16th April 1859
First Jersey Royals are exported to London
Jersey new potatoes only found fame on the mainland after the first shipment went on sale in Covent Garden on 16 April 1859. They were an immediate hit, and three further shipments were sent before the end of the season, plus a fourth to Swansea. That was just the start of their success. Less than 10 years later, Jersey was exporting more than 4000 tons of potatoes to the mainland, and demand has been strong ever since.
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Other events that occured in April
An attempted elopement fails
- In the 1930s, it simply wasn’t done to get married without first obtaining your father’s permission. Ada Maud West learned that the hard way.
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Children discover a body in the sand dunes
- Alan and Ann Heath found the body of 45-year-old John Perree, who had been killed when he was shot in the face.
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Jersey tries to abolish church pews sale
- Your seat in church once said a great deal about your social standing, so many wanted to bequeath their pews to offspring when they died.
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The Durrells debuts on ITV
- ITV serialised the stories of Gerald Durrell's childhood in Corfu in The Durrells, which debuted in April 2016.
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