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NORWOOD BUNGALOW
As well as being the name of a bungalow and estate, Norwood is also a village in the Dickoya district of the Central Province.
Norwood began as a plantation district in 1870 when coffee was still king. The many planters who were billeted in the area formed the Norwood Tennis Club in 1870 dedicating Thursday as the “Club Day.” Many Thursdays would have been celebrated in the garden of the first bungalow built on the Norwood Estate, in 1890.
By 1883, the Estate had become known as Raja Totum in Tamil and was owned by the Ceylon Tea Co Ltd which was also the Agent. The Agent was a company based in Colombo that manged the business affairs of the estae. At that time it still consisted of over 600 acres of coffee while only 33 acres were in tea. By 1903 it was owned by Eastern Produce & Estates Co Ltd, who were also the Agents, with over 700 acres in tea.
In 1976, Norwood (including Rockwood, at 4,178 ft) was vested in the Sri Lanka State Planting Corporation as Proprietors and Agents with a total of 988 acres, 766 in tea. It returned to private company ownership by Bogawantalawa Plantations Ltd in 1992, becoming part of the Norwood Group which included Norwood Upper & Lower Divisions, Rockwood, Glencairn, Blair Athol, New Valley Bungalow Division, Newton, Ireby and Poyston Divisions.
Metropolitan Management Services (Pvt) Ltd became the Agents. The group then had 2,031 acres in tea.
The first Norwood Bungalow was rebuilt in 1950, and has undergone additions and modernisation since 2005. It is located at an altitude of 4,300 feet (1,310 metres) and has six bedrooms, a dining & living pavilion, library, billiard room, swimming pool and summer house.
NORWOOD PLANTERS
ANDREWS, H (Andrews Garden Suite 1949-1951)
Hubert Andrews was the planter in residence at Norwood from 1949 to1951, when the plantation was owned by the London-based company, Eastern Produce & Estates Co. Ltd
He was simultaneously the company’s Manager in Ceylon having been appointed to that post in 1947 when he was the planter of the company’s Meddecombra Estates, near Watagoda.
Andrews was planting in Ceylon in 1925 and was at The Hope Estate at Hewaheta in the 1930s when he became a Lieutenant in the Ceylon Planters’ Rifle Corps. In 1941 he joined Rothschild Estate at Pussellawa as Assistant to Mr A C Yates. He took over as Manager there when Yates left on war service and became a prisoner of war in Japan.
Andrews was for a time assisted by Mr C H Irvine (qv) who managed Norwood from 1951. At Meddecombra, Andrew’s Superintendent was Mr R Hazell (qv) who succeeded Mr Irvine at Norwood in 1953.
Hubert Andrews was very active in plantation affairs being on the general committee of the Planters’ Association of Ceylon (1944-1946) and also on the Pussellawa Planters’ Association committee.
HAZELL, R (Hazel Master Suite 1936 & 1953-1960)
Hazell first planted as an Assistant at Norwood in 1936 and worked under the resident planter, L J R Jeffrey (qv). In 1953 he returned to Norwood as Superintendent until 1960.
He was very active in the Dickoya & Maskeliya Cricket Club being in 1936 both the president of the Club and the Club’s cricket captain and in 1937 playing for the Club’s rugger team. He was also, in 1937, the Hon. Secretary of the Horton Plains Hunt Club, which met every Sunday during the hunting season of November to May.
By 1940 Hazell was planting at Hope Estate, Hewaheta from where he left Ceylon for war service. He showed distinguished leadership and valour during his war service for which he was awarded the Military Cross.
After the war, Hazell returned to Ceylon and became planter at Meddecombra Estate, Watagoda before returning to Norwood in 1953.
During his second tenure at Norwood, he was on the managing committee of the Ceylon Fishing Club. He also acted as Superintendent of Castlereagh in 1957.
From Norwood, Hazell returned to Hope Estate where he settled with his wife until 1968.
IRVINE, C H (Irvine Garden Suite 1951-1953)
Mr C H Irvine was the planter at Norwood for a short period between 1951 and 1953.
He first appears in Ceylon as planter at Labookellie Estate, Ramboda, in 1937. In that year he took part in the annual DMCC v DACC rugger match and there is a photo of him with the team in the Darrawella Club.
By 1956, he had become the planter in residence at Meddecombra Group in Watagoda.
Rugby DMCC vs DACC 1936 R. Hazell and C.H. Irvine (Middle Row - 4th & 3rd from right)
Rugby DMCC vs DACC 1940 C. H. Irvine - Seated (6th from left with hands on knees)
JEFFERY, L J R (Jeffery Luxury Room 1937-1946)
L J R Jeffery Back row 7th from left Lawrence Jeffery, known as “Jeff” was planting at Norwood in 1936 with R Hazell (qv) and then became Superintendent there until 1946.
“Jeff’s” wife, Barbara, called “Babs” was with him at Norwood and gave birth to their only child while living there. She was named Geraldine Valerie Jeffery so she would still have the Jeffery name even when she married and took her husband’s surname.
Jeffery was an enthusiastic member of the planting community becoming for many years a member of the committee of the Dickoya Planters’ Club and an Associate of G D H Alston who was planting at Castlereagh. He was also on the general committee of the Kandy District Planters’ Association and on the Association’s Labour Advisory Committee.
He was the Hon. Secretary of the Norwood Tennis Club (founded in 1870). There is a photo showing him (back row, seventh from left) with a score of tennis club members and about 25 elegantly dressed ladies, including his wife and daughter, in front of the Norwood Bungalow in 1937.
After leaving Norwood in 1946, he and his wife lived for a while at Kirrimittia Estate, Menikdiwela, near Kadugannuwa. By 1948, he had retired to Britain where his contact address was The Mercantile Bank of India, London.
TREVALDWYN, G O (Trevaldwyn Garden Suite 1923-1930)
Mr G O Trevaldwyn was Resident Manager at Norwood towards the end of his career in Ceylon, from 1923 to 1930.
While he was at Norwood, he established himself as a pillar of the local and plantation community, being appointed a Justice of the Peace as well as an unofficial Police Magistrate. In 1929 he was on the General Committee of the Planters’ Association of Ceylon (PA) as well as the Coastal Agency Committee. He was also the Dickoya representative on the PA for several years.
Trevaldwyn was born in Warwickshire, England on 22 June 1880, the son of Rev. B J Trevaldwyn, rector of St-Martin’s-by-Looe, Cornwall. He was educated at Coleshill Grammar School and Kelly College, Tavistock, England, and in France and Germany.
He arrived in Ceylon when he was 19 to join Ardlaw Estate, Agarapatana, a tea estate of 344 acres near Talawakelle at 4,500 feet above sea level. After nine months there he was appointed Assistant at Ramboda Tea Estate eventually becoming Superintendent there in 1904. After one year he became Superintendent of Helbodde Estate, Pussellawa, at 3,900 feet above sea level with 1,188 acres in tea.
In 1906 he transferred as Superintendent to the Wiharagalle Estate near Haputale, ranging from 2,500 to 5,000 feet with 648 acres in tea and 73 acres in rubber. He was a member then of the Haputale Planters’ Association and also of the Ceylon Planters’ Rifle Corps.
His recreations were tennis and shooting. Later he became Resident Manager at Yatadeniya, a lowland tea and rubber estate near Polgahawela. In 1917 he was on leave “in Europe” probably on war service.
After serving at Norwood, having developed an interest in rubber planting, he became part owner of Jesserwatte Estate near Matale which had 188 acres in rubber with 16-acres interplanted with cacao. He retired soon afterwards to England while retaining an active interest in Ceylon, being a member in 1936 of the Ceylon Association in London.
WYATT, G A (Wyatt Luxury Room 1889-1898 & 1903)
Geoffrey A Wyatt was Manager at Norwood on two occasions, dying there at the young age of 48 in 1903.
