Le Hocq is an area found in the parish of St. Clement

Saint Clement, Jersey

Saint Clement is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey in the Channel Islands. It is in the south east of the Island, and contains some of the suburbs of Saint Helier. It is the smallest parish by surface area, but the second most densely populated. St...

, in the south-east of Jersey

Jersey

Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...

, Channel Islands

Channel Islands

The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...

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Le Hocq is a Jèrriais

Jèrriais

Jèrriais is the form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, off the coast of France. It has been in decline over the past century as English has increasingly become the language of education, commerce and administration...

 name, and means 'the headland' or 'the cape' in English. It is in fact the area surrounding a small headland. On this headland rests a Jersey Round Tower

Jersey Round Tower

The Round Towers in the island of Jersey were built from the end of the 18th century. In total 31 towers were built, but now only 24 remain all along the coast....

, built as a fortification against the French in the 17th/18th century (full details can be found on the informative signpost just in front of the tower). This tower

Tower

A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....

 is uninhabited, apart from some birds who tend to flock in and around it.

Alongside the tower is the Millennium Cross of St. Clement, one of twelve granite wayside cross

Cross

A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two lines or bars perpendicular to each other, dividing one or two of the lines in half. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally; if they run obliquely, the design is technically termed a saltire, although the arms of a saltire need not meet...

es erected to mark the millennium

Millennium

A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....

 in 2000-2001.

The headland juts out onto the rocky Le Hocq Beach (a part of St. Clement's Bay). King's Rock, Queen's Rock and Prince's Rock are sizeable rocky outcrops which form a rough number 7 shape. The peaks of King's and Queen's Rock are vegetated - mostly grass and hardy small plants, and on all of these rocks are evidence of bird (likely seagull) settlement - eggshells and feathers have been found on Prince's Rock. All of these rocks are scalable, though with some difficulty, and should not be attempted unless you know what you are doing. King's Rock, the tallest, would not measure more than fifteen or twenty metres high.

The rest of the beach, stretching east, is sandy, but with many rockpools, with opportunities for winkle picking and shrimp

Shrimp

Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...

 catching close to the shore, and more serious fishing pursuits out at sea. Closer to land there are stony patches. Just below Le Hocq Tower, west of the groyne of boulders, is a more pleasant sandy beach, which stretches round the headland to a very stony stretch of beach which reaches as far as Rocqueberg (Witches' Rock) and La Motte

La Motte

-France:La Motte, Lamotte, La Mothe or Lamothe is the name or part of the name of several communes in France:* La Motte, Côtes-d'Armor, in the Côtes-d'Armor département* La Motte, Var, in the Var département...

 (Green Island).

The tide can cover all of Le Hocq Beach and even splash over the sea wall at very high tide. Swimming can also be dangerous in this area due to strong tidal flows, though in practise, in summer it is a fairly popular destination for swimming and pier-jumping.

Behind the beach there is the common, broken in two by the slip which runs from la Grande Route de la Côte (the coast road) to the beach. On the slip are small boats, and a little refreshment kiosk.

Further inland is the parish hall (Salle Paroissiale) of St. Clement, and then a meadow featuring an original railway bridge from the days of the Jersey Railway, and a small brook which is unfortunately silted up for much of the year, before reaching Le Rocquier secondary school. Just across the road from the beach is Le Hocq Pub - open for drinks and meals all year round, and then La Rue du Hocq continues all the way up as far as the St. Clement inner road.

Le Hocq tower is depicted on the 2010 issue Jersey 1 pound note

Jersey pound

The pound is the currency of Jersey. Jersey is in currency union with the United Kingdom, and the Jersey pound is not a separate currency but is an issue of banknotes and coins by the States of Jersey denominated in pound sterling, in a similar way to the banknotes issued in Scotland and Northern...

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