KUALA PILAH HISTORY 6

 

                The Vanishing Valley Story             

                How Green was The Valley  - the 1950s  to the 2010s

                                                     

                           

                           KUALA PILAH VALLEY - from Bahau Road

            

                                                                                                                                                                                               

The view from Bahau Road of the town end of the valley with the wall of Lister memorial to the left and the old bus stand and toddy shop flanked by a huge Flame of the Forest tree, and coconut trees to the right  and the main range in the background.

The Bahau road end of the valley had a lower slip road that connected Lister with Hill Road. This was at such low level that the road was flooded when the valley was itself flooded as seen in the picture of such a 1958  flood . The old Post Office was a very solid brick building that housed the quarters of the postmaster. Mail was delivered by postmen on bicycle or on foot.

                                                    Kuala Pilah Valley in Flood - a 1958 photo 

 

  Rare photograph of 1958 Floods of the valley spreading into Sawah Lebar side across the elevated Bahau Road through two large diameter tunnel drains. All these have been since replaced with wider channels and most of the Sawah Lebar side of the valley is taken up by a slip road  joining the Bahau Road to the RTR to Sawah Lebar and on beyond to Bahau by the Railway Track Road .

 

KP POST OFFICEAND POLICE STATION - Picture 1 taken in 1937

 

 

                                         

                                         KP POST OFFICE AND JKR OFFICE -Picture 2 taken in 1957

 

 

Picture above 1(edited to remove colonial administrators not allowed in Japanese occupation) of old Post office on Bahau Road behind 3rd gentleman and commemorative arch in 1937 or so next to which was an identical building just visible in picture that was the pre war  police station. Reportedly it was blown up by guerrillas towards the end of the war and replaced by a wooden police station facing the town stadium  and padang – that was itself replaced by another concrete building in 1952 at the other end of the padang , that still stands.  Picture 2 taken a good 20 years later shows the old concrete post office but with the low wooden JKR Office next to it

  

                 KUALA PILAH POLICE STATION AFTER OPENING 1952 with old TMS Primary school



                                                                      

   The Kuala Pilah Valley was not just an open space . The Valley was a low land that started getting smaller long before 1930s when the KP town was extended from the hill rise in what is now the Melang road. As the town expanded the valley became what it was in 1950s. This narrowed natural valley  acted as a retention pond for the occasional heavy rains of December although Kuala Pilah was long recognised as the driest town in Malaya. In fact recognising this the valley had several wells which in particularly dry spells provided the townspeople with life saving water. One such was below the level of the toddy shop next to the bus stand and   a local cherry tree. The slopes by the side of Hill road and facing the Government Toddy shop, bus stand and the Lister memorial were natural slides for children using long full coconut  leaves and the occasional daredevil boys coiled inside the inner part of used car tyres and rolled down the slopes. The valley was a short cut to the hill road, Bahau Road and for Fijian and  Gurkha soldiers based at the padang opposite Majestic Cinema to reach their camp for meals in the camp based next to the District Offices. The valley stretched from near the old Rest House on Seremban road all the way  to Sawah Lebar. The Rest house portion has now been swallowed up by a new housing estate, and shops, below, and replaced by a new rest house on Hill road  where the wooden Bungalow of the Executive Engineer’s house used to stand . The Tan Puan Fountain that was donated to commemorate the Jubilee of King George V in 1936(below) is long gone. Site of old Rest House and the new Rest House on Hill road.

           
A Kuala Pilah landmark the Towkay Tan Puan Fountain stood in front of the old rest house on Seremban Road (where a small bush on a divider stands in front of the eating stalls ) today  The fountain stopped functioning long ago and is no more. It was built to commemorate the coronation of King George and Queen Elizabeth on 5^th May 1937 by Towkay Tan Puan of 165 Jalan Yam Tuan who in 1927  built  the most decorated shop house in Kuala Pilah that stands opposite the new Bus Station. Well maintained it is an attractive addition to  history. Fortunately it has been restored and is well maintained.   Clearly the Pangung Wayang of Jalan Yam Tuan was built a good 11 years earlier and probably the town developed from the direction of the Jalan Seremban that and its junction with Jalan Lister with the shops being built after Pangung Wayang (1916) in stages to reach the 1927 building of the fabulous house of Towkay Tan Puan. 

 

         The King George the sixth Coronation Commemorative Fountain on Seremban Road near old Rest House . This has long been demolished but was there till 1970 or so although the fountain had stopped functioning

                   

 

 

 

The old Rest House of KP was a large wooden building on stilts and similar to ones in other towns nearby such as Tampin.  The Government Rest Housein Kuala Pilah  built in 1891  . It served as a gathering place for the colonial gentry of the time and place for the visiting government officials of the day to stay on their inspections of the district. . The first Rest House was  built in 1891 by Singhalese workers and had 4 bed rooms. It was the only hotel in town and used for functions, meetings and celebrations. Rest houses were integral parts of smaller towns that had no hotels and run traditionally by Singhalese Rest House keepers. The Kuala Pilah Rest House was contracted to one Mr Janis De Silva a long time resident of Kuala Pilah and Tampin (Straits Times 1891 January). Much later Rest Houses almost exclusively were contracted to Chinese of  Hainanese origin .

 A much larger two storey building was the Rest House in the Seremban lake gardens that served a similar function. In those days when there were few “coffee shop hotels” or no hotels at all the Rest Houses served the  function of providing clean, standard accommodation and food. Most Rest Houses have since been re-built and are less important with the rise of hotels even in Kuala Pilah. In 2012 KP boasts at least 3 modern albeit small  hotels. The new KP rest house is where the old wooden bungalow of the British Engineer's  was further up the Hill Road near the present  magistrate's court. .

 

 More to Come !!

do look upother earlier  Kuala Pilah History Blogs by same author 

Deva Mp