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July 2018

December 2013

Here Comes Santa Claus!

By |2013-12-21T17:07:28+08:00December 20th, 2013|Categories: childhood, Events, Identify Photographs, Memories, People|Tags: , , |

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Here’s something to put you in the Christmas mood! We thank Alison Cotterill (nee Caldwell) for this one. According to Alison, this was taken in 1962 at the Lower Perak Club in Teluk Anson. On the far left is Trisha Caldwell, holding Fiona.

Well folks,  it looks like Santa arrived on foot instead of coming down the chimney! 😉 I do wonder what was in those large sacks…..

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Not wishing to have Teluk Ansom beat Ipoh, Ruth Rollitt sent us this one and said:

The Christmas party at the Presbyterian church was in 1963! Wow – 50 years ago. The little fair-haired boy is my brother Per’s son Morten – he is with his mother Vivi (Iversen). The lady in the batik dress on the other is my mother and the smiling lady is Dutch: Marian Voorhoeve – her husband was with Lindeteves Jacob and we are still much in touch.

Thank you Ruth for keeping Ipoh in the picture.

November 2013

Perak’s Famous Water Tower

By |2013-11-20T15:57:05+08:00November 20th, 2013|Categories: Identify Photographs, Natural Heritage, Restoration, tourism|Tags: , |

Some call it Perak’s version of “The Leaning Tower of Pisa”. I’ve never been there, but from recent pictures it does seem like it’s leaning a little to one side. However, here is an early 1900 picture of the same water tower in Teluk Intan (see below) – and it seems rather STRAIGHT to me 😉

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So, WHEN did this tower start to lean? We’d like to know MORE about this tower – especially from the Teluk Intan folks!

Picture taken from  the book 20th Century Impressions of British Malaya.

April 2010

December 2009

Inside the Court House, but not on Trial

By |2009-12-17T07:50:54+08:00December 17th, 2009|Categories: Memories|Tags: , , |

Above each of the windows inside the Old Teluk Anson Courthouse there are plaster mouldings which alternate around the building. One like this and ……….

………one like this. Please excuse the cobwebs, spiders have no respect for the law!

Another interesting feature is the rainwater system, installed in 1949 which runs INSIDE the building!

The remainder of the inside of the building was not worth a photograph and so to finish this tour as, all too often, we have all seen rubbish on a floor before, here is a full-face shot of the front portion above that awful sign.

Buy One, Free One – Courthouse and Church

By |2009-12-13T07:39:36+08:00December 13th, 2009|Categories: Memories, Museums|Tags: , , , , |

 This old photograph shows the first courthouse in Teluk Anson (Teluk Intan), built in the late 1870’s or very early 1880’s. It also doubled up on a Sunday as the Anglican Church for there was not one available in the district. However, the hard wooden benches suitable for a court house were just too uncomfortable as church pews and that certainly did not encourage the God-fearing parishioners to attend the Sunday service, for they were more used to the comfortable and relaxing pews of Old England.

Consequently the Society for the Propogation of the Gospel set about raising funds for a proper church and in 1910 the first Anglican church of Teluk Anson was completed – we are sure with comfortable pews!

The courthouse then continued solely in its primary role until the new courthouse was built in 1983. The Sultan of Perak opened the new building in April 1986, some 100 years after the original one was built.

This second photograph shows the building recently. Despite the offensive looking sign, it is not actually in use and apart from the odd cheap sale that takes place there it is effectively abandoned and fast deteriorating. Now we are well aware that this and the Old Police Station carry the stigma of being “British built”, but how can the council and residents of Teluk Intan let buildings like them just rot away, rather than turn them into something useful for the people, education, or even a museum. Have they no pride in their heritage?

A Visit to Teluk Mak Intan or Mak Intan’s Bay

By |2009-12-08T09:52:38+08:00December 8th, 2009|Categories: Memories|Tags: , , |

This photo was taken in 2006 on a visit Teluk Intan originally called Teluk Mak Intan, after a well-to-do Mandailing woman who is believed to have been in trading across the Straits of Malacca, although some will say she was actually a pirate. It shows the old Balai Polis or Police Station which being unused was in a state of serious disrepair. What we don’t know is whether it is still there as we have not been that way lately. Please let us know.

