Fort St David & Cuddalore

[candelar]

Hello,

I just found the answer to one of my own questions. The church in question, near the building of "Parry & Co. Limited" in Cuddalore is not St. David's - despite its immediate proximity to "St. David's Matriculation School", but is in fact called "Christ Church".

viz: EID Parry & Co. website > monuments & milestones:
"1824 � In March 1823, Thomas Parry�s (56 years old) health took a turn for the worse and he succumbed to Cholera while on an inspection trip in August 1824. His body was carried to Cuddalore and buried in the nave of the church where he used to worship." Next to which is an image of the church, underneath which is written: "Christ Church, Cuddalore".
From: http://www.eidparry.com/milestones.asp

And this picture of the church shows it to be the same as in my own photos -- though mine show it to have lost all of its white and yellow paint!

I also found the following reference:

"… Thomas Parry, a British merchant adventurer, landed in India in 1788, when he was 20 years old. By the time he died-in Cuddalore, of cholera, in 1824, and his grave can be seen at the town's Christ Church …."
From: "The Old Sugar Road" by Nitya Varadarajan at: http://indiatodaygroup.com/btoday/20041024/books.html

From this it occurs to me that this church may have been primarily for the benefit of the families of both Thomas Parry himself and of those other, presumably mostly British residents nearby, who may have been working with or for him in the sugar business. I'm imagining this because I don't think these two buildings, both the church and the premises of Parry & Co. were that close to Fort St David itself.

And I think I have located them on Google Earth as being South of the Gadilam river on the West side of a channel from it that runs due south from below Fort St David before curving to the East and entering the sea. I believe Christ Church and Parry & Co. are on a road that runs parallel to the channel just to the south of a road that crosses that channel and enters what looked to me (when we went over the bridge) to be a fishing village. I think we were directed to this location in the first place by someone who thought we wanted St. David's school instead of Fort St David!

For me the question remains as to whether there was another church or chapel for the use of the residents of Fort St. David? Or whether Christ Church served the entire British community at the time – which I somehow doubt, given its location on the other side of the Gadillam river from Fort St David.

I was hoping to discover where an ancestor was likely baptised. The only information I have is that she was baptised Jane Sarah in September 1792 at Cuddalore. Her father was Robert Dashwood, a civil servant with the Hon. East India Company.

Regards,
Robin

[Anniyan]

Originally Posted by DeMorgan

Hello Anniyan,

Who was Barathiar? What did he do to end up in jail?

Regards

Nick

Sorry for this late response. Somehow, missed your question.

Bharathiar was a great poet, nationalist and a social reformer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subramanya_Bharathy

[Anniyan]

Originally Posted by candelar

Hello,

I just came across this very interesting discussion about Fort St David and I hope you will permit me to join in with a question or two.

While visiting India last year I was briefly in Cuddalore, hoping to find whatever remained of Fort St. David. I failed! At least that has now become apparent to me from seeing the photos/maps posted in this thread.

I did, however, come across an old church, which I believe may be called St. David's. At any rate it has to be from the era of Fort St David as it contains memorial tablets inside with inscriptions that date back to at least the early 1800s -- and one that I think says 1771. And right next to it is a school (a modern structure) called "St David's Matriculation School". And that is right beside another old building, which has a sign on its door, which reads "Parry & Co. Limited estd 1788". And which is clearly very much in use -- and I presume still in the sugar business. But it was a Sunday when I was there and there was only a guard at the door, who couldn't tell us too much. The church itself is no longer in use. And in fact is in a very sad state of disrepair. We found someone at the school who had the keys and he let us into the church. But he did not know anything about the history.

Does anyone here know anything about this church? Is its name St. David's? And where is it in relation to Fort St. David? It certainly looks like it must have been used by the families of the English East India Company.

And I do have some photos of this church, which I would be happy to share. But I do not know how to go about adding them to this thread, like Nick has done. If anyone would like me to do that, they will have to tell me how! There's a posting rule that says one may not post attachments -- so that's a bit of a mystery to me.

