The Don Hilton or La Cauminne à Marie Best is an 18th-century guardhouse and powder magazine which stands on the seawall beside Chemin de L'Ouzière, Saint Peter, Jersey. It is also known as 'White Cottage' due to its whitewashed walls and vault, and its distinctive appearance makes it an informal daymark for sailors. (Admiralty Map 1137 does not identify the building as a recognized maritime marker.) Earlier names for the building include St. Peter's Guardhouse and Store, Middle Battery, and Powder Magazine, among others. Today, the National Trust for Jersey, which owns the building, calls it The Don Hilton. The National Trust hires it out for occasions such as weddings and overnight stays, although facilities are minimal.
The first mention of the building occurs in 1665 as St. Peter's Guard House and Magazine. At the time, the parishes of Saint Ouen and Saint Pierre shared responsibility for the defense of the Bay. The original building blew up and the current building, with its stone vaulted roof, dates from 1765. Later it was known as the Corps-de-Garde du Milieu in the Bay of St Ouen and the first reports C19 military designate the building as the Battery Charger Medium. It remained in use as a magazine until the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815.
qqqIn 1815, Marie Best and her children took refuge in the cottage during a smallpox epidemic. After Best's death in 1832, the building fell into disrepair. In 1925, the War Department sold the building to Mr. William Gregory on November 21, 1925.
Captain John Ashton Hilton acquired the cottage in 1932. In 1975 his widow, Mrs Marie Geneviève Hilton, donated the cottage, along with four vergees (one French acre), to the National Trust for Jersey. (The name "The Don Hilton" means "The Hilton Gift".)
Le Don Hilton, or La Cauminne à Marie Best, is an 18th-century guardhouse and powder magazine located on the sea wall beside Le Chemin de L'Ouzière in Saint Peter, Jersey. It is also known as "the white cottage" because of its whitewashed walls and vaulting, and its distinctive appearance makes it an informal daytime landmark for sailors. (Admiralty Chart 1137 does not identify the building as a recognized maritime landmark.) Previous names of the building have included St. Peter's Guardhouse and Magazine, Middle Battery, and Powder Magazine. Today, the National Trust for Jersey, which owns the building, calls it Le Don Hilton. The National Trust rents it out for events such as weddings and overnight stays, but its facilities are minimal.