He first served as Superintendent at Norwood from 1889 to 1898, returning to that post in 1903.
He was a member of the general committee of the Dickoya & Maskeliya Cricket Club (DMCC) and of the library committee of the Dickoya Planters’ Association as well as being ground secretary of the Norwood Tennis Club.
He is commemorated with a plaque on the wall inside the Warleigh Church, which is located close to where he had enjoyed the peak of his planting career.
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SUMMERVILLE BUNGALOW
The name of Summerville could be a poetical planter’s description of his billet. Or possibly the name derives from Somerville, a Scottish spelling, which may have appealed to its Scottish owner. The first bungalow was a makeshift affair built in the 1870s when the forested hills in the Dickoya area were being turned into coffee plantations.
A young man called G C Elwes arrived there in 1880 and become a planter of coffee on Darrawella Estate. He liked the area so much and believed that coffee cultivation had a future and so he bought Summerville, then 249 acres in area of which coffee and cinnamon made up 229 acres. From 1883 he was the owner, agent and planter, and survived there until 1892.
In Tamil, the estate became known as Palaycardoo.By 1908 the estate was owned by the Ceylon Proprietary Tea Estate Company, with the Agency House being Eastern Produce & Estates Co Ltd. It then consisted of 242 acres of which 190 had been cultivated in tea.
The present bungalow was built in 1923, a year of building activity in Dickoya. In 1957 the estate was bought by the Wanarajah Tea Company and became part of the Wanarajah Group of Dickoya. The group also included the Manikwatte, New Valley and Warleigh plantations, amounting to 3,882 cultivated acres of tea.
Much modernised now, the bungalow stands at an elevation of 4,000 feet (1,219 metres) above sea level. It has five bedrooms, a dining room and lounge, a swimming pool and a summer house.
SUMMERVILLE PLANTERS
COSBY, E J D (Cosby Garden Suite 1924 -1930)
The Manager of Summerville from 1924 to 1930 was E J D Cosby.
Like many men who came from England to be planters, he was educated at a British public school, in his case Eton. He discovered there were several old Etonians in Ceylon so he aligned himself with them socially, becoming the Secretary of the Old Etonian Association in Ceylon. That association began life as the Eton Society in Ceylon, having been formed at a dinner for Old Etonians held at the Florence Villa in Kandy in June 1896.
GARNETT, M K (Garnet Garden Suite 1950- 1951)
M K Garnett served only a short stint as planter at Summerville, in 1950-51.
He combined his tenure with longer service on Forres & Warburton Estates in Maskeliya.
At that time, he was nearing the end of his career as a planter, having planted in Ceylon from 1928 when he was at Rosita Estate, Kotagala. There is a photograph of him as a young man in the 1930 DMCC cricket XI.
He also planted at Wallaha Estate near Lindula in 1936 when he was a member of the Nuwara Eliya Golf Club committee, and also at Pitaratmale near Haputale. In 1946 he was planting on the Beaumont Group estates in Pussellawa.
M K Garnett Back row, 6th from left
He served as Secretary of the Pussellawa Planters’ Association in 1946 and was also an Outstation Committee Member of the European Association of Ceylon.
His wife was acclaimed as Ceylon’s outstanding woman golfer in 1950 when she beat Mrs C E Allen in the final of the Ceylon Women’s Championship played in Colombo.
GODDARD, A O (Goddard Garden Suite 1960-1961)
A O Goddard was Resident Manager at Summerville for a short time from 1960.
This was a promotion for him from his previous post as an Assistant Superintendent.
In 1955, he was planting as Assistant Superintendent under the Group Manager of Meddecombra Division, Mr C H Irvine (qv), who had previously been Superintendent of Norwood.
From 1958 to 1960 Goddard was at Hope Estate as Assistant Superintendent, an estate 28 miles south of Kandy at 5,000 feet above sea level with 1,186 acres in tea.
After leaving Norwood, Goddard became Superintendent at Rothschild Estate, Pussellawa in 1962 and transferred to Kirimittia Estate, Menikdiwela, becoming – in 1965 – Superintendent of Wevekellie Estate, Namunukula (near Ella).
Goddard was an enthusiastic tennis player, and in 1955 was the Secretary of the Talawakelle Tennis Club.
MIDDLETON, G B (Middleton Luxury Room 1951-1955)
Geoffrey B Middleton was Superintendent at Summerville between 1951 and 1955.
“Geoff” had a successful career as a tea planter having arrived in Ceylon from Britain soon after the Second World War. There is a photograph of him as Captain of the Dimbula Atheletic & Cricket Club (DACC - also known as the Darrawella club due to its location) rugby team at
Darrawella, 29 May 1948 in which he appears handsome and tall, age 29. Another photograph shows him as player in rugby team DACC v Dickoya Maskeliya Cricket Club (DMCC), June 1952; he still has the same engaging smile but has put on weight.
He was planting on the Dalukgalla Estate at Kaliawatte in 1951. That estate was owned by Ceylon Tea Plantations Ltd who also owned Summerville at the time. Prior to the estate being sold to the Wanarajah Tea Company in 1957 and becoming part of that group, Middleton left Summerville to become Superintendent at Anigama Estate, Giriulla in 1955.
A keen angler, Middleton was President of the Ceylon Fishing Club in the late 1960s.
He became the Resident Planter at Alton Estate near Upcot in 1963 before planting in 1965 at Tangakelle (including Cymry and Wallaha) estates also owned by Ceylon Tea Plantations Co Ltd. Tangakelle consisted of 1,032 acres under tea, at 4,500 feet above sea level. The Agent for the plantation was George Steuart & Co Ltd for whom Middleton became Visiting Agent (VA).
He was based then at Holyrood Estate, near Talawakelle, owned by Ceylon Tea Plantations Ltd. It consisted of 1,458 acres of tea at 4,000 ft above sea level. As VA, Middleton was responsible for visiting and inspecting the estates falling under the purview of George Steuart Ltd. Ryan’s Estates of Ceylon Ltd & Mocha Tea Co of Ceylon Ltd, Great Western Tea Co., Fairlawn Estates, Harrison & Crossfield Ltd and Eastern Produce & Estates Co Ltd, from 1967 until the early 1970s.
He is credited as being the inventor of the Middleton Stalk Extractor having adapted an older tea sifting machine for that purpose. It was said that “Middleton has been synonymous with the name Tangakelle owing to his magnanimous contribution rendered to the estate during prenationalisation era.”
Rugby DACC vs DMCC at Darrawela, 21st June 1952 G.B. Middleton (Seated 2nd from left)
SHUTTLEWORTH, C E (Shuttleworth Master Suite 1898-1899)
Charles Edgar Shuttleworth was resident manager briefly at Summerville between 1898 and 1899.
However, he was very much involved in both military and planting life in Ceylon.
He was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1873, educated at Winchester from 1887 to 1890 after which he migrated to Ceylon and became an Assistant Superintendent before joining Summerville.
He left to take part in the South African War (1899-1902) returning to Ceylon and becoming in 1903 a Sergeant in the Ceylon Mounted Infantry.
He was Tennis Secretary in 1904 of the Dickoya & Maskeliya Cricket Club as well as being on the Club’s general and executive committees.
In 1903 he became the proprietor, agent and superintendent of Yulliefield Estate with 215 acres of tea at 4,200 ft above sea level. This later became amalgamated with Erroll, Wellington and Kotalakellie Estates to form the Yulliefield Group owned by the South Wanarajah Tea Estates Ltd. Shuttleworth became a director of the company, remaining so even when he retired to England.
In 1906 he married Louisa Anna White, who was 12 years his senior having been born in 1861 at Trincomalee. She was the widow of William Reeve Tatham of Dickoya, who was born in Colombo in 1861 and died in 1904 at Dartry Estate, Gampola. Shuttleworth thus became step-father to his new wife’s son. This was Lawrence Reeve Tatham who married in Coonoor, Nilgiris, India, in 1927 and died in 1946 at Wickham Bishops, Essex.