Teluk Intan was of course renamed by the British under the administration of the third British Resident Hugh Low (1877 to 1889), as Teluk Anson, in honour of General Anson who drew the first plans of the town and secondly, as he said, Telok Ma’ Hitam (as the British called Teluk Mak Intan ) was too long! It was the Sultan of Perak in 1982 that changed the name back, but dropped the ‘Mak’.

Hugh Low was also responsible for the Police Staion when he proposed “The Customs House, the Court House, landing jetty and Chief Police Station should be put there at once.  I will send the plan and write on the subject to Singapore as soon as I can…”. Consequently the area around the Polce Station would have been the original town, rather than where most of it is today.

What a shame no one has found a use for this old building, or have they?

October 2009

Perak’s Own Leaning Tower

By |2009-10-07T06:21:45+08:00October 7th, 2009|Categories: Memories|Tags: , , , , , |

 

 This photograph taken in 1920 shows little sign of the famous Teluk Anson (now Teluk Intan) tower actually leaning, but if you go there yourself I can assure you it leans!

Manufactured from bricks and wood and standing at 25.5 metres tall, its Pagoda-style construction gives the tower an appearance of having 8 different levels (like Pisa). However, the building is actually divided only into 3 storeys each 16½ feet high, connected by 110 stairs.  Above the third storey stands the water tank (for it was actually a water tower for the surrounding population) 16 feet deep and with a surface area of 680 square feet.  All 8 levels have a 6 feet wide balcony and a decorative 2 feet high marble wall surrounding the main structure.  Roofing tiles complete the picture.  One amusing fact, taken from the very limited history available is that the side balconies were designed “to ensure the safety of the tower’s caretaker from rainstorm”.  There is still a regular caretaker of the tower today and one of his duties is to wind the old clock that was originally ordered from London and still keeps good time while chiming every 15 minutes.  Again the records claim “the hourly ringing of the Tower’s clock could be heard up to 8 miles away, but now the chimes could be heard as far as one to half a mile in radius due to the modernization of buildings and all means of transportations”.  Today I doubt that it can be heard much further than the town center.

Over the years the tower has been a Japanese observation post and a Boy Scout Headquarters amongst other roles, but in 1997 the council decided that the tower should remain a landmark for the town’s tourism and constructed the new town square around it. Not long ago it was subjected to careful internal restoration.

 P.S. The World’s Best Duck Soup is at Bidor

Next time you are going to Pangkor, Lumut or even Penang (if you are coming from the South), why not take that detour off the highway at Bidor and enjoy Malaysia’s own leaning tower and while in Bidor, just stop at Pun Chun, the first large Chinese restaurant on the right past the traffic lights and enjoy the best duck noodle soup in the country.  They have been serving it for more than 3 generations and you will love it.      

 

July 2009

Bull Elephant Versus Train Ends in 0-0 Draw

By |2009-07-26T02:28:27+08:00July 26th, 2009|Categories: Memories|Tags: , , , |

This grand old picture dates from 1894 when a bull elephant gallantly refused to move off the rail tracks, close to Teluk Anson (now Teluk Intan) in defence of his herd against what he saw as an intruder into his domain. Unfortunately the train, which had previously killed a calf elephant in the same place, was doing some 80 kilometres per hour and the driver could not stop in time. The two therefore met head on.

The net result was one dead elephant, three coaches derailed and two dead railway workers who died from their injuries sometime later. A number of businesspeople and other passengers were also injured.

This event is marked by a signboard at the spot of the collision, erected by the British Government.

January 2009

Methodist English School (ACS) Teluk Anson November 1951

By |2009-01-28T07:25:36+08:00January 28th, 2009|Categories: Identify Photographs|Tags: , , |

This small photo just two inches wide is marked on the back as above plus Standard IIIA. It is written by the same hand as the other ACS Senior Cambridge Class 1950 on this blog. Did the school change its name from ACS to MES in 1951?  Is there anyone out there who attended the school at that time? Please let us have any information you might have. Thanks.

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