In 1787 William Gardner made a survey of the Bailiwick of Guernsey for defense purposes, when the French were threatening to invade the Channel Islands. Gardner received 2 pence per acre that they surveyed, and they located every dwelling on the island. It was the first accurate map of the Bailiwick, and was carried out by the authority of the Duke of Richmond, whose portrait appears in the upper left stamp of the souvenir sheet. In Gardner’s day the Clos du Valle was separated from the main part of the island by a channel, shown in the map at the north end. Later the two islands were connected.

     The sheet was issued for the Bicentenary of the survey.