Charles Shuttleworth served in the WW1 as Captain Royal Army Service Corps during which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. He became Brevet Colonel and Officer Commanding East Anglian Division Training 1920-1926.
In 1927 Colonel Shuttleworth DSO took up residence with his wife at Hill Place, Wickham Bishops, later moving to Eight Acres, Wickham Bishops, Essex, England where he died in August 1952.
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TIENTSIN BUNGALOW
The Tientsin Bungalow still has many features of the original 1888 construction although it has been architecturally modernised and restored. The estate’s name comes from the city in northeastern China, now called Tianjin, that became a free port open for trading with Britain and other European nations in 1860. Like the other estates in the vicinity, Tientsin Estate was begun as a coffee plantation in the early 1870s.
A planter, John Glen, who came from Linlithgrow, Scotland, was at Tientsin until June 1875 when he died, age 32. He is buried at the Mahayaya Cemetery, Kandy. The planter mainly responsible for opening up the estate was Adolphus C T Meyer who died in 1877 and had a window erected “by a few friends” at St Mary’s Church, Bogawantalawa, 2 May 1877.
Tientsin was known as Peria Aru Totum in Tamil. In 1880, the Tientsin Bungalow was used as a trigonometry point and was calculated at 4,356ft above sea level. The highest point on the Tientsin estate was 4,629ft above sea level which was the highest point at which coffee was grown in Ceylon.
The name Meyer occurs several times in Tientsin’s history. In 1882, the estate was owned by the heirs of A C T Meyer, with the Agency House being J M Robertson & Co with the planter being Mr H Detmering. By 1890 when the redoubtable promoter of Ceylon Tea, Mountsteven Bremer (qv), had been Resident Manager for several years, the estate’s 385 acres consisted of 175 acres in tea and 175 in coffee.
The estate than was still owned by the heirs of A C T Meyer, although by 1898 the heirs of G K Maitland are listed as the owners and the acreage of tea as 385. In January 1889 a bungalow at Tientsin Estate owned by a lady called Mrs Sixtus was destroyed by fire.
In the early 20th Century Tientsin passed into the hands of group of owners who in 1903 included Mr & Mrs R Ludolff as well as Jas. Moir (qv) who became Resident Manager together with Mr J F Fraser (qv) and Mr A C T Meyer, presumably the son of the pioneering Adolphus C T Meyer. The Ludolffs had gone by 1905, when the proprietors were listed as the wives of Messrs Moir and Fraser, a status which continued until 1922.
In that year the Tientsin Tea Estate Company Ltd was registered in November with a nominal capital of Rs500,000 in Rs10 shares. The directors were the ubiquitous A C T Meyer with C A Galpin and H G Bois. All 361 acres of the estate were planted in tea and the planter in 1923 was Harold F Dalton.
After Irvine Stewart (qv) took over from Dalton and married John Fraser’s daughter, Mrs B C Moir lived at The Nest, Tientsin (using the same telephone number, Bogawantalawa 14, as the estate bungalow). She was probably the daughter-in-law of Jas. Moir.
Ownership of the estate by the Tientsin Tea Company (of which both long-serving planter Irvine Stewart and his wife, Mrs Margaret E M Stewart, nee Fraser, became directors) continued until 1976. Then Tientsin was compulsorily vested in the Sri Lanka State Plantation Corporation as Proprietors and Agents.
With re-privatisation, Tientsin was included in Kotiyagalla Group together with Bogawantalawa, & Chapleton) and vested in Bogawantalawa Plantations Ltd.
Tientsin Bungalow, especially notable for its gardens, was extensively renovated in 2017; it has six bedrooms, a dining room and lounge, billiard room, swimming pool and tennis court.
TIENTSIN PLANTERS
BREMER, M (Bremer Luxury Room 1884-1890)
Mountsteven Bremer was the Resident Manager at Tientsin from 1884 to 1889.
Bremer was one of the most active early planter/promoters of Ceylon tea. He began his planting career in Ceylon in 1851 and so was an experienced planter by the time he arrived at Tientsin. Previously he had also been the Secretary & Manager of The Club, Nuwara Eliya. While at Tientsin he was on the Dickoya Library Committee and was the Inquirer into Sudden Deaths.
During his leave in London in 1890 Bremer met Mr FG Horniman (whose father pioneered packet tea) and tried to interest him in selling Ceylon tea in packets. He was optimistic about the outcome but Horniman wrote to him in December 1890: “I cannot entertain your proposal about the introduction of Ceylon tea as such, as from knowledge of the trade in tea in England and the Continent, it would not answer.”
It was ironic that within four months (in March 1891) tea from Ceylon was selling in the Mincing Lane auction at ever-increasing high prices because of the demand for it.
Undaunted by Horniman’s short-sighted decision, Bremer travelled to Russia where he assisted in organising a Ceylon Pavilion promoting tea at Nizni-Novgorod Fair for the Planters’ Association of Ceylon.
In 1896, back in Ceylon, he became treasurer and a committee member of the Colombo Friend In Need Society. There being no Poor Law in Ceylon, the Society was formed with the Governor as President for voluntary aid to the poor; as Treasurer Bremer was responsible for distributing the aid. He was still a member in 1904 when he was described as “Retired Merchant Colombo and in Europe.”
Even while he was at Tientsin, Bremer had become in 1898, a Director of the Passara Group. By 1903 his knowledge and enthusiasm for Ceylon Tea earned him a post as Assistant Partner of George Steuart Agency House.
In 1908 M Bremer was listed as Director of Hanipha (Ceylon) Tea & Rubber Co Ltd owners of Passara Group of 835 cultivated acres.
When war broke out in 1914, Mountsteven Bremer enlisted as a Lieutenant RNVR, according to London Gazette, 27 October 1914. Curiously, in this he was marching in the footsteps of an ancestor, Ensign Thomas Mountsteven Bremer, who became “Lieutenant by purchase” on 17 Feb 1825.
Bremer wrote about his experiences in a book published in London in 1930, Memoirs of a Ceylon Planter’s Travels 1851-1921.
David F Bretherton became Manager at Tientsin in 1968.
He was one of the last generation of foreign planters and after leaving Tientsin he planted at Kew Estate near Bogawantalawa in the 1970s.
His first posting as Superintendent was on Mincing Lane Estate at Upcot, near Hatton in 1963, where he was a colleague of Geoffrey Middleton (qv) who was on the neighbouring Alton estate.
David Bretherton was an active member of the Dickoya & Maskeliya Cricket Club (DMCC) at Darrawella and from 1960 to 1965 frequently played in the club’s rugger team, which he captained in 1965. He is in photographs of the Club’s rugby teams in 1959 and 1960 and in the England v Scotland rugger match in 1960. He played cricket for the Dickoya XI in 1963.
Bretherton has recollected: “It was a very happy period in my planting life and as a member of the Ceylon Trout Fishing Club, I helped stock the Maskeliya Oya with an abundance of trout fingerlings… as a result we had some good fishing over that time although many were poached when we were on furlough.
“I do remember that on Mincing Lane I managed to increase the yield per acre figures by a fair margin and also the tea prices so it was a very satisfying task, particularly as the tea was the low jat china variety…Our social life really focused around the DMCC and the Darrawella Sailing Club below Wanarajah Estate.
“I spent quite a lot for time fishing the Rajamalle pools and of course the estate was access to the long climb up Adam’s Peak during the pilgrimage season. The Maskeliya Club was a small but delightful place with its main emphasis on Tennis, but I can remember spending a few good Sundays before curry lunch at somebody’s estate imbibing a few bottles of good Nuwara Eliya Beer. It was a great place to have planted and with very good memories.”
