History of Astell Estate,
Mussoorie
Vivek Kumar Pandey
2010
The times gone by of this area is not only a knowledge worthy subject , but also holds significant evidences of the history which is quite interesting and yet to be officially encrypted. Various narrations are received from various people and intellectuals about the history of the area, which we are going to add into this inclusive document one by one.
Let us start with the version of Sh. Gopal Bhardwaj, Historian of the local area Mussoories, who state that the first evidence of the ownership in respect of the Astell Estate goes to the early eighteenth century when the British Infantry Officer Major Edmund Swetenham owned the whole area right from the Astell Estate to the Cloud Ends during the course of exploring new locations for various purposes for the British inhabitation. It was the same time when the British people exactly started swinging to Mussoorie in the early days of British arrival to the area.
Later on, the family members of Major Edmund Swetenham, who also had the possession of the Cloud End Resort, which was his residence during that time (Clouds End is situated at some 10 Kilometers from the Astell Estate ) detailed various trustees for the respective areas and properties. Astell Estate was such an area where the trustee constructed the Astell Lodge(Presently known as Shail-Shikhar), Lions Paw, also known as Geutian Hill (Top in front of Shivaji Gate) and the Shenstone building(Presently the CO Training residence) and the Bramliegh Building (Known as DC store at present).
The road leading to the Manav Bharti and the Guru Nanak School (The Spring Road) was known as the New Circular Road and the red roof house on the first bend from the Shivaji gate and located just over the fencing near obstacle area was known as Mana villa.
ASTELL LODGE
E.F. Swetenham, the grand daughter of the founder of the area continued the legacy of his father and enjoyed the ownership till early 19th Century. The Swetenhams left the property in 1930 and re-established themselves in the UK. The evidence received from the Municipality board Mussorie shows that The Administrator -General and Official Trustee, United Province , Allahabad, in his letter no 1195/382 Dated 5th November, 1930 in his letter to The Secretary , Municipal Board, Mussoorie wrote about the sell of 5 related houses of the Astell Estate(Copy of letter in scanned photo is included in Appendix-A).
LION’S PAW BELOW GEUTION HILL
According to the Municipality board documents, E.F.Swetenham, the grand daughter of Major Swetenham sold the land to Chaudhary Raghu Raj Singh, son of Ray Bahadur Chaudhary Basant Singh Rai (Tehsil- Siroha, Bijnaur, United Province) in 1933. The Chaudharies then sold this property to some Sh. Ratti Lala , a resident of Mussorie. The land and the property then purchased by the HADSA, ITBP during 1978-79.
A copy of site plan map indicating the Astell Lodge Estate shows that some Mr. Gholam Ahmed Esqr (May be some trustee of the owner of the lodge and the land) wanted to design certain addition and alterations at the Astell Lodge and sought permission from the Municipal Board which was rejected by the authoritieslater on.(Scanned Copies in pictures below).
BRAMLEIGH TOWERS CAMBRIDGE ACADEMY
The narration received from Sh. T. P. Cashmore, presently working as a teacher in the L.N. Wynberg School, Mussorie reveals another chronicle of the area in a different manner. Sh. T.P. Cashmore, who served as a teacher during 1965 to 1973 in a school named Bramleigh Towers Cambridge Academy (Presently the DC Store Building) boarding School in the Astell Estate. The name of the principal of the School was Sh. O.B. Craven. Some senior school students (boys) were residing in the hostel located in the Shenstone house (CO Training residence at present) besides some staff quarters also existed in the same building.
The girl students used to be boarded in a small house in the campus which is presently known as the officers’ accommodation below the MI Room. The main staff quarters were in the Astell Lodge which is presently known as Shail Shikhar (House near Shivaji Gate). The school had a capacity to carry a total of 200 students at that time. The school was very famous and students from foreign countries like Thailand and Tibet were the students of this prestigious school.
SHANESTONE BUILDING
Sh. Cashmore remember that thick jungles surrounded the whole area during his tenure and wild animals such as dear , bear , monkeys and Leopard roamed around into the down areas up to the demolition ground and beyond. The Demolition Ground was used as the play ground for the school children. Sh. Cashmore remember an event in which a Leopard killed several cows of the local area and it was a terror for the local people. The Principal of the School, Sh. Craven continuously ambushed on the Nelson point and shot the Leopard one night with his Gun on the Nelson Point ridge when the Leopard attacked the Cow.
