If breaking a journey between Nairobi and Kampala, gentlemen and lady travellers might like to give the city of Nakuru a chance. If it becomes tiresome you can always take a tuk-tuk for a day trip off the beaten track. The driver will charge you a whole 1,000 shillings for a day’s hire. Don’t worry, although in the old country and in better times, 20 shillings made a pound, these days and over here about 170 Kenyan shillings make one of His Majesty pounds Stirling. That’s right, a thumping good escorted day trip for six quid. Speaking of quids, reassuringly, shillings in Kenya are still colloquially referred to as ‘bobs’.
A third of the way along the 400-mile-long slog, Naruku sits on the banks of the lake of the same name and on flat land that lies on the Kenyan side of the Eldama ravine. An obvious place to break a journey between the two capitals, an opportunity arises for day trips hereabouts along roads as well made up as you’ll find in this part of Africa. The East Africa Railway – more of which later – meanders its way nearby, winding and curving an iron road promising the shores of Lake Victoria after conquering the Aberdare Range with the help of only one tunnel. This is significant. Read on!
Is it a summer or winter’s day? Difficult to tell this close to the equator, but suffice it to say country lanes of sporadic trees and well-kept hedges show orderly, if rough, fields of thriving crops. A break in such a hedgeway reveals a few hundred yards of drive. Passing through solid green semi-circular gates topped in ornamental spikes, we arrive as if to a distant land during a previous century. Our destination is Egerton Castle, designed to resemble the grand manor houses and country estates typical of the English countryside four and a half thousand miles and a continent or two away. The structure is primarily made of stone, clay brick and slate, giving it a rugged, fortress-like but well-proportioned appearance amongst its expansive grounds.
The foundation was laid in 1938 by Lord Maurice Egerton, the 4th Baron Egerton of Tatton. Born in 1874 into a British aristocratic family, he was the son of the 3rd Baron, Alan de Tatton Egerton, and Lady Anna Lousia (nee Taylor). The family seat was Tatton Hall, a Cheshire estate that lies between Manchester Ringway and Northwich and which to this day spans over 1,000 acres of parkland complete with an elegant mansion, Tatton Hall, 50 acres of beautiful gardens and a working farm.
Maurice served in the Royal Navy Air Service during World War I, where he developed a keen interest in flying and became a friend of the Wright brothers. A pioneer aviator, photographer and filmmaker, he was also an early motorist and prodigious traveller. The trade winds led him to Africa, particularly to Kenya, which was then a British colony. He first arrived in the country in the early 1900s, where he became captivated by the vast landscapes and opportunities for land ownership. Over the years, he acquired a tract of land said to extend to 120,000 acres, at Njoro near Nakuru, in the Rift Valley region. It was here he established himself as a farmer and influential settler while husbanding a flock of some 25,000 sheep and 2,500 cattle. In 1940 gave 860 acres to the Kenya Government for the establishment of the Egerton College for Agriculture.
As such, Egerton was part of, perhaps unwillingly, a White Mischief/Happy Valley clique of decadent European aristocrats notorious between the 1920s and 1940s. According to Wiki, “Witty, attractive, well-bred, and well-read, Happy Valleyites were relentless in their pursuit to be amused, more often attaining this through drink, drugs, and sex.” Good God. However, regarding Lord Egerton, recollections vary. The Natives insist a sign once hung from a castle tree warning any woman trespassing on the grounds risked being shot. Men visiting the baron were asked to leave their womenfolk five miles away. He banned his male workers from ever bringing their wives to the servants’ quarters or keeping chickens and dogs.
A chance encounter took place between the wars when, as a 12-year-old, Master Kenneth Selwood leaned over a ship’s rail and gazed out to sea as his parents brought him back to England from Japan. He did not know it at the time, but the older man standing beside him, desperate for a confidant, was Lord Egerton venting that his mother had forbidden him to marry the girl of his choice. Egerton had stormed off to Africa for years to hunt big game and was returning home when he and Selwood shared a rail.
Back in Africa in the 1930s, Egerton fared no better. Again, recollections vary. Recounted elsewhere as ‘anonymous’, ‘a beautiful Kenyan woman’ or an ‘unnamed Austrian’, Natives close to the castle remember a woman called Victoria whom Edgerton courted unsuccessfully. The Baron’s original Njoro home being modest by local colonial standards, Miss Victoria, as is a lady’s right, rejected Lord Egerton’s proposal of marriage. In response, Egerton Castle began to rise from the African soil.
Even the most unreflective visitor to the Dark Continent soon realises the Native’s perception of time to be different from ours. Although one suspects months have been stretched out to decades, we shall not allow that to get in the way of a good tale. Mr Onyiego must have his say. In 1954, as the construction work – interrupted by war – neared completion, Egerton (who by then would have been 80) invited the lady from England to live with him. Onyiego remembers the woman drove into the compound but did not stay for two hours before driving away.
