Guernsey Banknotes 5 Pounds banknote 2000 Queen Elizabeth II
The States of Guernsey
Obverse: Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II at right, Brown Guernsey States Seal at bottom center right and the Town Church of St. Peter Port at lower left.
Reverse: Fort Grey at upper left corner, Les Hanois Lighthouse at center right.
Watermark: Queen Elizabeth II.
See-Through Feature: Boat.
Size: 136 mm X 71 mm.
Printer: Thomas De La Rue & Company Limited, London England.
Guernsey banknotes - Guernsey paper money
1994-2009 "Queen Elizabeth II" Issue
Fort Grey
Fort Grey, colloquially known as the "cup and saucer", is a Martello tower located on a rock in Rocquaine Bay in Saint Peter, Guernsey. The French name of the rock upon which the tower was built is the Château de Rocquaine (Castle of Rocquaine); in Guernésiais Châté dé Rocquoïne. It was previously the site of local witches' Sabbaths.
The existing fort, with its white tower was originally built as a defence by the British in 1804 during the Napoleonic Wars, it was named after Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey, who was Governor of Guernsey from 1797 to 1807.
The Fort Grey tower, like the other two Guernsey Martello towers, Fort Saumarez and Fort Hommet, was intended as a keep for the battery in which it was placed. The Guernsey Martellos are smaller than the British towers, with the Fort Saumarez and Fort Hommet towers being smaller than the Fort Grey tower. Each mounted a 24-pounder carronade on the roof to protect the battery. Fort Saumarez and Fort Hommet also have exterior staircases up to the second floor.
The War Office in London sold Fort Grey to the States of Guernsey in 1891 for £185. During the Occupation of the Channel Islands in World War II, the Germans occupied the fort, as they did most of the other fortifications in Guernsey.
More recently Fort Grey has been adapted for other more peaceful uses and now operates as a local shipwreck museum, housing a number of items of marine salvage from famous wrecks, including the MV Prosperity and Elwood Mead. The items also include a cannon from HMS Boreas that points towards the nearby Hanois rocks where Boreas sank in 1807 with the loss of her captain, at least half her crew, and possibly the captain's wife.
Les Hanois Lighthouse
Les Hanois Lighthouse was constructed between 1860 and 1862 to a new design by James Douglass, and was first lit on 8 December 1862. It is sited on the rock known as Le Biseau, or Le Bisé one mile north west of Pleinmont where the Trinity House cottages were built, and was erected in response to an increasing number of shipwrecks on the treacherous rocks off the western coast of Guernsey.
The lighthouse was constructed in Cornish granite rather than stone from Guernsey. Cornish masons were employed to dress the stone on the castle pier in Saint Peter Port. Construction workers were accommodated in Fort Grey.
The tapered granite tower, painted white, is notable in terms of lighthouse engineering because it was the first to be built with all the stones dovetailed together both laterally and vertically, thereby making the construction a single solid mass. The cement mortar in the joints formed between stone faces lock the dovetails so that the stones cannot be separated without being broken. This method, used for the first time at the Hanois Lighthouse, became the pattern adopted for subsequent lighthouses built on sea rocks.
The helicopter pad on top of the lighthouse was built in 1979. The lighthouse was demanned in January 1996 following automation. Conversion to work off solar power required a slowing down of the optic, changing the character of the light, so as to reduce the power requirement and deliver the 20 nmi (37 km) range required.
Its role is to provide a mark warning of the reefs and rocks to the west of Guernsey and providing a position fix for vessels entering the Channel Traffic Separation Scheme.
Le Hanois reef includes, besides Le Bisé, the following rocks: Le Grand Hanois, Le Petit Hanois, La Percée, Round Rock and La Grosse Rocque.