If you have been to the Dairy Farm Nature Park, you might have seen this rather quaint abandoned building near the Wallace Education Centre.
In the past, I have been often asked by many people, including some TV production companies, with regards to the background of this mysterious bungalow.
Until recently, my only bit of knowledge of this house was that it was used as the field headquarters of Brigadier Duncan Maxwell during the Battle of Singapore in Feb 1942. Brigadier Maxwell was in command of the 27th Brigade of the 2nd Australian Imperial Forces. His men were assigned to defend the area between Kranji River and the Causeway.
Who occupied the house before and after the war was totally beyond me until recently, when a close friend, Jerome, sent me some old photos of Dairy Farm.
Jerome's great great grandfather came to Singapore from China in the 1890s and lived in the area that would eventually become Dairy Farm and Chestnut Drive. His family homestead was there till the late 1980s when the government acquired the land for housing.
It seems that this particular house was formerly owned by the Cold Storage company that ran the dairy farm. The house was staff quarters and was used by the chief veterinarian as well as the General Manager of Dairy Farm in its time. The last occupant was Mr Fielding, and thus it is often referred to as Fielding's House.
So, mystery solved !
Until now, you'd probably only find urban legends and talks of haunted houses if you tried to google this place.
The main milking shed at Dairy Farm has now been turned into the Wallace Education Centre and is used for teaching schools about art and ecology.
Here are some pictures of the Wallace Education Centre today as well as an old photo from Jerome showing the original milk shed in the background
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| Wallace Education Centre, Dairy Farm Nature Park. |
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| The original milk shed at Dairy Farm. |
Related links:
The Dairy Farm
Dairy Farm Nature Park
Alfred Rusell Wallace
Good research James
ReplyDeleteWent hiking around Dairy Farm from time to time and used to pass by that house. Glad to know some history about it. All this while, I thought it is the house of one of the residents. On my next hike, will take a closer look. Well done James!!
ReplyDeleteChuck
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ReplyDeleteNo, I am afraid not. It's Pang.
DeleteHi James, I chanced upon your write-ups/articles. It's really interesting and much effort has gone into it. My maternal grandparents used to stay at the Jalan Pakis area (now is the chestnut ville) and all the relatives staying around the Chestnut drive to Diary Farm areas. It brought back much wonderful childhood memories and saw the cows gazing. I enjoyed looking at the old photos and maps. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteI went to nature park for my P5 camp its very fun but the most i wanted to know is the history
ReplyDeleteMy neighbour remembers the time when the GM was staying there. His helper used to sneak him sandwiches haha.
ReplyDelete