Early History of planting to the present day:

1796                Expelling of the Dutch from the island.

1815                The taking of Kandy the King’s hill fortress capital.

1820’s             The cutting of a series of roads for communications throughout the island.

1822                The clearing of the first two plantation areas for coffee.

One by George Bird (Byrde) Sinnapitiya situated South of Kandy near Gampola and at about 1,700 feet elevation.

The other by the de Soysa family at Hanguranketa (part of the old King’s Royal domain South East of Kandy). The family purchased the land.

Land at that time was sold at 25p per acre.

1837                Approx 4,000 acres of Coffee established.

1860                40,000 acres of Coffee established.

1865                The first signs of the fungus Hemeleia Vastatrix (a fungus of the leaf)and the beginning of the end of commercial coffee in the island.

1867                Approx 19 acres of Tea established.

By the time of Alexander Browns death in 1876, tea had risen to 1,750 acres in extent.

1873                23 lb of tea exported to London.

1883                Approx 30,000 acres of tea established.     1,665,768 lbs of tea exported.

1884                Approx 70,000 acres of tea

1900                384,000 acres. Exported 149,264,603 lbs  @  Rs.53,735,257 sterling at Rs.13/= per £.

The U.K. took 107,000,000 lbs then

1964                Approx 590,000 acres of tea established.  468,870,059 lbs (213,122,754 Kilos) Exported.

at Rs.1,209,522,256 @ Rs.13/= per £1 sterling.

1964                Value = £93,040,173                1997            Value = £458,333,333

1997                591,140,000 lbs @ Rs.44 billion @ Rs.96/= per £1 sterling.

Note:    The 1964 figures were customs figures in the Government census and report.

The figure quoted by D.M. Forrest in A hundred Years of Ceylon Tea were: 455,273,314 Lb.

The Wilson families association with Ceylon(now Sri Lanka) goes back to 1895 when Robert and Charles arrived in the island to plant with Blackett of Pen-y-Lan, Doteloya and their other estates in Dolosbage. However through Roberts marriage to Alice Blackett the connection goes back to 1796 and the arrival of the British army in the island.

Brunswick Factory

The first appearance of plantations was in about 1824 when the de Soysa family and Col. Bird started coffee planting. Col. Bird started his estate near Gampola (outside Kandy). The first James Blackett was building roads and bridges with Alexander Brown between Gampola and Kandy, then on up the road to Pussellawa. It was then that he helped in the clearing for this estate. He later moved from Hantane to purchase his own estates and to expand in clearing for coffee.

The Blacketts, Alexander Brown, Cheves, Rudds, Russell Scotts, Stephens and Strachans settled in the Kandy hill country, capital and seat of the last of the Sinhalese Kings. By 1871 these families owned and ran some 31,000 acres of coffee on some 118 estates. However by 1896 coffee was in it’s death throes from the disease Hemilia Vastatrix which started about 1865. The coffee dream had faded and was leaving a stream of bankrupt planters and destitute families in it’s wake. The arrival of Robert and Charles Wilson speeded up the transformation of Blackett’s estates from Coffee to tea (the new crop). Ferguson, editor of the Ferguson Directory, had commented in a report of one of his many tours, that in 1885 when he visited Blackett, he had a plot of tea trees that had been established in about 1845 from India. Blackett used seed from some of the trees that still survived and seed from the Ceylon Company (Gampola) where one of his sons was manager to re-plant his estates. It was whilst Robert was working at Cooroondoowatta that he opened Meddegodda for Blackett next door and he married Blackett’s daughter Alice and acquired Meddegodda which then seemed to become a part of him. It was at this time that the event which was later told to me by several people including his dispenser occurred. Coffee had been harvested once a year in November but with the coming of tea the traffic increased enormously. Tea being plucked every seven days, meant that on a rota tea was plucked somewhere on the estate every day. Robert was cutting the Lantern Pass road down to Gampola (railway town) and as a very keen horseman always road a horse. Whilst riding down to inspect the progress, he was to come upon the elephants helping to clear and pulling large stones for the bridges. Both animals are fearful of each other and were to bolt luckily in opposite directions. A site that amused those working at the site for many, many years to come.

In 1900 another brother Tom arrived in Dolosbage and later as senior planter on Oliphant (Nuwara Eliya) was put in charge of renovating and enlarging the Hill club which had fallen into a bad state after the coffee crash and he also helped Mr. Wickwar develop the race course there. The club to-day is a thriving institution for members and tourists.