The former servant informs the curious visitor, “We learnt later she had refused to live with him and went back to England where she got married to another man. My master kept swearing and vowed never to love again, let alone marry another woman. He also did everything possible not see set his eyes on women.” Not only that, Miss Victoria’s enthusiasm for chickens and dogs led to them being banned from the servant’s quarters.
As for Kenneth Selwood, he was to become a respectable secondary modern schoolmaster. His friendship with Lord Egerton endured and when his lordship died in 1958, the Highfield Road, Yeovil, resident was surprised to learn he was named as an executor and beneficiary of the estate. Not having married, Egerton left the Cheshire family seat to the National Trust and Egerton Castle and the surrounding 3,000 acres to his nearby agricultural college (these days called Egerton University). Puffins dreading the budget might like to note the estate came to £1,717,572 gross, £1,035,978 net, on which £168,752 of death duties were due.
Never mind all of that. Let’s have a look around the castle. Take no notice of the sign demanding $12 from visitors. You are a resident, part with 200KSh – about a pound. Miss Beatrice Obwocha informs us about 100 Indian workers formed the technical part of the construction team. Locals were employed to do manual labour. Construction was overseen by an engineer from Rome called Albert Baron.
Most of the rocks used were imported while others were fetched from Kedowa and Njiru. The marble and tiles used to decorate the interior were imported from Italy and England. On completion, Egerton employed 16 servants, all male and rarely entertained visitors though the castle had many guest rooms. Inside, the castle boasts 52 or 53 rooms, depending on who you believe. These include grand halls, libraries and a music room, all decorated with wood panelling and ornate fireplaces, further emphasizing the classic aristocratic style.
The layout of the castle is spacious, with high windows allowing natural light to flood into the rooms, offering spectacular views of the surrounding lush landscape. The castle’s interiors were lavishly furnished, and the gardens were meticulously landscaped, mirroring the style of European country homes of the early 20th century. Not a lot of furniture remains other than some interesting if random artefacts. The property is expansive, and visitors not numerous. Puffins who prefer their own company will find space. The place is uncluttered. Captions are non-existent or simple with no attempt to preach. British historic attractions please take note.
Lord Egerton’s bathroom and guests’ bathroom.
Lord Egerton’s bed, bedroom and some simple furniture.
A stove with down pipe. There’s a flue around the back. Would it be for heating water?
Some modern electrical equipment, bound to be a Puffin who knows exactly what it is.
Older electrical equipment, presumably connecting a supply to the castle from wires on poles, or from the castle’s generator. Again, there will be a Puffin who will be able to tell just by looking at it.
A hall/ballroom, very similar to the hall at Vale Royal Abbey. Note the organ and the fireplace. Above the fireplace are some old photos plus a more recent image of Tatton Hall.
The kitchen range. A maker’s inscription above the ovens reads ‘Durbanian Hotel Range’. The stoves were linked to the laundry room to provide heat to dry laundry.
Radio equipment to the bottom and a Hutchinson Methane Plant Mark II at the top.
Which leads us down a rabbit hole, or more accurately, a railway tunnel. Although it’s difficult to see in the photo, in real life the bottom of the black vented contraption is clearly marked ‘Made by Tunnel Co Ltd, Fort Ternan.’ Tunnel is the name of a farm which surrounds the only tunnel on the Nairobi to Kampala stretch of the East Africa Railway. Near Fort Ternan, our friends at ‘Railway Wonders of the World’ reported in their series ‘Railways of the Commonwealth’ that;
The railway twists and turns in a bewildering manner, especially at Lumbwa, where a huge horse-shoe curve is introduced, an air-line alignment being found impossible. A few miles beyond Lumbwa, where rocky country is traversed, the railway passes through the only tunnel, 500 feet in length, though it is carried from hill to hill over the deep ravines by numerous steel viaducts.
It was here that Arthur Heap Hutchinson farmed after coming to the colony in 1919. During the First World War, he served with the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, was wounded at Ypres and posted to Tanganyika. After the war, he took land at Tunnel and planted maize. Son Tim was born in 1930 as a locust plague finished off the maize. The family turned to coffee and left a manager in charge while they returned to England to concentrate on selling the end product. After returning to Kenya in the late 40s, Arthur died in 1950 by which time Tunnel consisted of 52 acres of coffee, 500 dairy beef cattle, 100 pigs and 50 acres of maize. In 1954, Tim began his experiments with methane and thereafter cooked with biogas for the next 28 years. He remained in Kenya and died as recently as 2015.
What remarkable people.
Text and photos© Always Worth Saying 2024