Plantation's Manager Bungalow - Hatter's Castle 1923 Carey Island

Carey island was named after Edward Valentine John Carey, an Englishman planter whom  acquired the island from the Sultan Alaedin Sulaiman Shah to start a rubber plantation.   Carey began the plantation under Jugra Land Ltd and Carey Ltd.  The Island was divided into four estates : North, South, West and East. 

There are seven managers’ and engineers’ bungalow on Carey Island.   Hatter’s  Castle was built in 1923 by engineer C.L.Gjorup for himself to live in, with a flat at the top for the General Manager,  Mr James French when he visited. 

All the timber for constructing Hatter’s Castle was cut from the estate as they cleared the jungle, bricks were backed locally, and the furniture was made locally by Chinese craftsmen.  There was a water storage system which collects rain water off the roofs and piping it into sealed underground tanks.

The name of the bungalow was inspired by A.J.Cronin’s novel of the same name.   The ‘Hat’ was the domed roof over the first floor terrace which was removed in the 1950s because the wooden structure was decaying.

Gjorup also built the Club House and the bunds and water gates.  In addition,  Gjorup also built two other estate bungalow in similar style at Sogomana in Perak and Telok Merbau Estate in Selangor