DUNKELD BUNGALOW

Dunkeld Bungalow is the latest addition to the Ceylon Tea Trails portfolio of guest bungalows. Although the present bungalow was originally built in 1925, it has been extensively restored, remodelled and enlarged on becoming a Tea Trails property in 2015.

It is not only the bungalow that has changed from earlier plantation days, the tea factory is not the original one either, since that was removed when the valley was flooded to create the Castlereagh Dam.

Dunkeld began in 1871 as a coffee growing plantation with 104 cultivated acres. It was named by its Scottish owner and Agent, Alex Brown, after Dunkeld, a picturesque 18th century town 15 miles north of Perth in Scotland. The topography probably reminded Brown of the Scottish hills and locks. When Brown died the estate was owned for a few years by his heirs and represented by the Agency House of Whittall & Co. George Greig (qv) became the resident planter from 1880 following which Dunkeld was owned by Redfern Alexander & Co. Ltd. Whittall & Co remained the Agency House.

Whittall & Co was founded in 1859 in Kandy as Keir Dundas & Co, becoming known in 1873 as Duncan Anderson & Co and finally, in 1880 as Whittall & Co when it was acquired by James Whittall newly arrived from China as a private company administrator.

As an Agency House the company both sold the crop grown at Dunkeld as well purchasing all the estate’s requirements from overseas. Whittall & Co grew very successful from the plantations they represented, owning warehouses, mills, offices and a printing plant on a four-acre plot in Colombo, employing hundreds of people. One of the company’s partners was, in 1890, the first to introduce the man-powered two-wheeled rickshaw to Ceylon.

When George Greig was planter, the estate consisted of 434 acres of which 347 were under coffee and cinnamon and there was no tea. That changed as the coffee blight wiped out the coffee crop, resulting in the estate being taken over for a short time by the Dunkeld Estates Co Ltd and then by the Alliance Tea Co. of Ceylon Ltd. Whittall & Co remained the Agents and assigned one of their staff, Mr E S Anderson (qv) as the Manager in Residence.

By 1903 the estate had 517 acres planted in tea. By 1907, Dunkeld had been amalgamated with Elstree and Banff, also in Dickoya, giving the group a total 3,370 acres. The Alliance Tea Company of Ceylon, which was founded in 1895 and also owned several other estates, continued as the proprietors (and Whittall as Agents) until the estate was acquired by Mr B H William in the late 1940s. It then had 478 acres in tea. Mr William also became the agent acting in partnership with Henderson & Co, for whom a Visiting Agent was Irvine Stewart (qv), the Resident Manager of Tientsin.

After 1962, Dunkeld was acquired by Tillyrie Estates Co Ltd who were also the Agents until 1976 when the estate was nationalised. In 1992, Dunkeld including Elstree & Banff, reverted to private ownership and was taken over by a partnership including Mr Chandana William who became the Resident Manager. It then had 422 acres under tea.

The bungalow is at an altitude of 4,500 feet (1,402 metres) above sea level. It has five bedrooms, a library, dining & living rooms, a billiard room and a swimming pool.

DUNKELD PLANTERS

ALLEN, H (Allen Luxury Room 1920-1926)

Harold Allen planted at Dunkeld from about 1920 to 1926.

He began as an Assistant Planter for the Gonapitiya Group at Kandapola in 1914. After his tenure at Dunkeld, he became the planter for the Battawatte Group of three estates in Uva.

In the 1950s he was the Superintendent at High Forest Estate, Kandapola, Maturata, supervising the cultivation of 1,190 acres of tea at a higher elevation than at Dunkeld, 5,100 to 5,800 feet above sea level.

Allen was a Justice of the Peace and an Unofficial Police Magistrate. His wife’s name was Marjorie and they had one daughter, Eileen Audrey Allen. She married Harold Bredee, a planter like her father, on 16 February 1946 in Nuwara Eliya.

Harold Allen was a keen motorist and became the representative in Maturata of the Ceylon Automobile Association. He and his wife retired in the early 1960s to live in England’s Lake District, at “Winston” 102 Oxenholme Road, Kendal, Westmoreland.

Harold Allen’s son-in-law, Harold Bredee, was the eldest son of the Indian-based planter Giovanni Bredee, and his wife, Ethel Dunne. Ethel Dunne died in 1945 (she is buried in Srinagar, Kashmir), and Giovanni became a naturalised British subject on India’s Independence in 1947.

In Ceylon, Harold Bredee moved with his wife Eileen to be manager of the Halgolla Group at Yatiyantota. Their children - Harold and Majorie Allen’s grandchildren - were both born in Colombo: Alister Keith Bredee on 19 July 1947 and Jennifer Rosamund Bredee on 26 September 1950.

