The lost hills around Hillview.

I was just sharing with a nostalgia group on Facebook on the topic of lost hills in the Singapore city. Right in the city long ago were some small hills named Mount Wallich, Mount Erskine and Mount Palmer. These hills are no longer there, having been levelled and the earth dumped into the sea for land reclamation.

While sharing my thoughts about those lost hills, I recalled recently the incredulous looks from some young school children who had invited me to take them on a tour of the Jurong and Bukit Batok areas as part of their National Education programme.

I had done four tours with four different primary schools and each time the kids all had that same unbelieving look. They just can't visualise the area being full of hills in the past!

Since Singapore's Independence, the routine construction method seemed to be 'level everything and begin anew'. The country now seems to be so flat and connected that a whole generation has now grown up not knowing the difficulties of moving around these hills to get from place to place.

When I was growing up in Princess Elizabeth Estate in the 1960s, the furthest we could go along Hillview Ave was just beyond today's Hillview Villas where the track ended. Beyond this was the hills into Jurong and the farm area. It was not only hilly but forested in many parts.

Recently I came across this photo on the net and remembered I had the same copy from my days working at the Church of St Mary of the Angels.

This is a picture of the hill top, where today the Church of St Mary of the Angels is located. It was taken in 1957. The man is Fr Virgil Mennon who built the original church.
Right at the back on the top right is Bukit Gombak. Gombak II was another hill that was part of Bukit Gombak. The private housing estates of Chu Lin and Jalan Remaja would be later built on this smaller hill.

What is interesting to note is that between Gombak II and the church foreground, the hills have all been levelled and today the flats of Bukit Batok New Town are built there. The hills are completely gone !

The old Jurong Road (9m.s.) ran across the picture just beyond the church boundary 10m below the clump of large trees in the valley.
It would be only later around 1960 that Hillview Avenue would be connected to Jurong Road here (somewhere to the right of the picture).

So when I was telling the children about how the soldiers during the war had to climb over hills after hills to escape the Japanese army advancing through Jurong, I usually can see bewildered faces.
They just can't imagine that it took hours to cross Bukit Gombak to get to Bukit Batok, today a 5 minute drive by car.

From this aerial photo map of the Bukit Batok battle area, you can actually see how hilly the area used to be; the lumps and bumps in the photo.

WWII relic at Hillview Avenue

Following my article about the massacre of the Aussie soldiers at Bukit Batok during WWII, I received an email from an old friend from Sydney Australia, Brother George Boggs, a Franciscan Friar.
Brother George came to Singapore in 1970 to work at the Church of St Mary which is located at the hilltop where the Aussie soldiers were camped during the retreat from the invading Japanese Army in Feb 1942.

This was what he wrote
"... when Fr Brendan and I cut down the jungle, we discovered 2 long trenches that were still there but  it didn’t cross our minds to record it on film. I also unearthed a bomb-shell there and had it removed by the army of the time in the late ‘70s. The excavators then came in to build the Hall over the spot.  Yes, we knew the Aussies had fought on that very spot.

Have you been up to the top of Bukit Batok Nature Reserve where the Japs had hewn out of the rocks 3 or so little caves where they hid their ammunition and were camouflaged from aircraft. I believe these little caves have since been cemented in. You know, the hill behind the Fire Station and the Green Spot Drink Factory...

...but there still exists the machine gun pillbox that is inside what used be the Wei Sin School on the road up to the present Church"

His last comment about the pillbox jogged my memory! I recalled seeing the structure about 30 years ago when the hill was still only covered by lallang. Of course, at that time I simply had absolutely no interest in the remnants of the war in Singapore.

But as a result of writing this blog, and of recent sightings of land surveyors taking measurements around the church lands, I thought I'd try and record whatever is left of the pillbox before it is completely lost to posterity.

The Church is situated at the top of a hillock. Up till the 1970s, (old) Jurong Road ran alongside the bottom of this hillock and was the only access from Bukit Timah leading to Hong Kah and Tuas. 

From the top of this hillock, you had a clear view of Jurong Road running towards Hong Kah. 

For this strategic reason, a defence line for the British forces during WW2 was set up beside this hillock facing west from where the Japanese invaded. Today, coincidentally, Bukit Batok East Ave 3 is built upon and runs along that same defensive line. The pillbox would obviously be one of many that would ring the defence line.

This morning, I went to explore the 'jungle' that has now grown around that hillock and I did manage to locate the remnants of the old pillbox. 

Unfortunately, after almost 70 years of neglect , the jungle has reclaimed most of the relic and the old pillbox is completely crumbled and ensnarled by overgrowth. A tree has actually grown through the structure. 

This would be how the machine gun pillbox looked like during its time. This picture is of the one at Sime Road.

The crumbling pillbox today completely ensnarled by overgrowth but you can still see the basic structure.
I was definitely not about to pull up the roots and branches and risk facing black cobras and scorpions!