Regards,
Robin

I dont know about the church but i have heard about St David's School,it was founded in 17th century, one of the oldest surviving schools in India.

Parry & Co. is still in the business, now its known as EID Parry.

To upload pics, try this www.tinypic.com

[DeMorgan]

Hello Robin,

I feel for you in your having visited Cuddalore and not having found the Fort. I had been researching the area for twelve years, and had corresponded with numerous people who I contacted in the area before I found it, quite by chance on Google Earth.

Three weeks ago I had exactly the same experience when I was in Manathavady in the Wayanad. I was looking for the fort, and I climbed several hills in the area, but didn't know that the town itself has moved north over time.

A couple of days ago back in England I was studying Google Earth, and the fort which is tiny jumped out at me. I had been less than 200 metres from it. It was behind some small trees and gardens.

With a young guy from Cuddalore I am writing a blog which aims over the next couple of years to post information on Cuddalore. I have several dozen pages of transcripts about the area that I have made from old East India Company Records and from books.

Until recently, I had assumed that the local modern Indian's were quite uninterested in this period of their history, and would have quite understood it if they had found our presence and the Raj period offensive.

What I had not expected was the incredibly warn reception that I had in India, and the really genuine levels of interest that there is in the history of these old places.

Sadly it is almost impossible for Indian's to access this hstory in India, so if I can repay their great help and the years of pleasure that reading Indian history has given me by making this research more widely available by posting it on the web.

If you like to email the photos to me, I will post them for you.

My address is

nicholas.balmer1@ntlworld.com

Our Cuddalore History Blog is at

http://cuddalore-history.blogspot.com/

Regards

Nick Balmer

[DeMorgan]

Hello Robin,

There were actually several churches and schools run by both Catholocs and Protestants. I have some very interesting early accounts by Danish Missionaries which I can send you in a day or so.

There were also Hindu schools present in the town before the Christian ones. The Christian accounts are a bit dismissive of these Hindu schools, but when compared with the situation for most European's in Europe at the time, they were probably better than most peasants in Europe had access to.

Oddly enough the European's in India by the late 18th Century seem to have developed schooling in India to a much higher standard than were many of the schools in England at that time.

Only a tiny proportion of Englishmen were literate and had been to formal school in 18th century England.

By 1817 in Suffolk and elsewhere people were trying to develop schools for every child. This did not in fact happen until 1870.

My Suffolk ancestors were in the group of private individuals, Parson's and landowners who were promoting these schools around Ipswich, Woodbridge and Stowmarket. They were suggesting, and were trying to implement the methods of a Dr Bell, who was a Scot who had developed schools in the Madras area in the 1790 to 1810 period.

I have been very surprised to find just how many schools there were in 1720's Cuddalore. These were both individual faith schools, but also mixed religious schools.

Although Cuddalore is a back water now. In the period 1680 to 1758 it was in fact a boom town in much the same way Bangalore or Silicon Valley are today.

I have a photo copy of a history of the Parry Company. If there are particular people or places you want to look up, just mail me.

Sadly, I am going away on business in an hour or so, but I will be back on Friday. You may not get an answer until then.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[candelar]

Hello Anniyan,

Thank you for your response. I am not sure if the "St. David's Matriculation School", that I found, would be the same as the 17th century "St. David's School". Most of the buildings of the school that I saw looked pretty modern. And I'm wondering if the "matriculation" part of the name might not mean it is a pre-school from which the pupils may graduate to the St. David's School proper? On the other hand, it is right between the definitely old buildings of both Parry & Co. and the church. Do you know whereabouts in Cuddalore the 17th century St. David's School is supposed to be?

I have sent copies of my photos to Nick. So I will leave it to him to post any of them if he wishes.

