Like many relics of the British Raj, the Tipperary bungalow, in the middle of the oldest of Yercaud, has an old past that survives only in oral remembrances. It remains the center of the coffee plantation
Although it is close to noon when we reach Yercaud, the hill station located in the Sherawoy range of the Eastern Ghats, about 1,500 meters above sea level, is still covered in the mist of late winter. Even wild monkeys, who tirelessly monitor highway traffic from the plains to the top, are looking uphill, as motorists turn off the air-conditioning and open their windows to get into the Eucalyptus-scanned air. .
Thanks to the lockdown, the winding streets and suburbs of Yercaud are quiet these days, although the fried chili fritters and steamed corn lakeside vendors are back in full force.
The recent construction boom has changed Yercaud forever, with its hardy fruit orchards and coffee plantations gradually giving way to real estate projects that are well-heeled. However some heritage structures, particularly those associated with plantations, have reinforced themselves as homemakers with adventure tourism activities built into their packages.
The colonial-era home, Tipperary Bungalow, considered among the oldest buildings in Yercaud (about 120 years), is a property that has a mini-peak of its own.
The house is part of a 70-acre working coffee farm that also cultivates jackfruit, avocado, banana, wild turmeric and black pepper.
A photo of Walter Dickens, family members, and plantation workers on Yippoud Circ 1900 Tippery Estate. Photo: Special Arrangement / Morning Tidings
On any given day, visitors to the property – now serving as a heritage bed-and-breakfast house – set up on four acres, can keenly expect to see local fauna and deer from the verandah, which comes down from the valley Master Suite opens to views of.
Like many remnants of the British Raj, the Tipperary bungalow has an old past that lives only in verbal memories. Ann Satyendran, a former engineer and commercial pilot, says, “Although my father bought the property in 1970 in 1970, we did not yet know about its original British owners, the Dickens family.”
Clan of coffee growers
Whether the Dickens family of Yercaud belonged to the famous Victorian writer Charles Dickens (1812–1870) remains debated for the absence of any documentary evidence, but there is no doubt that this India-based British clan gave rise to commercial farming Did a lot to develop. Coffee and other crops in the hill station.
“My great grandfather Alfred Ernest Stark Dickens (1844–1898) came to Yercaud in 1881; They had five sons and five daughters, and most of them were in the coffee business. Prior to this, he grew coffee in Ooty. Five generations of our family were in Yercaud from the 1880s to the 1950s, so there were at least 15 coffee plantations, each run by us in our own home, that period, ”says Anna Dickens, a WhatsApp phone from London Call.
Accepting her 80th birthday, Anna is probably the Tipperary bungalow for her British owners. She visited Yercaud in 2005, and reportedly shed tears when she visited her birthplace (she was born here on August 7, 1941). According to family sources, the Tipperary bungalow was already part of the property that Alfred Dickens had purchased. Ana states that it was maintained as a plantation guesthouse for some time, as it was used as a family home.
A visit to the cemetery at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Yercaud reveals the number of Dickens family members who are interred here.
“My aunt Gwendolyn and her husband Leslie Dickens were the last to live in Tippery. He sold the property in 1950 before leaving India, ”says Anna.
Basic structure
Given that Yercaud got its first metalized roads in the early 20th century, the Tipri and other buildings of its old buildings at Hill Station are clearly great examples of native engineering using the original structure.
“We have tried to maintain the original style of the building, though it was largely chaotic when we acquired it,” says Satyendran. “Polished red oxide floors are still the same, and thick stone walls keep the building insulated from extreme cold and heat through the year.”
Anna remembered Tippiri as a popular meeting place for the local British community. “We were a very musical family; And I played the antique grand piano which is still in the reception room when I visited in 2005, although we don’t really know how it was delivered in those days! Anna laughs as he hears stories of people being taken by bears on a bumpy mountain path to Yercaud.
She says Dickens’ social life was very busy. “We used to have picnics, dance and tennis party very often. And people also used to wear a lot of clothes, because I got pictures of my aunt in fancy dress too, ”says Anna.
Tippery’s dance floor has long since collapsed, but a strong tennis net post is reminiscent of those empty weekends.
ties that Bind
Ana’s father Alfred M. Dickens, like many British children in those days, studied locally at Montfort School and later served in the Royal Navy. “We left Yercaud during the Second World War, and my mother and I lived in Bandra, Bombay for a few years as my father was on combat duty.
We left India in 1947 and soon the rest of the Dickens family also started going out. I miss Yercaud, even though I was there for a very short time. I remember as a child lentils and rice is my favorite Indian dish, ”says Anna, who has worked in theaters and films as an actress, and later as a professional artist.
As the wind guards the Tupperi bungalow through the wind willow tree, the mist clears and then clouds once again.
Leslie and Gwendolyn Dickens, the last occupants of the Tipperary bungalow. Photo: Special Arrangement / HINDU
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