Ashley Bungalow, Travancore, Kerala.

The Ashley Bungalow was built in 1875 by the bakers and by their associates. As you enter from the east through the winding rubble and mud paved road, up on the hills is situated the Ashley Bungalow. The Building stands, commanding magnificent view facing South, at the opening of Ghat on the valley that flows down gently to the plains below. The road twists and turns around the hills through the tea gardens around the bungalow and reach at the three-bayed high laden front of the building facing south. The Bungalow is a sleeping place of history of the hills of Travancore, where tradition and antiquity lay asleep, to be woken up by a sudden knock at its door.

The tiles and steeply pitched roof dorns the building, with peaked roof tops standing on walls on the eastern and western flanks masoned like a fortress. The high laden building has steps with scalloped ledges, which is a curious mixture of local styles and English architecture. The split leveled Garden is landscaped with green lawn fringed on the southern side with trees like Norfolk , pine, cypress, blue gums and spathodia. The thick foliages which lazily let the sun rays sieve through them, makes us feel the embrace of nature. The westerly wind sweep across the drawing room, set majestically with large doors among spans of glass running the full southern side. Seated there on the plush sofas you will feel like a king, and leisurely love to sipa cup of Tea, made of leaf fresh from the gardens.

Ashley estate is one of the earliest clearings on the hills of Central Travancore in Peerumede village, opened in 1862 by Henry Baker and his brothers Robert and George, they were joined by john Daniel Munro, who was later related to the Bakers by marrying henrys Baker's youngest daughter. His is the most remembered name in the hills as he was the mastermind behind the opening of various estates. As George baker moved to Kumarakom, Robert extended his interests to cardamom and served as Magistrate of Forestry. By 1916 the Estate passed over to Miss Munro later to be handed down to her daughter Mrs. J.A. Richardson, and was kept by her heirs until it was bought by its present owners A.V. George and Company in 1948. The second highest peak on the Western Ghats called Amruthamedu, shoots up from the boundaries of this estate. As the bungalow is situated on an opening in the Ghat, there are good views all around. One breath taking view is that of the “suicide Point,” a cliff in the Glenrock Estate over looking the bungalow. The whole seating is a bit dramatic, drawing our attention and tickling our imaginations, as we walk along its compounds.

There are fruit trees such as avocado, grapes and oranges on the northern side of the garden with cardamom and other spices as intermittent plants. From the drawing room on the western side there is a cute little passage with a unique floor that ends just before a single room, tucked in a corner. Inside the room there is a single cot with a unique rod-metal work. The room is under partial shade making it cool and soothing. A large bedroom adjacent to the passage on the western side is also unique with tar and black oxide lay on its floor, making it very peculiar to walk on.

Cutting across to the dining room and further north, we come across the second largest bedroom neatly laid with its muscular looking furniture made of teak wood. The eastern side has two double rooms. The first is a huge one with massive coats and furniture made in abstract Victorian and mid-Victorian styles. The corner most bedrooms on the east are good humorously called a “honeymooners den” and are set up very quietly and are always totally undisturbed. The bungalow painstakingly restored by the present owners- A.V. George and Company.