Rugby Dickoya XV 1963 D. F. Bretherton (seated, first from right)
FRASER, J F (Fraser Garden Suite 1905-1920)
John F Fraser was planting at Tientsin from about 1905 until 1920.
The estate was then part owned by Mr A C T Meyer, Mrs Jas. Moir and Mrs J F Fraser. Fraser’s wife being listed as part owner was probably a legal device since the wife of his fellow planter, James Moir (qv), is also listed as a part owner.
Fraser came to Ceylon from Scotland in 1869 and began planting at Abbotsford near Nanu Oya, eventually becoming Resident Planter at Strathdon, Dickoya in 1882.
In 1917, John F Fraser was listed as the Tientsin estate owner but in 1924 he left Ceylon and became Superintendent of Bon Ami Estate, Peermade, in South India.
Fraser’s daughter, Margaret, married Irvine Stewart (qv) who came from Kolickanam Estate, Peermade, to be the planter at Tientsin in 1924.
MEARES, C H (Meares Luxury Room 1963-1968)
Clive Horace Meares was the Superintendent at Tientsin in 1963 after the long tenure of Irvine Stewart (qv).
Clive Horace was the son of Clive Edward Meares, a long serving British planter. He was educated at Trinity College, Kandy, where he distinguished himself in the school hockey team becoming, in 1950, one of the first of two colour winners, a coveted award.
Meares was earlier the Assistant Superintendent at Strathdon Group, Hatton in 1955 before becoming Assistant for the Loach Group at Watawala in 1960/61.
In 1964, as well as planting at Tientsin, he was also in charge of Kew at 5,100ft above sea level with 473 acres in tea, also in the Dickoya district. He stayed until 1968/69 when he was succeeded by David F Bretherton (qv). He emigrated to Australia after leaving Tientsin.
MOIR, J (Moir Garden Suite 1905-1915)
Jas. (James) Moir was planting at Tientsin from 1905 to about 1915. He was also the Agent for the plantation.
In 1903 the owners of Tientsin Estate were Mrs & Mrs Ludolff, J Moir, J Fraser and A C T Meyer. In 1905 while Moir was Resident Manager, there was a change in ownership to a partnership of Mrs J Moir (presumably Jas. Moir’s wife) and Mrs J F Fraser (presumably the wife of John Fraser (qv)) and A C T Meyer.
In 1903, Moir was a committee member of the Dickoya Planters’ Association and also a volunteer in the Ceylon Planters’ Rifle Corps at Bogawantalawa.
He was the planter at the neighbouring estate of Kotiyagalla, Bogawantalawa in 1898-1899 but was a member of the Dickoya & Maskeliya Church Committee then so had some contacts with Dickoya. In 1892 he was listed as Resident Manager with Fred Hadden at Kotiyagalla, Bogawantalawa. At that time he was on the committee of the Bogawantalawa Club and still on the committee of the Dickoya Planters’ Association.
In 1921 Tientsin was registered as owned by Mrs J Moir, Mrs J F Fraser & A C T Meyer, with Manager being A C T Meyer. In 1922 Tientsin was bought by the Tientsin Tea Company.
In 1924 a Mrs B C Moir lived at The Nest, Tientsin, Bogawantalawa Tel 14 (the same telephone number as the estate bungalow).
The name Moir is frequently seen in the history of Ceylon Tea. The representation began with four Moirs, all brothers from St Laurencekirk , Kincardineshire, Scotland. The first, Peter, arrived in Ceylon in 1843. It was he who persuaded James Taylor to emigrate to Ceylon in 1852; it was Taylor who planted the first field of tea commercially in 1867. A Director of the Castlereagh Tea Company in 1892 was R W D Moir.
In 1903, when James Moir was in Dickoya, H G Moir was the Resident Manager at Agra Oya in Lower Dickoya. History records that a Mr J Moir was killed in a motor car accident at Nuwara Eliya, along with his passenger, Miss Edith Robertson on 18 July 1920.
STEWART, I (Irvine Stewart Master Suite 1924-1962)
Irvine Stewart was the Resident Superintendent at Tientsin for nearly 40 years, from 1924 until 1962.
He was a dynamic character who devoted his life to the estate and to uplifting the living conditions of the community, as well as carrying out innovative infrastructural and landscape designing on the estate. In this he was helped by his wife, Margaret Fraser.
Stewart’s career as a tea planter began in India where he was planting on Kolickanam Tea Estate, Fairfield, Kerala, in a district known as Peermade. On 10 April, 1917, his Indian wife gave birth to a son, Alan Irvine Stewart. It is reported that she died in childbirth and Alan was raised for the first seven years of his life by his mother’s sister in the Nilgiris, while Irvine Stewart planted at Peermade.
About the time of disastrous floods in Peermade in 1924, Stewart left the plantation (and his son Alan) to settle in Ceylon where he became Superintendent at Tientsin. He inherited that position from John Fraser (qv) a former Superintendent whose wife was part owner of the estate. John Fraser went to Peermade where he planted on Bon Ami Estate.
Irvine Stewart married Margaret Fraser (John Fraser’s daughter) in Ceylon in 1924 and they had two sons, Derek and Adrian, who were brought up at Tientsin. Irvine Stewart was known as a stickler for discipline. One planter recalled that, when Stewart visited his estate in his capacity as Visiting Agent for the owners, the planter failed to write and thank Stewart for a favour he did him. Two weeks later the planter got a letter of reprimand from Stewart. It read: “When a person does you a favour it is common courtesy to follow up a verbal thank you with a letter. I will not refer to this subject any more. You can repay me by working hard.”
In the late 1950’s Mr and Mrs Stewart hosted a few planters to dinner. The invitation card had clause at the bottom that read “WE HAVE NO TIME FOR CHILDREN.” According to at least one planter who knew them, the Stewarts were very reserved and did not keep company with many others.
Their son, Adrian Stewart, recollected that Irvine and Margaret Stewart loved the people and the place, and invested a huge amount of time and effort in building a school and hospital on the estate, providing clean running water by stone aqueduct (it still exists) and even eradicated mosquitoes in the area. Irvine Stewart and his wife were also the progenitors of the stone arches and child/satyr statue/sundial that can be seen in the immaculate gardens at Tientsin.
Perhaps as a reward for his long association with Tientsin, Irvine Stewart was a Director of the Tientsin Tea Company Ltd in 1945 in association with Mrs B C Moir, probably a relative of Jas. Moir (qv). Stewart’s wife, Mrs M E M Stewart, was a Director in 1963.
Stewart’s son, Alan Irvine Stewart, whom he abandoned in India, never heard of his father again. In spite of being raised as an orphan he achieved a distinguished career becoming Consul for the Netherlands in Madras and being knighted by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. When he died in 2011, neither Sir Alan Irvine Stewart (nor his daughter who settled in England) knew about the existence of Stewart’s other children, his step-brothers, Derek and Adrian, who also settled in England.
See photographs overleaf
Irvine Stewart, 1921
Irvine Stewart in the smoking room of Tientsin, now converted into the Bretherton garden suite.
Front Verandah, Derek seated, Adrian in pram, 1927
Hall, 1927
The bungalow
PLACES OF INTEREST
CONNECTED WITH TEA
The colonial hill station of Nuwara Eliya would have been a favourite retreat for planters from Dickoya whether to play golf or to relax with their peers. The Nuwara Eliya Golf Club, opened in 1889, whose links embrace the town, has an old cemetery where Major Thomas William Rogers who died in 1845 after being struck by lightning, is buried. He is reputed to have shot and killed hundreds of elephants as “sport” as well as opening up the hill country to development by planters.
In the Anglican Holy Trinity Church there is a plaque commemorating R B Downhall (18431888), a member of the Legislative Council representing tea planters, as well as being owner of Nuwara Eliya’s Grand Hotel. There is also a tablet commemorating the death of the second son of Lillie Kelly who planted at Castlereagh. A planter at Sheen Estate, Pundaluoya, Arthur Sidney Reeves (1848-1891) is buried in the cemetery with the epitaph “Cut down but not destroyed.” He was killed by his appu (cook/caretaker) while at dinner.
