St Ouen, Jersey

Parish in northwestern Jersey

St Ouen (Jèrriais: Saint Ouën, ) is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey in the Channel Islands. It is around north west of St Helier. It has a population of 4,097. The parish is the largest parish by surface area, covering 8,525 vergées (15 km2), and is located in part on a peninsula. The parish is largely agricultural. There is no single centre, for the church, parish hall and school are separated; St Ouen's Village is the most significant settlement in the parish. The parish hosts the northernmost section of its namesake bay, which sweeps from the north to the south of the island. It is a distinct parish culturally. Being the farthest from St Helier, there are many differences between it and the rest of the island, for example having its own dialect of Jèrriais. Its manor, St Ouen's Manor — the seat of the de Carteret family for over eight centuries — is the senior fief in the island, and the influence of that family has also been a factor in the parish's independent minded approach to its affairs.

The Jersey parish system has been in place for centuries. By Norman times, the parish boundaries were firmly fixed and remain largely unchanged since. St Ouen is named after St Ouen de Rouen (Audaenus). In 1180 Jersey was divided by the Normans into three ministeria for administrative purposes. St Ouen was part of Crapoudoit. Crapoudoit likely refers to the stream running through St Peter's Valley. The parish hall was built in 1882 by architects Hayward and Son, of Exeter. The parish memorial is located in front of the hall, which includes the names of those involved in many interesting and tragic stories. For example, Sapper Philip Luce and Edward Luce were killed in action during the First World War. The parish administration is headquartered at the Parish Hall in the village centre. At present, the parish forms one electoral district for States Assembly elections and elects one Deputy, as well as eight Senators in an islandwide constituency. The current Deputy for St Ouen is Paul Harrison, who is the Minister for Health. Under the proposed electoral reform, it will form part of the North West electoral district consisting of St Mary, St Ouen and St Peter, which will collectively elect four representatives alongside the parishes' Connétables. The name has been extended in popular speak to the neighbouring beach Grève au Lançon. Lançon (or Lanchon) is the French word for a sand eel, due to the popularity of the bay as a site for sand eeling at the turn of the 20th century.

A number of the most influential writers of Jersey have been St Ouennais. George F. Le Feuvre (1891–1984), who wrote under the pseudonym "George d'la Forge", was one of the most prolific authors of Jèrriais literature of the 20th century. Frank Le Maistre (1910–2002), compiler of the Dictionnaire Jersiais Français (1966), did much to standardise the St Ouennais dialect of Jèrriais as a literary language. Edward Le Brocq (1877–1964) wrote a weekly newspaper column from 1946 to 1964 recounting the lives and opinions of two St Ouennais characters, Ph'lip and Merrienne. The traditional nickname for St Ouennais is Gris Ventres (grey bellies) – a reference to the custom of men from the parish to wear jerseys of undyed wool, which distinguished them from men from other parishes who generally wore blue.

A number of prehistoric sites are located in St Ouen, including the Dolmen des Monts Grantez, located at Le Chemin des Monts; the Dolmen des Geonnais; and the prehistoric site at Le Pinacle, which also contains one of the very few identifiable Gallo Roman sites to be seen in Jersey, the foundations of a fanum (small temple). Le Cotte à la Chèvre lies to the east of Grosnez and is a palaeolithic site, possibly 120,000 years old. In the north west, the ruins of Grosnez Castle are a landmark which also features on the Jersey 50 pence coin (see coins of the Jersey pound). The Island's racecourse is also to be found at Les Landes. The Val de la Mare reservoir is shared with St Peter and was created by Jersey Water in 1962. There is a walking path around the reservoir.

St Ouen's local football team is St Ouen F. C.