Regards,
Robin

[Anniyan]

Originally Posted by candelar

Hello Anniyan,

Thank you for your response. I am not sure if the "St. David's Matriculation School", that I found, would be the same as the 17th century "St. David's School". Most of the buildings of the school that I saw looked pretty modern. And I'm wondering if the "matriculation" part of the name might not mean it is a pre-school from which the pupils may graduate to the St. David's School proper? On the other hand, it is right between the definitely old buildings of both Parry & Co. and the church. Do you know whereabouts in Cuddalore the 17th century St. David's School is supposed to be?

I have sent copies of my photos to Nick. So I will leave it to him to post any of them if he wishes.

Regards,
Robin

St.David school is located in Cuddalore-Old Town. Matriculation board is one of the education boards in Tamil nadu that are authorized to conduct secondary (class 10) final examinations and award certificates to successful candidates. The schools that follow matriculation board syllabus are known as matriculation school. Most of the schools run by Christian society are either matriculation or anglo-indian board, i think St.David school follows matriculation syllabus and so its called as St.David matriculation school

[DeMorgan]

Hello Robin,

I have just reread you post above. Are you perhaps connected with the family of Sir James Dashwood who built a house at Kirtlington Park near Rousham in about 1770?

Is Robert Dashwood perhaps a brother of Thomas Dashwood?

If so you might be interested in the full text of the following letter from 1781 which my great x 5 uncle Edward Baber wrote on Tom's behalf, in support of his job application for the EIC.

My dear Sir.

The gentleman who will have the honour to deliver this is Mr Thomas Dashwood the youngest son of the late Sir James Dashwood Bart of Oxfordshire

SNIP

My ancestors came from very close to West Wycombe which was the main home of the Dashwood family, of whom there were a number in India. I have come across their names in documents.

There is a very good weblist at the following address INDIA-L@rootsweb.com where you can very likely get a lot of help on tracking down who this person was. The list is specifically intended for people of Anglo Indian origin, or for those who had ancestors in India.

You wrote

"For me the question remains as to whether there was another church or chapel for the use of the residents of Fort St. David? Or whether Christ Church served the entire British community at the time – which I somehow doubt, given its location on the other side of the Gadillam river from Fort St David.

I was hoping to discover where an ancestor was likely baptised. The only information I have is that she was baptised Jane Sarah in September 1792 at Cuddalore. Her father was Robert Dashwood, a civil servant with the Hon. East India Company.

Regards,
Robin"

My detailed research into Cuddalore to date stops in about 1760 or thereabouts, when my ancestors left there for London.

I don't know when this church was built. It was probably after 1720.

Before that date I have found references to services being held in an upper room in Fort St David. I cannot find a map of Fort St David that shows buildings in it, but I believe that there was at least one, and quite probably more buildings in it.

I have a copy of a very good pre 1758 map from the British Library. Sadly, I have signed a form to say that I will not post it online, as otherwise they would want rather a lot of money from me. We might be able to compare that with the photos offline.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[DeMorgan]

Hello Robin,

I have loaded up some of your photos which I am posting here.

The first shows the church from the street.



Then the tower



And the interior



The following photo shows the Parry Factory House. K. Kanniah in his book "Cuddalore on the Coromandel Coast under the English" published in 2002, on page 46 says that this building was the East India Company's Factory in Cuddalore. He says that the building had previously been the house of Mr. Haynes until 1707. It was partly used as the Deputy Governor of Fort St David's residence and as a citadel in the town. The walls around the town were quite substantial, but were pulled down in 1803.



By factory they mean a storehouse. The records show that the Company had washing ghats near the foothills about a mile and a half away to the west where the cloth was washed, dried and packed as it was brought into Cuddalore from the inland towns and villages where it had been manufactured by the Indian outworkers and subcontracted weavers.

The East India Company ships came in December and January each year. This building may well have been where the bales of cloth could be kept in the last weeks before it went onto the ships.

If this is so, in the 1760's this is probably where my 5 times great grandfather John Calland worked.

