A short history of Mweiga Estate
The original Mweiga Estate, as it came to be called, was approximately 1,100 acres on the extreme Northern side of the Kikuyu country before the land ran out to the great ranching areas to the north. On its western boundary it marched with the Aberdare forest and consisted of about 300 acres of red soil suitable for planting coffee, which, however, in some areas was marginal and underlaid heavily with murram. The farm was taken up shortly after the Great War in about 1919 by Billy Sheldrick and Tommy Atkins. William Ibbotson (later Sir William), a close friend of the great naturalist and writer Jim Corbett, was a sleeping partner, who subsequently sold the farm to Peter Marrian and his partners at the end of 1947.
Sheldrick and Atkins had come to Kenya from the Indian Army with two objects in mind - one was to plant and farm coffee and the second was to play polo. Over a period of years, 300 acres of coffee was planted under heavy shade consisting of grevilia and cordia holstein. Cultivation was by oxen with shallow ploughs and the main source of power for the pulping and the drying of the coffee was steam. To this end, steam engines were purchased and imported into the country, railed to Thika, which was the limit of the railway at that time, and hauled by oxen to their final resting place. Also imported were large rotary dryers for the drying of the coffee. As there were no coffee mills at that time, machinery was also purchased for the hulling and grading of coffee. Equally there was no marketing organization, and coffee owners were at the mercy of agents in London, who sold the coffee on the planter’s behalf, the proceeds of sale being received months after despatch. During many periods, especially those of the depression of the 30s, the sale prices were hardly sufficient to cover the cost of production and it must have been a heart-breaking business. At this time nothing else was done with the remaining land other than the introduction of a herd of extremely low grade humped cattle, which were able to do little other than suckle their young.
On the lighter side of life, an area within a mile of the farm was found to enable the construction of not one, but two polo grounds with scarcely having to level an ant hill. Here polo took place regularly every Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning until the coming of Independence. Tragedy struck the partnership in the middle 1920s when Tommy Atkins, who as well as being a great polo player was a great hunter, was killed by a rhino. There was a passage in a book by Cherry Kearton which stated that an American lady was crossing Africa from the East to the West and on arriving in the area was bemoaning the fact that Africa lacked the thrills she had been led to expect. She went out one morning with a light spotting rifle and shot at and wounded a rhino. Instantly, it charged and killed her. The same day Tommy Atkins with his wife Mary was driving his T Model Ford and came across the rhino in a donga. It attacked and Tommy Atkins saved his wife by taking off his coat and doing a matador act, but he suffered the fate of the American lady. Until the close of the polo ground, the Nyeri team, playing in the Atkins cup, always wore black arm bands on their polo vests.
Mweiga was a marginal rainfall area with an average of around 33 inches per annum, and the only water available was the Mweiga stream which flowed at best at around one third of a cusec. Sheldrick, in order to protect what water there was, purchased a farm of 350 acres known as Kiguru through a strip of forest to the west. He also took a furrow off the Rahuti river, which almost immediately joined the much larger Amboni, and dropped the water over a saddle into the Mweiga in order to increase its supply. At no time., however, did he attempt to use irrigation on the coffee, which suffered indubitably from the low rainfall and the competing of the shade trees for what little moisture there was.
No history of the early days of Mweiga Estate would be complete without its Treetops connection. It was actually Sheldrick himself who, walking in the forest, came across the original Mugumo tree and realised its potential as an observation post for watching animals. He himself built the first platform in the tree and subsequently this was taken over and made into a four roomed tree house by Sherbrooke Walker, the owner of the Outspan hotel. It was of course here that Princess Elizabeth became Queen of England during the night of 5/6th February 1952, a night recorded by Jim Corbett in his account entitled ‘A Princess becomes a Queen’.
Tommy and Mary Atkins had a son, Humphrey, now the Right Honourable Sir Humphrey Atkins, who at one time was Minister for Northern Ireland. He visited the farm in the early 1960s and had a touching re-union with his father’s old syce and hunting companion Mathenge, who came across from his own home in the Kikuyu country for the occasion. Billy and Avis Sheldrick had one son David, who was instrumental in opening up Tsavo East as a game park.
Billy Sheldrick died in the 1940s and, although his wife Avis carried on alone for a time, it was decided to sell the farm and at the end of 1947 the enlarged area of 1,450 acres was purchased by Peter Marrian and his two partners Michael Foxley Norris and Frank Waldron. Waldron left shortly afterwards to farm in the Cherangani and Foxley Norris and Marrian parted by mutual consent in 1955 when Marrian was joined by Dick Hunt a flyer of great renown, having flown night fighters during the war and having been for a time Cathay Pacific’s chief pilot. Hunt also in due course left and was replaced by a group of small shareholders consisting of Denys and Margaret Rhodes, Billy Ednam (now the Earl of Dudley), his brother Peter Ward, Leslie Mackay and Mark Longman. This shareholding remained intact until the Company was sold to Sasini Tea & Coffee in 1965. A neighbour of Peter Marrian, Walter du Vivier, became a director of the company, until his untimely death and additional management was provided by Barry Thatcher who was recruited in 1951 and spent, with a small intermission, 30 years on the farm. Also recruited was Eric Johannson, who is currently the General Manager.
Following the take-over of the farm by Peter Marrian and his partners on the 1st of January 1948, great changes took place. A quantity of the poorer quality coffee was uprooted and many different types of crops were grown with varying success: wheat, barley, oats, pyrethrum, maize and a large quantity of vegetables and, horticultural products. Opportunity was taken to purchase an adjoining area of land known as Farm 12, which increased the total acreage of the property to around 2,500. Some of the land close to the Aberdare forest was very suitable for coffee and 120 acres were planted and inter-planted during the early growing stage with pyrethrum, which proved extremely profitable. At the same time all the shade trees from the original coffee were progressively removed and from that moment on the yields started to improve. The water from the Rahuti was put to use under an irrigation project for the old coffee and with the acquisition of Farm 12, the property obtained a boundary on the Muringato river to the South, which provided a source for the irrigation of all the new coffee. Subsequently, this irrigation was extended to an adjoining Estate known as Wahenya, which was purchased after the takeover by Sasini, the total acreage: of coffee now being around 500 acres.
As well as the additional crops referred to above, a high grade dairy herd was started and for a time a retail milk round was run in Nyeri. There was also a beef herd and pedigree large white pigs were produced in profusion. As prices improved however, it was the coffee that made the significant contribution to the company and, at the time of its sale to Sasini, the main activity was coffee and cattle.
The labour force which sustained all operations was of course predominantly Kikuyu and during the emergency period between 1952 and 1957, The Administration required that camps be built and armed guards retained. At the same time an air strip was built and the Kenya Police air wing, the Kenya Regiment, the R.A.F. Regiment, a squadron of Havards and a battery of 3.7s were all at one time or another stationed on the farm. The farm was thus well protected during the troubled times, although one herd of in-calf heifers was driven off into the forest and slaughtered. Yesterday’s terrorists are today’s freedom fighters but, call them as one may, for the old farmer and his wife, unprotected as Mweiga Estate was, it was a long and lonely vigil.
(This written probably mid 1980s)