In 1954 Robert died at Meddegodda which he had carved into his Nirvana, with huge bird aviaries on all sides of the bungalow (house), a deer park and dairy cattle to provide safe milk for his family and staff. During his last days he was cared for by his ever faithful Arthan. As children we were the bain of Arthan’s life but he often protected us from our Grandfather’ anger. There are many stories which illustrate the bond that grew between these two but at the end Arthan was helpless to protect him anymore.

The family continued as planters and agents, ending with the present Robert Wilson and the family still retain friends in the island. This business is a result of combining with those friends and discussions which took place in 1992. The tea business was emerging from nationalisation and needed huge investment but many of the estates were receiving some 60% of their cost of production which was disastrous, at a time when reports were appearing in the U.K. press about the conditions of estate workers and the emergence of fair trading organisations.

I was asked by a planting day friend , Mr. Manthi Delwita, if we could not set-up a business to market exceptional quality teas and to raise the awareness of consumers to the delights of ‘Ceylon’ teas, many of which are the finest examples of real tea in the world if made properly. In 1995 after discussions with selected estates we started our first importation and the business has gone from strength to strength. I have to say the crusade to inform and raise awareness amongst U.K. consumers has been a long hard slog, as I was warned it would be. However with the boring depths that the market has sunk to, I believe many consumers are turning away from gimmicks and looking for interesting quality again. Real natural estate tea is not Breakfast tea or a blend it is the equivalent of a single vineyard wine, with districts like Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Loire and so on.

First class estate managers are essential to ensure that the tea fields are at their healthy vital best so that their highly disciplined pluckers can select the finest shoots and ensure their swift transport to the factory, where the tea-maker practices his art, derived from decades and in some cases generations of experience, to mould and craft the natural flavours of each field of the estate dependent upon the weather and elevation. The reason why we plan manufacture for the ‘district quality seasons’ or prolonged dry spells.

The Colombo business is run with great efficiency by the Delwita family. Mr. Delwita has had many years of experience advising and guiding estates, also holding many positions of responsibility within the industry. With his close contact, he procures these exceptional teas by arrangement with the estates and then ensures their transport in cool conditions to the packing station, where we pack in heat sealed foil as a standard seal, branching into cartons, wood boxes, or gift packs of various types. We design our own packs and finally the Colombo office ships the teas to the U.K. or around the world. We take great pride in presenting a top quality product at the end of this long and skilful journey to your cups.

Another of our concerns is the future viability of a fascinating industry that my relations were involved in from it’s inception.

We believe that it is vital to keep consumers aware of the vast infrastructure that is on these estates which goes to making quality tea. The workers are highly disciplined and skilled to produce teas of this quality. With the very large expansion into modern type small cut and tear teas, it is likely that ever more mechanization will be forced upon estates. In my opinion this will move away from Traditional quality teas which cannot be produced by this method. It is vital that only selected leaves are plucked for this level of quality.

Craftsman working at home

Again in my opinion mechanisation will lead to the cutting of the resident labour forces and their families. They will then migrate as we have seen in so many countries to the outskirts of the big cities where they live in often appalling conditions. If the consumer carefully examines the cost of a cup of good quality tea against other popular drinks, I am sure that they will conclude that tea is probably the best value after water. Furthermore that small cost provides the estates with funds not only to make the tea but also to improve the very basic living conditions of thousands of resident families dependent upon your consumption for a secure future. We are certainly mindful of this and discuss sensible approaches to ensuring these skilled people are retained. City life and rising wages beckon. I believe consumers will wish that those who provide them with such a wonderful relaxing and healthy product, should share in better conditions, with improving standards in estate schools and medical care in estate hospitals.

It is my opinion teas of this quality do not need Fair Trade organisations to police them, adding to bureaucracy. If the estates receive a good return for such teas, as an ex planter I know that estates will always invest in their future viability and the loyalty of their work forces. There is undoubtedly a problem where estates rely upon auction prices. It was only some seven years ago that estates were obtaining only 66 % of their cost of production. We seek to promote this sense of value between consumer and estate and estate to consumer, which includes the labour force. Our purchases are negotiated for a special service, with fairness our guide.

We hope that you will enjoy the exceptional quality of these teas expand your palate and understand tea better. We have enjoyed helping to make and promote what I call ‘Real’ tea. Tea that has a single identity of production and the name of its estate proudly printed for all to see. Our brand image is always the very highest quality.