Mountsteven Bremer, who later planted at Tientsin, was in the mid 1870s the Secretary & Manager of The Club, Nuwara Eliya. This was forced to close due to the profitable coffee plantations – and their planters - being ruined by blight but in the mid-1880s its stock of wines, good will and 100 of its members became the nucleus of The Hill Club at Nuwara Eliya. This was run as a members-only establishment where planters could stay while taking part in the annual race meets, gymkhanas, horse, dog and flower shows, and clay pigeon shoots. The gothic style club premises were constructed in the 1930s on the site of the original club bungalow. While ladies are no longer confined to their own entrance and bar, the Hill Club still operates a strict dress code. Tourists who want to dine there can become temporary members.
Kandy, near where the first tea was grown commercially by James Taylor, has a tea factory at Hantane Estate that has been converted into a Tea Museum. It is open to the public and has old machinery as well as mementoes of James Taylor. Taylor is buried in the Mahayaya Cemetery, Kandy, and is commemorated on the base of a cross as being “the pioneer of the Tea and Cinchona enterprises…aged 57 years when he died on 2 May 1892. This stone was erected by his sister and many friends in Ceylon.”
Also in Kandy, the Old Garrison Cemetery, known in the 19th century as the European Cemetery, is located on a bluff above St Paul’s Church, behind the Temple of the Tooth. Many planters were buried there, including Henry Mackenzie, the superintendent of Newton Estate, Dickoya, who was 28 when he died in 1869. A hundred years later, Newton was managed by Richard Tate during his time as superintendent of Castlereagh.
Thomas Denroche McCall, who died in 1872 age 24, is also buried there. He was one of four young men attempting to cross the river then separating Castlereagh and Summerville when it was in flood. While landing, McCall caught hold of a stump, the canoe capsized and he and another planter were carried over the rapids and drowned. The two other young men, one of whom was Lillie Kelly of Castlereagh, survived.
One of the renowned pioneer planters in the Dickoya district was Sir Thomas Villiers who, being the black sheep of a distinguished family (his grandfather Lord John Russell was twice prime minister of Great Britain) arrived in Ceylon in 1887 when he was 18 to seek his fortune. He succeeded to the extent of buying the Dickoya Estate in 1900 and becoming Secretary and later Chairman of the Dickoya Planters’ Association. He joined the Agency House of George Steuart and eventually became its Chairman as well as being elected to the Legislative Council.
Villiers rewarded himself in 1931 by building Adisham, a two-story granite mansion 3km from Haputale. Patterned on sturdy Tudor lines it is an anachronism in isolation six degrees north of the Equator, surrounded by tropical forests and acres of tea. It is used now as a training centre for the Benedictine order and visitors are allowed to tour part of the house, including Villiers’s 1930s-period library.
JULIA MARGARET CAMERON
Julia Margaret Cameron (June 11, 1815 - January 26, 1879) was a British photographer. She became known for her portraits of celebrities of the time, and for Arthurian and similar legendary themed pictures. Cameron’s photographic career was short (about 12 years) and came late in her life. Her work had a huge impact on the development of modern photography, especially her closely cropped portraits which are still mimicked today. Her house on the Isle of Wight, Dimbola Lodge, named after the family estates in Ceylon, can still be visited.
In 1863, when Cameron was 48 years old, her daughter gave her camera as a present, thereby starting her career as a photographer. Within a year, Cameron became a member of the Photographic Societies of London and Scotland. In her photography, Cameron strove to capture beauty. She wrote, “I longed to arrest all the beauty that came before me and at length the longing has been satisfied.” Her neighbour on the Isle of Wight, Alfred Lord Tennyson often brought friends to see the photographer. Cameron’s sister ran the artistic scene at Little Holland House, which gave her many famous subjects for her portraits. Some of her famous subjects include: Charles Darwin, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Ellen Terry and George Frederic Watts. Most of these distinctive portraits are cropped closely around the subject’s face and are in soft focus. Cameron was often friends with these Victorian celebrities, and tried to capture their personalities in her photos.
Cameron’s photographic career ended at its peak in 1875, when the family fell on hard times. Her husband Charles decided he wished to spend his autumn years living with their sons on the tea plantations in Ceylon, where expenses were fewer. Cameron took her cameras with her, but few of her images have survived from this period - just a few portraits of the local plantation workers and domestic help. She died in 1879 at the age of 63; her husband outlived her by one year. They are buried together in the churchyard at St Mary’s Church, near Tea Trails Tientsin Bungalow.
Charles Hay Cameron, her husband played a key role in creating the judicial system of Ceylon. The Colebrooke–Cameron Commission was appointed in 1822 as a Royal Commission of
Painting of Julia Margaret Cameron by George Frederic Watts, c. 1850–1852
Eastern Inquiry by the British Colonial Office. According to Sir Charles Jeffries’ book, Ceylon - The Path to Independence, “by the time the Commission got round to Ceylon, in 1829, most of the members had fallen by the wayside, and only one, Major (afterwards Sir William) Colebrooke was left.” to assess the administration of the island of Ceylon and to make recommendations for administrative, financial, economic, and judicial reform.
The commission comprised William MacBean George Colebrooke and Charles Hay Cameron. Cameron was in charge for investigating the judicial system. The legal and economic proposals made by the commission in 1833 were innovative and radical.
“Many of the proposals were adopted. They signified for Ceylon the first manifestation of constitutional government, the first steps toward modernising the traditional economic system, and the beginnings of a uniform system of justice, education, and civil administration”
TOP LEFT An 1864 photograph by Cameron of her husband, Charles Hay Cameron (1795–1881)
TOP RIGHT Alfred Lord Tennyson. Carbon print 1869
LEFT Charles Darwin
THE BUNGALOW
The term “bungalow” originated in India, deriving from the Hindi word (bangala), meaning “Bengali” and used elliptically for a “house in the Bengal style”. Such houses were traditionally small, of one storey and detached, and had a wide veranda.
The term was first found in English from 1696, where it was used to describe “bungales or hovells” in India for English sailors of the East India Company. Later it became used for the spacious homes or official lodgings of officials of the British Raj, and was so known in Britain and later America, where it initially had high status and exotic connotations. The style began to be used in the late 19th century for large country or suburban residential buildings built in an Arts and Crafts or other Western vernacular style—essentially as large cottages.
VERANDAH WITH LAKE VIEWS LIVING ROOM
LOBBY AND BAR MASTER BEDROOM
SMALL TWIN BEDROOM
DUNKELD OWNER’S COTTAGE
DUNKELD BUNGALOW
CASTLEREAGH BUNGALOW
SUMMERVILLE BUNGALOW
NORWOOD BUNGALOW
TIENTSIN BUNGALOW
Castlereagh front
Castlereagh rear
Tientsin side view
Tientsin side view Castlereagh pool
Norwood
RESTORATION OF THE TEA TRAILS BUNGALOWS
Castlereagh was the first bungalow to be renovated. It was in a pitiful condition when we started in 2003. We opened for guests in June 2005.
Through a process of sympathetic restoration, we brought the five bungalows into their present condition, offering our guests a taste of gracious living in the heart of Ceylon Tea.
THE DILMAH PHILOSOPHY
Sri Lankan family tea company Dilmah, was established by Merrill J. Fernando to bring the finest quality, Single Origin Ceylon Tea, garden fresh and unblended, to tea drinkers around the world. His Dilmah Tea brand was the first genuinely ethical tea brand, bringing a smile to the faces of the underprivileged in Sri Lanka, while giving consumers quality, authenticity and natural goodness in their cup of tea.