The following could well be a transcript of a letter written from that building in 1763.

TO THE HONBLE GEORGE PIGOT ESQR.
PRESIDENT & GOVERNOR ETC COUNCIL
AT FORT ST. GEORGE.

HONBLE SIR & SIRS

Mr. Calland being arrived agreeable to his appointments, the different Employs of the settlement were yesterday settled in Council in the following Manner, Mr. Calland Ware House Keeper, Paymaster & Accountant. Mr. Raddon Sea & Land Customer Store Keeper & Secretary Mr. Walter Goddard station’d under the ware House Keeper & appointed Clerk of the Market.

Ramma Lingum the Porto Novo Merchant exported from hence the 8th. Instant on account the Honble company the following Cloths.

Call. Pieces
Long Cloth Fine 12 132
Ditto 9 516
Ditto 8 72
720 Pieces

CUDDALORE We are with Respect
12th April 1763. HONBLE SIR & SIRS
Your most Obedient & humble Servants
Charles Turner
John Calland
Edwd Raddon.

The next picture taken from Google Earth shows the locations of these buildings.



The following transcript from 1717 illustrates the places the cloth came from and the types.

Nagore and Worriapollam are towns inland of Cuddalore.

No 29.
To the Honble. Joseph Collet Esqr.

Presidt. And Govr. Of Forts St George & St David &ca. Council.

Honble. Sr. &ca

Your favour of the 12th. Came to hand ye.14th Instant.

Pags Cash
We shall credit you accot. Currt. For the Pags. 17431.22.63 paid ye. new Merchants.

In yesterdays Consultation we concluded the Contract with our Merchants who are very thankfull for ye. fifty bales of blew Long cloth added to the list you sent us and again promise to bring in the roome of the twelve thousand pieces of Nagore ye. same quantity of Crour long Cloth which being the Country where the best Cloth is made according to the Worriapollam muster we have agreed (with your leave) for the future to put it under that denomination & shall take (care with the Deputy Governrs. particular Inspection) that it be kept up to its full goodness.

Upon any accident or extraordinary Occasion here will be great want of another Commissioned Officer and therefore we desire that the Honble Governr. will be pleased to order Serjeant John Caudull an Ensigne in Lieutenant De Morgans Company who is a very sober stout active man we shall not bring to accot. Any mony stopp’d for the souldiers wives desiring only yt. your Paymaster will remitt hither what he Received.

Inclos’d are Lists of Stores and timber & Plank which we want & desire may come by the first Conveyance if a Pegu Ship should call here with ye. latter (with your leave) we hall suppose ourselves as we did last year from Capt. Bennet.

Wee send also an accot. of Expenses on the Madrass Brigantine Ship Metchlepatam and Sloop Dartmouth [amounting] to Pags 25.31.24 and most respectfully subscribe.
Honble. Sr. &ca.
Your most odedt. Humble Servants
Francis Hastings
John Berlu
Fort St David Matthew Weld
18th March 1717/8 Joseph Houghton
Robt Berriman
Tho: Wright

Has anybody been to either of these towns, and does anybody know if any buildings used by those weavers might still exist?

Cloth towns in Britain were often very prosperous, and they often contain lovely ancient buildings sometimes 500 or more years old. Could this be the cae too in Worriapollam?

Thank you Robin for letting us see and use these photos. I will put them and a lot more information on my Cuddalore History Blog in the next couple of weeks. I have a lot more correspondance and material on Cuddalore to write up when I can steal the time.

I am very grateful for the directions, as I hope one day to be able to visit the town as you did.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[candelar]

Hello Anniyan and Nick,

Nick, thank you for posting my pics! And a lot of great info. As you were doing this, so I was engaged in some further investigations (burrowing into the mists of time) to see what else I could find on both the church and its neighbouring school.