Beside the pillbox were deep trenches that were dug into the ground and led back into forested area.
These are not the trenches mentioned in Bro George's letter. Those were further up the hillock.

The field of fire that the machine gun would cover would be across the farmlands that was in Jurong at the time. Today, HDB blocks occupy those former farm lands.

The view today from the same spot across the plains. Jurong Road ran just below the green edge.

View of the original Church of St Mary in 1971 when Bro George and Fr Brendan arrived.
The church is built on the hilltop where the Aussie soldiers defended Jurong Road.
(Old) Jurong Road can be seen running behind the building.

Related links:

The tragedy at Sleepy Valley

The Church of St Mary of the Angels

Places around P.E.E. (8) - Church of St Mary of the Angels

The Roman Catholic Church of St Mary of the Angels was established at Bukit Batok in 1970 when the parish was carved out of the huge St Joseph's Church domain.

It was given to the Australian Franciscan Friars (a religious order) to manage. The pioneer team of Friar Sylvester Campbell, Friar Brendon Rogers and Friar George Boggs took over the premises that was previously used by another group of Franciscans Friars who ran a sociological institute.

At that time, there were only 12 families registered in the new parish but this was soon to change with the establishment of Bukit Batok New Town. Located at the other end of Hillview Avenue from Princess Elizabeth Estate, the parish continued to grow to such an extent that the church building had to be torn down and rebuilt twice over  the next years just to accomodate the growing Catholic community. Today it is estimated to have a congregation of 8,000.

The 1st Church of St Mary of the Angels (left) in 1970.
The building in the rear is called the Friary where the religious friars lived.

Pictured below is the current church building which was designed with people at its heart.
The building was planned to ensure close interaction with the congregation and provide a conducive environment for community worship.

The cobblestone Piazza provides a medieval feeling to the place.

The church nave.

Quiet spaces for personal prayer inside the church

Statues of St Francis of Assisi and St Clare at the entrance welcome visitors.

Aisle leading to the underground Columbarium

The Garden of World Peace, built above the Columbarium.
The building is the Friary where the friars live in community.

A 10m overhead cantilevered roof provides sheltered outdoor space.

Christmas Tree erected over the Reflection Pool.

Though it was never done for that reason, the church building has been recognised as a work of architecture. It won the President's Design Award in 2006, the SIA Architectural Design Award in 2004, the International Dedal Minosse Prize 2004 and the 9th SIA-ICI Colour Award.

I have been a parishioner of this church since 1971 and was the Parish Administrator from 1985 to 1990 when I left to further my career in the commercial sector (sigh).

If you are ever in the area, please do feel free to drop in and enjoy the ambience and to look at the architecture. Free guides are available by the main door for you to make your own way around the premises.

For more info, you can visit the church website at this link.

Related links:
The friars at Hillview
The Franciscans
The Columbarium

The friars of Hillview.

Friars are men who live spiritual lives in a religious community. You may be more familiar with the term 'monks'. The difference between a monk and a friar is that a monk is normally cloistered within a monastery, whereas a friar does his missionary work outside amongst the people.

St Francis of Assisi started the Franciscan Friars order in Italy more than 800 years ago.
Perhaps the only friars you may have heard of are Friar Tuck associated with Robin Hood, or Friar Lawrence from Shakespeares' Romeo and Juliet?

Friars, besides evangelizing by example,  do work amongst the community in whichever field they may be needed. There are friars who are medically trained, educators, administrators, lawyers and some running church parishes.

There is a group of Franciscan friars living in the Hillview area at a community house called a friary.
They have friaries located both at Bukit Batok East as well as Chestnut Drive .

Their presence in Singapore started in 1958.
It came about when the Vatican realized that communism was a serious threat to society in Asia with the rise of Communist China. The Vatican decided to  establish a Studium Sociologicum, or social center, with the purpose of writing and propagating anti-communist literature to counter this threat. The task was given to the Franciscan friars to set up this center in Singapore. And so a small group of international chinese scholars, amongst them Irish, Italians, American and Taiwanese were sent here to begin their work of countering communism.  They set up their Social Center called St Anthony Friary at 8-3/4ms Old Jurong Road. When the threat of communism diminished somewhat in later years, the Social Center was moved to Taiwan.

The Archbishop of Singapore wanted to keep the Franciscan presence in Singapore and offered the Franciscans a new task of running a parish community instead. And so in 1970, the Franciscan Order sent friars from Australia to Singapore to establish a new parish church community at Bukit Batok. This was named the Parish of St Mary of the Angels and was based at the original St Anthony Friary. In time, the parish grew from a few rural Catholic families to today's congregation of around 7,000. They are still served by the Franciscan Friars today.

The Church of St Mary of the Angels at Bukit Batok East.

In a forthcoming blog, I will highlight the work of some friars and you may be surprised that a saint may have walked amongst you !