The Big house
Visit date: 2008
Year of build: 1850's
Status: Semi maintained

This has been on my to do list since reading about it in a newspaper report a couple of years ago. It makes you wonder what other gems like this lurk forgotten in Malaysia.

The mansion is of the classical style and was supposedly built in the 1850's. The general layout plan for this style of building is symmetrical. The central main entrance way is covered with a grand carriage porch and a triangular pediment is above along the main roof line.
In its prime as the main estate house for the Caledonia estate, it was simply known as the 'Big house'. The original surrounding grounds of the house had a golf course and even its own air strip. The mansion also had a little dance hall on the first floor and was well known for its parties and events for visitors and families living on the estate.

During the Japanese occupation of Malaya in WW2, the house was allegedly used by them as an Army HQ. After the war the estate and house came back into British hands and they continued with their estate business.
In 1948 murder was afoot when Mr. John Ramsden, the managing director of the Penang Rubber Estates Group, at Caledonia Estate, was shot dead in this very house by an assailant with a double barreled shotgun! It was then said his "female companion" was so distraught over this, that she hanged herself in one of the upstairs bedrooms not long after.

Today a 80+ year old woman lives on site. For 60+ years she and her husband has looked after the house. Unfortunately her husband passed away a few years ago and now she and her surviving relatives help look after the site in perhaps a semi-official capacity.

The house today is in an appalling state. Parts of the building have suffered from arson in recent years, the wooden 1st floor will surely collapse through within the next 10 years. The owners have actually nailed shut many of the doors to prevent people from being injured.
On the east side of the building was once the separate servants quarter and kitchen building, this sadly totally collapsed in recent years from fire damage.

The little oil palm estate in which the house now sits is under private ownership. It will be down to this land owner and the relative authorities to push forward a plan of action to save this site before it's too late!