And now, following on the discoveries from Google Earth -- fortunately unimpeded by the clouds over Cuddalore, there is now cause to rejoice at some emerging from those also not so misty times -- courtesy of Google Books! Herewith some answers regarding both St David’s School and Christ Church.

As regards the school, both Anniyan and I have referred to it as having been founded in the 17th century, which is how it is also described in Wikipedia viz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuddalore. Except that our fellow poster, Nick along with his colleague, Madhusudhanan, have it founded in the early 18th century on their blog, www.cuddalore-history.blogspot.com:

“Bristish educational instition: In 1717 St. David school was started in Cuddalore O.T. to educate the children of East India Company. On 1886 a college was started in its premises. The college was named after St. Joseph. It is one of the earliest schools in India which follows Western education system.”
> http://cuddalore-history.blogspot.co...sh-regime.html

This latter, though out by one year (if it is indeed referring to the same school), is supported by the following account, discovered through a search on Google Books (the highlights are mine):

Extract from Mr. Sartorius’s Account of a Journey to Tranquebar.
Dec. 9, 1733.—Having been frequently recommended by Professor Francke, to visit the brethren at Tranquebar, with a view to promote brotherly union between the Missions, and being specially invited to be present at the Ordination of the Catechist, Aaron, I set off from Madras, on foot, this afternoon.
…
Dec 20.—I arrived at Tranquebar. ….”
…
Jan. 10 (1734).—I started early from Tranquebar, and arrived at Cuddalore on the 13th. At the school-door, they met me in tears, with the tidings that Mr. John Beck, the schoolmaster, had died four days ago. Mr. Beck was a Wurtemburgher, and came out to India in the service of the English East India Company. In 1716, when the English established a Charity-school for the children of Englishmen, at Cuddalore, he was appointed Œconomus; and as they were unable to procure a suitable schoolmaster, he took that duty also, teaching, first Portuguese, and, afterwards, English.
More than ten years ago, proposals were made in India, as well as in England and Germany, to found a Mission at Cuddalore; but nothing has been done. The place is very convenient for it, there being two towns, besides many villages; and the hostile Romish are not so numerous here, though they have two small congregations. But no orders for establishing a Mission have been received from Europe, and there are no means at hand; so it must be left to divine providence and a future time.
Jan. 20.—I set off from Fort St. David by moonlight, and arrived the next morning, at Pondicherry. ….”
>
From: “Notices of Madras and Cuddalore In the last Century, from The Journals and Letters of the Earlier Missionaries of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge”, London: Longman and Co. Paternoster Row, 1858. pp.127; 130-131. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=0K...lore&as_brr=1]

This next account also reveals the naming of the church as “Christ Church” on 26th of November, 1749 (highlights still mine).

“In the year 1728 a Protestant Mission was sent to Fort St. George under the management of the Reverend Mr. Schultz, a Danish Missionary: in 1737 the mission extended to Cuddalore, and 1758 to Bengal, by the erection of a Mission and School in Calcutta.
John Zachariah Kiernander was born on the 21st of November, 1711, at Akstad, in Sweden, ….
…
Mr. Kiernander left England in the Colchester Indiaman on the 20th of April, 1740, and arrived at Cuddalore on the 28th of August, as colleague to the Rev. John Ernest Guesister, who was appointed to Madras in 1744, when the charge of Cuddalore devolved on Mr. Kiernander, who then had a congregation of 154 persons, viz. 99 Malabars and 55 Portuguese. Mr. Kiernander was treated with the most polite attention by Admiral Boscawen, and the Government of Fort St. David: that Government put him in possession of the Portuguese Roman Catholic church at Cuddalore, and at the same time expelled all Popish priests from the Company’s territories. On the 26th of November 1749, the day after the receipt of the Governor’s order, the English, Tamulian and Portuguese congregation assembled to hear divine service and a sermon in three different languages, when the church was solemnly dedicated, and called Christ Church. Such was the prosperous state of the Mission committed to the charge of Mr. Kiernander.
About this period Mr. Kiernander was married to Miss Wendela Fischer.
On the 4th of May, 1758, Lieut. General Count Lally took Cuddalore by capitulation; Kiernander waited on that impetuous General, who told him no Protestant missionary was then required at Cuddalore, but that he would grant him a passport to go to Tranquebar: this was accepted, and on the 8th of May Mr. Kiernander arrived at the Danish Capital, stripped of all his property excepting a few articles of apparel.
On the 2d of the following June, Fort St. David fell also by capitulation to the arms of France, in consequence of which, as no immediate prospect appeared of the restoration of the English to Cuddalore, Kiernander turned his eyes to Bengal, where the Battle of Plassey, on the preceeding year, had laid the foundation of the grandeur of Calcutta.
On the 11th of September Mr. Kiernander left Tranquebar … (and) on the 29th of the same month he arrived in Calcutta, and declared his intentions to the Government of establishing a Mission there. ….”
>
From: “The Protestant Mission to Calcutta” – Chapter VI of “A Compendious Ecclesiastical, Chronological and Historical SKETCHES OF BENGAL: since the foundation of Calcutta”, printed at Calcutta, 1818 – pp. 78-79; 81-84. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=0q...#PRA3-PA81,M1]