Harold and Eileen Bredee left Ceylon in the 1960s and settled in the same town as Harold and

Majorie Allen so his wife, Eileen, could be near her parents. They lived at “Ingiriya” 63 Bellingham Road, Kendal.

ANDERSON, E S (Anderson Garden Suite 1891-1893)

Eric S Anderson was planter at Dunkeld for several years from 1891.

Upon his arrival in Ceylon in the mid 1870s, he began as an Assistant with the Colombo Agency House that became Whittall & Company in the 1880s.

While at Dunkeld, Anderson became very involved in local affairs, being on the Dickoya & Maskeliya Church Committee and also on the Dickoya Library Committee for many years. He was also on the committee of the Dickoya Planters’ Association. He was a Justice of the Peace.

Anderson returned to Europe several times on leave including a visit in 1898. In 1908 he was recognised as being among planters who had lived in Ceylon for more than 30 years. In the 1920s, he retired to live in Bournemouth, England.

CLARK, R K (Clark Garden Suite 1903-1917)

R K Clark was the planter in residence at Dunkeld from 1903 until 1917.

In 1903 R K Clark had not actually taken up duties at Dunkeld and had as his Acting Manager, R Allen Clark. It is not known if they were related.

During his tenure at Dunkeld, he branched out into other fields, becoming a Director, along with J G Palmer (qv), of the Udakelle Rubber Company with registered office in Hatton. He was also the Visiting Agent for neighbouring plantations.

Clark begin his career as a planter in the late 1870s, becoming Assistant Manager at Hangranoya Estate in 1880. He served as Assistant and as planter on several other estates before taking up his position at Dunkeld.

He was the Croquet Secretary of the Dickoya & Maskeliya Cricket Club in 1904 and a member of

the club’s general committee, 1903-1904. He was also on the Dickoya Library Committee during the same period and a member of the Dickoya Planters’ Association.

In 1914 he was a member of the special committee of the Dickoya & Maskeliya Church Committee under the auspices of the Dickoya Planters’ Association.

GREIG, G (Greig Master Suite 1880-1884)

George Greig was at Dunkeld as Resident Tea Planter in 1880 staying until 1884.

Having arrived in Ceylon in 1863, he was respected as one of the country’s pioneer planters and was planting at Rajawella, Dumbara in 1868 and at Laanoogala Estate, Teldeniya in 1870 when coffee was the estate’s crop. This was the time when the coffee blight was running unchecked and many plantations had to be abandoned as the coffee crops failed. He oversaw the successful experimental planting of tea in place of coffee.

Greig made several trips to England while based in Ceylon. He planted briefly at Castlereagh in 1880 before being recruited to Dunkeld.

He played a big part in plantation and community life and was on the committee of the Dickoya Planters’ Association from 1880. While at Dunkeld he also acted as Superintendent for the neighbouring plantations of Laxapana and Suluganga at Maskeliya, becoming resident planter at Laxapana when he left Dunkeld.

Greig’s experience resulted in his appointment as Visiting Agent for plantations of Skrine & Company, a Colombo Agency House that also represented shipping lines and insurance. He became a member of the committee of the Maskeliya Planters’ Association and in 1890 was elected its chairman. He was also a member of the Maskeliya Road Committee.

His wife, Louisa Greig, died on 25 August 1904 age 61, and is buried at All Saints’ Church, Maskeliya.

TAYLOR, A G (Taylor Owners Cottage 2008-2015)

Andrew Gordon Taylor was a popular planter in Dickoya, and the Tea Planter in Residence for guests staying in the Tea Trails bungalows, based at Norwood. The owner’s cottage at Dunkeld was named in his memory following his death in 2015.

Andrew Taylor was the son of a planter, George Hamilton Taylor, and his Ceylonese wife, Sinnamma, and was born in 1951. His father was Superintendent of the Deenland Group, JaliEla, Badulla in 1949.

After leaving school Andrew Taylor served as Assistant on several estates including Tientsin, becoming in 1995 the Group Plantation Manager for the Campion Group, including Fetteresso, Bogawantalawa.

It was said that Andrew Taylor was a descendant of James Taylor, who first planted tea in a commercial quantity in Ceylon in 1867. This seems doubtful as James Taylor was a bachelor and there is no record of him having a son. However, at the time James Taylor was planting (in Loolecondera), there was another Taylor, William Taylor, planting at Darrawella in 1870 who was still planting there in 1908. There were also other Taylors involved in planting over the decades so it is possible Andrew’s father (and hence he himself) were descended from one of them.