptist Church in Vauxhall, St. Helier. In 1994 Clifford Measday’s professional skills as an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects came to the fore once again in his ministry and the fellowship embarked on a major building project under his guidance. The extension built in the 1930s was demolished and significant excavation of the rock face at the rear of the chapel cleared the space needed for a new large meeting room, kitchen, toilet, hall and other facilities. The building contracts were followed by refurbishment of the chapel itself and other external works to re-establish walls and boundaries. The congregation met virtually all of the total cost, in excess of £65000.
Many Christians during these years preached and had fellowship with the congregation at the chapel – and still do. They come from many different denominations – Baptist, Anglican, Methodist and others - reflecting the non-denominational Christian position of the chapel.