There is another reference to both the church and the school (I think) from an article in The Hindu (again highlights mine):

The house of Clive
…
“Cuddalore played a major role in the history of the East India Company. The coastal town was the main settlement for the British in the 18th Century after the French captured Fort St. George. They had built Fort St. David in Cuddalore and they raised an army here and began their ascent to power. When the French and English locked horns in a battle for supremacy, Clive was one of the commandants of the English army which fought the French forces in the Battles of the Carnatic.

When the French captured Fort. St. David, they razed most of it to the ground in 1758. They returned it to the English in 1785. But it was never again a military post.

The backwaters are a sheet of stillness behind the fort. It is easy to imagine Clive making his way by boat from here to Devanampattinam, the Old Town which was the centre of business and administrative activities during his time. And then to his residence Garden House.

There are other associations in Cuddalore with Clive. The church in St. David School is said to have been visited by Clive on Sundays. The headmaster's residence, a nearly 300-year-old building, is also in urgent need of repair. The caretaker Ebenezer tells you that Clive came here for his honeymoon. You gape at him in disbelief. Why should a man who had amassed enough money for a king's ransom choose such a modest place? He also tells you with all the raciness of an American Western how Clive would descend from the staircase and leap on to his waiting steed. He shows you the steps ostensibly constructed for the purpose. Whether fiction or fact, it all adds up to the Clive legend in this town.

A legend that finds substantial tribute in the street is named after him. The churchyard has tombstones of the officers of the East India Company and their wives. A decrepit hospital constructed during those days still serves the town.
….”
[The Hindu, Sunday, Feb 13, 2005 > http://www.hinduonnet.com/mag/2005/0...300260700.htm]

Regards,
Robin

[candelar]

Hello Nick,

The Robert Dashwood, whose daughter Jane Sarah was christened in September 1792 in Cuddalore, is not a brother of Thomas, youngest son of Sir James Dashwood of Oxfordshire. If this is Sir James Dashwood, 2nd Bart of Northbrook and Kirtlington, Sheriff of Oxfordshire, who died in 1779 and who had a son Thomas (1749-1825), who married Charlotte Louisa Auriol in 1782 and who did enter the E.I.C.Service, then they are related to the above Robert Dashwood and his daughter – but not very closely.

Sir James Dashwood’s great grandfather was George Dashwood of Hackney, Middlesex and an alderman of London. George was a younger son of Samuel Dashwood of Vellow Wood, Stogumber, Somerset and his wife Elizabeth née Sweeting. One of George's older brothers was Robert Dashwood, a churchwarden, one of whose great grandsons was Robert Dashwood (1756-1824), civil servant with the H.E.I.C. and sometime resident of both Madras and Cuddalore. So that would make him a 3rd cousin of Sir James and his daughter Jane Sarah, a 4th cousin of Sir James’s son Thomas Dashwood.