Merrill J. Fernando dedicated his life to tea when in the 1950s, he saw the concentration of ownership in the tea industry in the hands of a few large corporations. This was leading to commoditisation of tea. He decided that in the interest of tea drinkers around the world, and the crop that his country produced with so much care and artistry, he would fight this process of commoditisation. It took him nearly four decades and in 1988 he launched his own brand - Dilmah. Coined from the names of his two sons Dilhan and Malik, Dilmah was the first producer owned tea brand, and offered tea ‘picked, perfected and packed’ at origin. Unlike the multi-origin blends that monopolised supermarket shelves, Dilmah brought tea that is freshly packed at source and therefore rich in flavour and natural goodness.
The tiny, upstart tea company that Merrill formed in 1988 to change the exploitation of his country’s crop by big traders, has today grown to become one of the top 10 tea brands in the world. However as Merrill says, his Dilmah will always be a small, family brand because it represents integrity, and integrity in tea requires quality, commitment and passion. Those are not qualities that can be extended to the mass market.
Dilmah is unique; a brand that is founded on a passionate commitment to quality and authenticity in tea, it is also a part of a philosophy that goes beyond commerce in seeing “business as a matter of human service”. This is what makes Dilmah the first ethically produced tea. Business ethics and social responsibility guide the family business where profits from the company are shared with those who are less privileged in society.
MJF CHARITABLE FOUNDATION “Business is a matter of human service”
Merrill J. Fernando
As Merrill’s Dilmah Tea became a relatively small but internationally available brand, the scale of the much larger social obligation required the establishment of the MJF Charitable Foundation. This marked the evolution of Merrill’s philosophy, from caring and sharing with his initially tiny staff, to a wider group of tea estate workers, and finally to the nation. More than half a century after he dreamed an impossible dream, it became a reality.
The MJF Charitable Foundation represents an alternative economic model, it transcends charity and corporate social responsibility one that is a genuinely sustainable and fair way of doing business. This ‘way’ acknowledges that social justice, community and the environment are integral elements in any business process not as options or part of a marketing led Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy but as a core feature of the business objectives.
The personal funds of Founder, Merrill J Fernando and his family as well as a significant share of the revenue of the MJF group of companies fund the work of the MJF Charitable Foundation. As the companies develop, so does the work of the Foundation. By 2020 the Foundation seeks to annually impact over 18,000 lives directly and significantly with a total of over 200,000 lives reached. www.mjffoundation.org
DILMAH CONSERVATION Our Core Commitment to Sustainability
Biodiversity conservation, environmental education, research and development in the areas of sustainable agriculture, climate change adaptation and heritage conservation are all elements of the purpose of Dilmah Conservation. Naturally we have sought to make our operations carbon neutral, we believe that every individual, community and business has an irrevocable commitment to strive for a low carbon economy.
Our Centre for Climate Change Research and Adaptation is the first such private sector facility in the world. The One Earth Urban Arboretum on the outskirts of Sri Lanka’s capital city Colombo is a living demonstration of nature’s life sustaining function over 500 species of plants examples of sustainable agriculture from our past help future leaders understand in the clearest possible way the critical importance of nature to the welfare and survival of future generations. Dilmah Tea Gardens are integrating nature corridors to promote biological diversity. For example, allowing leopard in our Dunkeld and surrounding estates to roam and for their populations to develop. www.dilmahconservation.org
HISTORY OF TEA
Tea drinking was referred to in Chinese mythology in the reign of the mythical Emperor Shen Nung as early as B. C. 2737. Tea drinking was also described by Kuo Po in the ancient Chinese dictionary “Arch Ya” in the year A. D. 350 and Japanese Literature made mention of tea in A. D. 593. The first handbook on tea was written by the Chinese scholar Lu Yu. It was titled “Cha Ching.” That was in A. D. 780. Under the Tang dynasty tea was even taxed.
The Arabs, importers today of Ceylon’s “strong teas” first heard of tea around A. D. 850. The Europeans were introduced to tea by a Venetian traveller Ramusio, who brought a sample to Italy in 1559. That word should reach the rest of Europe was inevitable. Soon, other European nations heard of the new exotic brew. Reports of tea reached the English people in 1598. The Portuguese obtained knowledge of tea drinking at the turn of the 16th Century and the Dutch brought tea to Europe in 1610. The Russians learnt of the tea drinking habit around 1618 and the French thirty years later.
Tea was sold publicly, for the first time in London for £10 per pound in the year 1657 and in the following year tea was advertised in the London newspaper “Mercurius Politicus.” A year later “Mercurius Politicus” reported that tea was sold almost in every street in London.
However, the first observation that milk was drunk with tea in Canton, China was made by a Dutchman, Jean Nieuhoff in 1663. The tea trade became a monopoly of the East India Company when in 1669 the import of tea into England from Continental Europe was prohibited. The US Tea Act was enacted in 1713 and the “Boston Tea Party” helped precipitate the American revolution.
Although the cultivation of tea on a commercial scale, in Ceylon, was begun in 1867, the first tea seed was planted in Ceylon nearly half a century earlier in 1824 at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya. The tea seed then was brought from China. In the meantime, indigenous tea was discovered in Upper Assam by Major Robert Bruce and Assam tea seed was received at the Peradeniya Gardens in 1839. Fifteen years later the Planters’ Association of Ceylon was established.
By 1867 the 275,000 acres of coffee plantations in Ceylon were threatened with extermination by the Coffee Rust Disease “Hemilea Vastatrix.” Before long, dead coffee trees were being sent to England to be made into legs for tea tables.
JAMES TAYLOR, The Father of the Ceylon Tea Industry “I have a machine of my own invention being made in Kandy for rolling tea which I think will be successful. If so, we cannot help making a profit on tea, if it grows of fair quality in this country. The picking and gathering of the leaves and the rolling are the greatest expenses in the production; the rolling costs nearly as much as the gathering”
James Taylor, known as the “father of Ceylon’s tea industry” commenced the new historic venture by planting the first tea clearing in 1867 on what is now identified as Field No.7 of Loolecondera Estate, Deltota near Kandy. The extent planted was twenty acres. Taylor himself “manufactured” the tea which was rolled by hand on a table in the verandah of his bungalow and fired over charcoal in a clay stove. The Loolecondera tea was apparently sold only in Ceylon until 1881 when the first parcel was sent to London weighing 23 lb. and was valued at 3.9d.
James Taylor, born in Scotland, was one of a family of six and at the age of 16 he signed a three year contract with G & J. A. Hadden, the London agents for Loolecondera Estate as Assistant Manager for a salary of £100 a year, from which he was called upon to repay his fare to Ceylon. James Taylor never returned to the land of his birth – nor did he ever become a tea estate owner. He remained a superintendent and after 41 years of service on Loolecondera, he died there aged 57. His grave is in Mahaiyawa Cemetery, Kandy. Taylor’s original tea plants are still alive and continuing to bear crop.
Once begun, the growth of the tea industry in Ceylon was rapid. In 1875 there were only a thousand acres of tea in Ceylon but ten years later this figure had increased to over a 100,000 acres. At the turn of the century 350,000 acres had been cleared and planted in tea, and Ceylon was exporting over a 100 million lb. of tea. Of the pioneer British planters in Ceylon, who, propelled by a tenacity of purpose, reconstructed a vast money spinning new industry out of the shambles that were the ruined coffee plantations. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote: “No often is it, that men have the heart, when their one great industry is ruined, to rear up in a few years another as rich to take its place: and the tea fields of Ceylon are as fine a monument to courage as is the lion of Waterloo”.
THE TEA MANUFACTURING PROCESS
Sri Lanka is a bastion of the artisanal, century old “orthodox” tea manufacturing process that results in small batch, labour intensive production of a wide variety of leaf or grades and ensures the unique flavour and aroma. The vast majority of global production now uses the CTC [cut tear & curl] process designed for efficiency. The CTC process produces more uniform small leaf sizes, more convenient for packing into teabags and also to give a quicker infusion but at the expense of flavour, which is the hallmark of orthodox Ceylon Tea.
