WHEN hotel director Gaurin Wickremasinghe came across a disused plantation in Sri Lanka he decided to delve a little into its history as he converted it into an hotel.
He discovered that the plantation was founded by William Flowerdew, a former, Hethersett resident, who left Norfolk around 1879. Flowerdew is reputed to have set up the plantation and named it after his home village, but then returned to England by 1881.
Mr Wickramasinghe said: "I found out that the tea plantation was founded by the Flowerdew family and decided to find out more about them."
He visited Norfolk and said: "Hethersett is a charming village. I found the two pubs very interesting and visited the famous Kett's Oak and found the gravestone of one of the Flowerdew family."
Facts about the Hethersett Factory in Sri Lanka when it was a tea plantation make interesting reading:
The factory produced some of the best Ceylon Tea for 50 years
- It produced half a million kilograms of tea per year.
- All the machinery was powered by one engine which now stands in the entrance lobby of the hotel.
- Tea from the Hethersett factory was the first to fetch the highest price in the world for silver tip tea from Ceylon ( a hand-rolled, sun dried whole leaf tea).
- Hethersett tea was auctioned in London for £1.10s.6d, over 30 times the average price for a pound of tea.
- The original plantation, bought by William Flowerdew, consisted of 250 acres of which he planted 150 acres with cinchona.
The factory closed in 1973 due to cost-cutting and old-fashioned machinery.
Hethersett, Sri Lanka, is 6,800 feet above sea level and six degrees from the Equator.
Flowerdew's old factory is now a hotel called The Tea Factory, which has won many international awards for conservation. His Hethersett plantation is still producing tea, and Flowerdew's old bungalow still stands in the hotel grounds.
The hotel has a Hethersett Bar, which serves a cocktail called Hethersett Fog (tea, lime juice, Angostura Bitters and lemonade).
An old railway carriage converted to a dining car stands outside at Hethersett Railway Station and a small working museum outside is called The Hethersett Mini Tea Factory.
A sign points to the nearby Hethersett Hills. The serving area in the restaurant is built with Hethersett tea packing cases. Even the complimentary bottles in the rooms are Hethersett Mountain Spring Water.
One of the things that captures the attention most is a framed map of Norfolk's Hethersett on a hotel wall. It is a modern parish map. A few years ago journalist Rob Kirk visited the hotel and was fascinated that the map clearly shows Malthouse Road, where his parents lived. But more poignantly for Rob, it showed the Church of St Remegius, where his mother's funeral service took place, and where her ashes are interred.
"It quite took my breath away to see such a detailed map," said Mr Kirk. "All of a sudden, it formed a real personal link with the place in a very moving way."
Guests at the hotel can still pluck their own tea and take it home as a souvenir.
There is more on the hotel and the history of the tea plantation and tea production in what was formerly Ceylon on the Heritance Tea Factory web site which can be accessed at
https://www.boutiquesrilanka.com/nuwara-eliya.php?wih=VIEW&hotelId=182
The photographs on this page were taken by my friends Christine and Ian Woolstencroft on a visit to Sri Lanka a number of years ago.