GIRLS HOSTEL
OUT HOUSE NEAR THE BRAMLEIGH TOWERS CAMBRIDGE ACADEMY
During those days,one Sh. F. Schamp, teacher of Mathematics and English was residing in an isolated house near the Bramleigh Towers which might have been used as a servant Quarter or the out house during Swetenham days. Out house are those temporarily made constructions of those days which were used for toilets by the Britishers. The out houses are constructed outside the main residence and the earmarked servants were asked to clear the stored defecates to carry the lavatory pot to some distant areas on the daily basis.
The area down below the karate ground (Presently known as STD) and around was the servant’s Quarter and the servant’s area who worked for the Englishmen residing in the Astell Estate during those days.
The narration of Anusuya Prasad Baloni reveals another version. Anusuya Prasad , who did his schooling from Mussorie during Sixties say that the area was then famous as ‘Barah Patthar’(Twelve stones) and people know it as a thickly vegetated area and usually used to avoid to enter into the area as it was notorious for wild animals. He also narrate that at one time some Britishers of the Astell Estate killed a Cow in order to pick the milk organ of the Cow by brutal means for cooking it for beef and the local people of the Mussoorie area went on an outrage which lasted for various weeks.
Major Edmund Swatenham
Edmund Swatenham was a cadet at Addiscombe, East India Company's Army Academy, and joined the Bengal Engineers.The story goes that Swetenham, during a walk in the mountains heard the most melodious singing and followed the voice till he came upon the singer, a beautiful mountain girl. frightened, the girl sped home, followed by the smitten Major.
Swetanham – During the young and the old age
Swetenham took the father's permission to marry the girl. her father, a local 'zamindar', had gifted the estate to him as dowry.
He selected a hill near moolti tibba to build his house, one of the first in Mussoorie, which was completed in the spring and summer of 1838 by 500 labourers. It was one of the areas here the major built cloud end(named after a hill in cheshire in UK) in 1838 and lived with his wife Rose and five children. One of his son died at the age of 11 while he fell down in a khudd near the clouds end.Major swatenham died in the same house. The last of the swetenhams left india in the 1930's.
Four generations of the swetenhams went on to live here. Mussoorie in the hot weather and dehradun in the cold weather were home to numbers of swetenhams for the next century. Clouds end belonged to the family until after 1947 and is now a Hotel.
The Astell Estate Site and the Radha Bhawan Estate – Any link?
Babu Radhanath Sikdar (1813-1870)
Father of Mathematical techniques in Surveying in India resided in the Radha Bhawan Estate during 18th Century. The Radha Bhawan and the Vincent Hill were the centres of discussions and calculations besides the George Everest’s house at various stages while the great trigonometric Survey of India was performed. Radha babu also helped George Everest in designing and calculating the complete survey of the area, and also in the Survey of ‘PEAK XV’ later named after Sir George Everest as Mount Everest.
Nelson Point
The significance of the Astell Estate site should also be ascertained in connection with the Great Trigonometric Survey of India in the mid 18th Century and the Nelson Point in the Astell Estate might be also named after any Surveyor of British India which was a key location for the entire Survey process. It is still not clear that why the point is called ‘Nelson Point’ but is sure that among one of some great surveyors of that time may possibly named the place on his name and thus the trig height 1959 was known as ‘Nelson Point’
Another thought on the naming the places reflects the tradition of keeping the names of such places /hills is that the British people kept the heroic names on the European sub continent line to dominate the colonial societies. In such a pattern, the local Britishers kept the names of Nelson point and Vincent Hill on the names of Great Admiral Nelson and George Vincent. In Cheshire also, which was the native place for the Swetenhams, there is a place called Nelson in the New Hampshire, the features of which resembles the uneven terrain of the Nelson point of Mussoorie. In Cheshire, the name of one city Monadnock No. 6 was changed in 1814 to Nelson in honor of Viscount Horatio Nelson, British Admiral and Naval hero. Both the country sites are similar in various aspects , hence somehow , the credit of the name Nelson point again goes to the Swatenhams.
The history of the Estate is not only out of the ordinary but still seems various additions and deliberations before coming on any conclusion. The Estate site remained isolated up to the beginning of the nineteenth century when some trustees started some construction work in this jungle terrain. The site got initial buildings as school infrastructure and later on construction by various trustees in the area. The site was used for hunting, outing, picnic and sometimes for Surveying the whole area. It was the ITBP who developed the area in such a manner that the features and the land inside the Estate became so noticed.
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