HAND PICKING Two leaves and a bud are harvested from each bush every 5-7 days. The bush is pruned every 4 years. Left unchecked the tea bush grows to 60ft!
ROLLING Rolling ruptures tea leaf tissues. Juices are expressed from the leaves and spread as a thin film on the surfaces of the leaf particles, to support oxidation.
DRYING The tea is put into a drying chamber which deactivates the fermenting enzymes and makes tea jet black. WITHERING Considered the most important step in the factory operations, leaf is spread over hot air for 8-12 hours to reduce moisture and increase cell wall permeability.
FERMENTATION The tea is spread out in thin layers to aid the oxidative reaction, and the colour changes from copper red to brown.
GRADING The separation of dried tea into various particle sizes and shapes to meet customer needs.
TEA (Camellia sinensis) MANUFACTURING CHART
FRESH TEA LEAVES
SORTING CLEANING
DRYING (BUD ONLY) PAN-FRYING, OR STEAMING
PRE-DRYING WITHERING
ROLLING WITHERING
ROLLING
ROLLING
POST-DRYING
SHAPING AND STYLING
SHORT FERMENTATION
FIRING (DRYING)
SORTING
FULL FERMENTATION
FIRING (DRYING)
SORTING
WHITE TEA GREEN TEA OOLONG TEA BLACK TEA
VARIATIONS OF THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS TO OBTAIN WHITE, GREEN AND OOLONG TEAS
White teas are entirely handmade. They are rolled by hand and dried in filtered sunlight. In Sri Lanka, white tea is referred to as Silver or Golden Tips. Green tea is not fermented. Fresh leaf, on arrival at the factory, is immediately treated under high temperature by steaming or baking. This deactivates the enzymes that cause fermentation. The oxidation of polyphenols cannot take place and are preserved. This is why green tea has its unique flavour.
In the case of green tea, the fermentation process is stopped by either exposing the leaves to sunlight or applying warm air to the leaves and then pan-frying the leaves to stop all further processes. Oolong tea is semi-fermented. In essence, it follows a similar manufacturing process as black tea although the oxidation is for a very short time. Oolong tea is usually much darker and stronger in taste than green tea, but Oolong is lighter in colour than most black teas and usually has a more delicate taste.
TEA LEAF GRADES
Dust
Bro ke n O r an ge Pekoe Fannings (BOPF)
DUST
Dust (D) The smallest of the grades and is so small as to resemble actual dust. A good dust should be grainy, very black and free from fibre and grit. Usually makes for the strongest brew and flavour, although lacking subtlety.
BROKEN
Broken Orange Pekoe (B.O.P) A true natural B.O.P. should consist of only that leaf broken up in the rollers which passes through a No.10 mesh, but not through No.18.
Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (F.B.O.P)
This is usually derived from the early dhools, and must contain a reasonable amount of tip. The particles are longer than an average B.O.P. and must have a well twisted appearance. This grade is marketed more for its appearance than liquor.
Broken Pekoe (B.P) About the same size as B.O.P. sometimes slightly larger, easily recognizable by the cut ends of the particles. It is not so black as the average B.O.P. grade, has no tip and consists chiefly of cut stalk.
Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings (B.O.P.F.) A small sized grade, derived from the finer leaf B r o ken Orange Pekoe (BOP)
O ran ge Pekoe (OP)
and is black in appearance. It is grainy when separated by a smaller mesh and leafy when it is larger in size. Owing to its rapid brewing properties a fannings grade gives strong, coloury liquors.
Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings
(F.B.O.P.F.) That part of a B.O.P.F. with an abnormal amount of tip.
LEAF
Orange Pekoe (O.P) Contains no tip and is thin and light in liquor. It is slightly longer than F.B.O.P. and must be better twisted and more wiry. It consists of very tightly rolled leaf and mostly long tender stalk.
Flowery Pekoe (F.P) Leaf that is too large to pass through No.10 mesh is given the name F.P. but it must be even, curly and free from stalk and flake. Consists of leaf that is well twisted and has a somewhat shotty appearance.
Pekoe (P) The largest of the leafy grades and in the true sense should be entirely shotty in character. The Pekoe nowadays, is inclined to contain a considerable quantity of ‘cut leaf’ and may be slightly open.
A TEA PROFESSIONAL’S TASTING VOCABULARY
TERMS DESCRIBING DRY TEA LEAF
Attractive Well-made, uniform in colour and size.
Black
Bloom
Bold
Brown
Chesty
Chunky
Clean Colour of dry-leaf, desirable characteristic for Orthodox teas.
A live, rather than dull-looking tea. Bloom is often lost by over-handling/curing, during sorting.
Pieces of leaf that are too big for a grade.
Undesirable leaf colour both for Orthodox and CTC (cut, tear and curl).
Taint caused by unseasoned tea chest panels.
Usually applied to large-sized tip. Desirable.
Free of stalk/fibre.
Cut Orthodox leaf cut in the breaker rather than in the roller.
Even
Flaky Grade consisting of roughly equal-sized pieces.
A flat, open leaf as opposed to a well-twisted leaf - usually the result of poor withering/ rolling
Golden Tip Highly desirable feature in Orthodox teas. Obtained by good withering and rolling.
Grainy
Grey Well-made hard leaf.
Most undesirable colour of dry-leaf caused by faulty handling, over sorting.
Gritty CTC leaf that feels hard to the touch.
Large
Make
Milled Describing size of a grade, implying it is too large for market requirements.
A tea having “make” has been carefully manufactured.
Tea leaf that is put through a cutter and ground.
Mixed Denotes presence of other grades in a particular grade. Undesirable.
Neat Well-made teas of even appearance.
Ragged
Reddish Rough and uneven leaf.
Usually end-of-season leaf colour. Clonal CTC teas, however, can also be reddish.
Shotty
Small
Stalky
Stylish
Twist Well-made and rolled.
A grade of lesser size than is normal for it.
Indicating undue presence of stalk. Usually due to coarse plucking.
Neat and of superior leaf appearance.
Well-rolled, particular reference to whole leaf.
Uneven A grade composed of uneven pieces of leaf.
Well-made Uniform in colour, size and texture.
TERMS DESCRIBING INFUSED TEA LEAF
Bright
Coppery
Dull
Even Alive, as opposed to dull-looking leaves.
Colour of infused leaf, usually denoting a good quality tea. Particular reference to CTC (cut, tear and curl).
Opposed to bright and reflective leaves
The term is usually combined with “bright” or “coppery.” No irregularity in colour of infused leaf.
Green Generally undesirable. Typical of a first flush.
Mixed/Uneven Infused leaf which has more than one colour.
Mouldy
Musty
Old Teas gone off through age, or damaged by water while in storage or shipment.
Suspicion of mould.
Having lost most original attributes through age.
Pungent
Quality Extremely brisk. Very desirable.
Essential characteristic of a good tea.
Strength/Strong Substance in tea liquor; body.
Sweaty
Thin
Wild Undesirable taste due to storage in heaps on floor for long durations.
Lacking in body; often due to over-withering or inadequate oxidation.
Liquor character found in end-of-season teas. Undesirable.
TERMS DESCRIBING TEA LIQUOR
Autumnal A seasonal term applied to teas grown during the period, possessing varying degrees of flavour.
Bakey Unpleasant taste usually caused by very high temperatures and driving out too much moisture during the firing process.
Body A tea liquor possessing fullness and strength.
Bright As opposed to dull.
Brisk
Burn
Burnt A lively taste in the tea liquor, as opposed to flat or soft.
Generally applicable to Darjeeling teas, denoting a fully fired cup character.
Tea that has been subjected to extremely high temperatures during firing. Undesirable.