Robert Dashwood, the H.E.I.C. civil servant, was the 5th son of another Robert Dashwood, of Vellow Wood, Stogumber (buried in Bicknoller), whose wife was another Sweeting – but named Mary. He had a younger brother – the 6th son – who was another James Dashwood. But not a Bart! This James Dashwood also had a son who joined the H.E.I.C. And this was my great, great grandfather, Charles James Augustus Dashwood, a captain in the Indian Cavalry of Bengal, who served in the Nepal War of 1814 and the 3rd Mahratta War (1817-1818) before retiring to London in 1822.

Through my researches into this Dashwood family, many of whom had connections to India, I became acquainted with another researcher, who is a direct descendant of the 2nd son of Robert Dashwood of both Madras and Cuddalore – and later of Southborough Hall, Tonbridge, Kent. So I shall be passing all this information on to her.

Oh –and yes, I am also subscribed to the INDIA-L mailing list!

Regards,
Robin

[annadurai]

History of Cuddalore -Book(Tamil verson) Rs.25/-
Author: N.Annadurai.M.A.,M.Phil.,
Cell:09043193286, 09344617153
www.historyofcuddalore.blogspot.com

[jsd.cud]

Hi-
This is David from Cuddalore. Thank you very much for your great efforts to dig through the great history of Cuddalore.

Best Regards
David

[Dorodense]

Originally Posted by DeMorgan

Hello,

Does anybody happen to have photographs of Fort St David or Cuddalore Old town?

I have been reseaching the history of the fort and nearby old town for several years because several of my ancestors were living there in the 18th century from about 1711 to 1760.

I have copies of several 18th Century maps of the area, and by comparing them with aerial photographs from Google Earth, it is quite easy to identify the fact that remains exist in the fort and town to this day.

Sadly, because I live in England, it is unlikely that I can visit the town for several years at least.

If anybody has an interest in the history of the town, I would be quite happy to swap transcripts etc. for photos of the old fort ruins, church and town wall remains.

Regards

Nick Balmer

Hi, I was born in Cuddalore and in fact, lived in the Fort St. David Bungalow as in other Bungalows belonging to EID Parry. If you are still interested in the photos and other resources, I could provide you with those details when I will be in India next month. The place is indeed historical and you will get a lot information if you contacted S.Muthiah, historian. He has even co authored a book on Parry in which you will find photographs of Fort St. David bungalow and Cuddalore Old Town. [URL="http://www.flipkart.com/parrys-200-ramaswami-muthiah-saga-book-8185095744"].

[DeMorgan]

Originally Posted by Dorodense

Hi, I was born in Cuddalore and in fact, lived in the Fort St. David Bungalow as in other Bungalows belonging to EID Parry. If you are still interested in the photos and other resources, I could provide you with those details when I will be in India next month. The place is indeed historical and you will get a lot information if you contacted S.Muthiah, historian. He has even co authored a book on Parry in which you will find photographs of Fort St. David bungalow and Cuddalore Old Town. [URL="http://www.flipkart.com/parrys-200-ramaswami-muthiah-saga-book-8185095744"].

Hello Dorodense,

I remain very interested in Cuddalore and indeed in Fort St David. I had hoped to visit Cuddalore several times in recent years, but my other commitments have so far prevented me from visiting the town.

I would be very interested in any photos you have of the fort, and indeed the older buildings in the town.

From inspection of Google Earth images, and comparing them to 18th Century maps it is quite clear that a lot of old buildings survive from the British period, especially in the New Town that they laid out to the west of the Fort, and north of the Penniar River.

This is a very early example of British colonial town planning on a large scale in India, and I am sure would be of wider interest to many readers on this website if it were better known.

Regards

Nick Balmer