Character A most desirable quality that also permits recognition of the origin of growth of the tea.
Colour
Cream
Dry
Dull Denoting depth of colour. Different growths/grades possess varying depths of colour.
Precipitate obtained on cooling of tea. A bright cream indicates a good quality of tea.
Slightly bakey or high-fired.
A tea liquor that is neither clear nor bright/brisk. Caused by several factors, such as bacterial contamination, faulty firing or excessive moisture content.
CEYLON TEA GROWING AREAS
The tea-growing regions of Sri Lanka are clustered mostly among the mountains of the island’s central massif and its southern foothills. Once thickly forested and largely inaccessible to humans, the central mountains were known to the ancient Sinhalese as Mayarata, the Country of Illusions. It was said to be haunted by demons and spirits. This fearsome reputation, together with more tangible threats posed by wild beasts, venomous snakes, landslides, rock falls and the ever-present danger of simply losing one’s way in the forest, kept most people away from the high hills. Settlement was almost nonexistent except in the valleys and around the city of Kandy. Only foresters, hermits and fugitives had any reason to enter the Mayarata.
Thus it was that after the annexation of the Kandyan kingdom in 1815, the British found themselves in possession of vast tracts of virgin mountain forest. Imperial enterprise soon found a way of putting the acquisition to good use. By 1840, there were already about two hundred coffee-estates dotted about the hills; then came a boom in coffee on the London market, fuelling a land-rush. Down came the high forests, acre after acre, to be replaced by endless, regimented rows of coffee-bushes. At the peak of the coffee enterprise in 1878, no less than 113,000 ha. (278,000 acres) were under cultivation.
The blight that was to destroy the enterprise had by then already made its appearance, and by the end of the 1880s, Ceylon coffee was finished. Looking around for a commercial crop to replace it, the planters settled on tea. They soon discovered that the tea-bush was far better suited to the climate and terrain than coffee ever was; indeed, the hill country of Ceylon – known today as Sri Lanka – proved to be capable of producing the finest tea in the world. It has been doing so ever since.
Like the great wine-growing regions of France, the tea country of Sri Lanka is divided up into several strictly-defined regions or ‘districts’, each of which is known for producing teas of a particular character. There are seven districts in all. Each presents a unique combination of climate and terrain that leaves its mark on the tea it produces, regardless of price point or estate of origin. Of course, there is considerable variation between sub-districts and individual estates, between successive crops taken from the same estate in successive years and even between different hillsides on the same estate; yet despite such differences, the regional character of the tea is always evident to the experienced taster or connoisseur.
Tea is grown in slopes at three different elevations - 4000 ft above sea level (high grown), between 2000 ft. and 4000 ft. (mid grown) and finally, below 2000 ft.(low grown).Each elevation has its own distinctive characteristics in appearance, flavour, aroma and strength.
Kandy
Medium Grown
The oldest tea growing region. Kandy teas produce a relatively bright infusion with a coppery tone. Though lighter in the cup, they present a good deal of strength and body, though not as much as the lower-grown teas of Sabaragamuwa and Ruhuna.
Dimbula
High Grown
Dimbula teas are the classic high grown Ceylon’s that, in the quality season between March and May, exhibit very clean bright & brisk teas, with a good coppery red colour. Notes of jasmine mixed with cypress can be detected.
Ruhuna
Low Grown
The rich soil of Ruhuna, combined with the low elevation of the estates, causes the tea-bush to grow rapidly, producing a long, beautiful leaf that turns intensely black on withering and is particularly suited to ‘rolling’. Ruhuna factories produce a wide variety of leaf styles and sizes, from prized ‘tips’ through whole- and semi-whole-leaf teas to ‘fannings’
Nuwara Eliya
High Grown
High altitude and year-round low temperatures produce a very slow-growing bush with unusually small leaves that take on an orange hue – just a hint against the blackness – after withering. The infused leaf acquires a greenish-yellow tone, and the infusion is the palest among all the regional varieties of Ceylon Tea, with a delicate yet fragrant bouquet.
Uda Pussellawa
High Grown
Sometimes compared in character with that of Nuwara Eliya, though it appears somewhat darker in the cup, with a pinkish hue and a hint of greater strength.
SABARAGAMUWA
Low Grown
Sabaragamuwa produces a fast-growing bush with a long leaf, very black when withered and well suited for ‘rolling’. The liquor, too, is similar to that of Ruhuna teas, dark yellow-brown with a reddish tint in the dry season, though lightening somewhat with altitude. The ‘nose’ or aroma, however, is noticeably different from the Ruhuna product, with a hint of sweet caramel, and not quite as strong.
Uva
High & Medium Grown
Uva teas offers a mellow, smooth taste. Uva experiences a quality season in July August which is influenced by the wind called the 'Cachan', a drying cool wind coming in from the North East off the ocean.
THE DARRAWELLA CLUB
The Dickoya & Maskeliya Cricket Club (DMCC) was founded in 1868, and is situated in close proximity to the town of Dickoya, in the Hatton region, close to Ceylon Tea Trails. The Clubhouse, which is at the foothills of Darrawella Estate is hence, most often referred to as the Darrawella Club.
The Darrawella Club is one of numerous planters’ clubs that sprouted during the pioneering days of the plantations in the 1800s and which served as a vital social mechanism and more, to the otherwise isolated lives of the tea, rubber and coconut planters. Access between points in this pre-motorised era was often limited or even non-existent, particularly in the hill country. Hence, these clubs serviced relatively small sectors initially, which resulted in several clubs being established within what is in today’s context, in close proximity.
Naturally, as accessibility and modes of transport progressively improved, and travelling times were dramatically reduced, the need for numerous clubs within a single region diminished. Many either fell by the way side, or operated a sparse service with limited patronage, making way as it were to a single larger club in the region.
Darrawella was one such large club and indeed, was one of the largest and finest of its kind during the planter clubs’ heyday. This is depicted through the Club’s extensive and historical collection of memorabilia which is reproduced on Dilmah’s History of Ceylon Tea website. Initially, Darrawella Club boasted a golf course, which at some point in time became disused. It was nevertheless its exploits on the cricket and rugby field for which the club was reputed and these facilities remain in existence to this day. So too, the tennis courts, the indoor badminton court and the billiards and snooker room with its two full size tables, not to mention a fair-sized library.
VJ Day, 1945
WWW.HISTORYOFCEYLONTEA.COM
Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company’s public service “History of Ceylon Tea” project sought to collate, index and digitise historic publications related to the Ceylon tea industry, spanning the last 150 years. This valuable information is preserved for future generations to derive knowledge and inspiration from the pioneers of the Ceylon Tea industry.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The core source of information for this booklet was the cache of 47 copies of the Fergusons Directory of Ceylon, dating from 1880 to 1995, that have been painstakingly uploaded to the History of Ceylon Tea website (www.historyofceylontea.com) under the auspices of the Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company.
I am grateful to the Ceylon Planters’ Association for permission to browse through copies of Fergusons Directories in their library. To Michael Cooke of Kandy, a son of a George Alexander Cooke, formerly a Superintendent in the Castlereagh Group, I am indebted for being able to draw on his extensive knowledge of the history and architecture of plantation bungalows. For anecdotes and insight, my thanks to Rohan Boudewyn, Director Projects, MJF Tea Gardens Ltd, who is based at Dunkeld.
In compiling these biographies of 27 planters who lived in five bungalows in Dickoya from 1880 to 2015, I may have made errors in dates and circumstances, although I have tried to restrict my novelist’s urge to fill in gaps with fiction. If any errors are detected, I would be pleased to hear of them so they can be corrected.
Royston Ellis Royston Ellis, a British resident of Sri Lanka since 1980, is author of over 60 novels, guide books and biographies, including “The Growing Years: Commemorating 150 Years of the Planters’ Association of Ceylon” and “Sri Lanka Railways: Celebrating 150 Years of Service.”
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