Thorpe manor,May road

hi was just wondering if anybody had any photo's of Thorpe manor along May road from the 1950's?My mum Marion used to live there when she was younger and i was hoping someone had an old photo of it or maybe you remember her.Marion Reynolds formely Brown, daughter of Norman and janet Brown. Oh yeah and she is a twin. If anyone could help that would be great was hoping to get a photo in time for mums 65th birthday

thanks very much

kanchana reynolds

Aye Norman Brown, yeah he worked for Dodwells!!Did you know him? I'm afraid he passed away 6 months after i was born in 1987 so i never got to know him.

If you have any photo's or would like to chat in length my e-mail is at the top of the page.

Thank you for your reply though i didnt think i would get much in reply's.

Take care

This is Kanchana's mum Marion aged 65!  We came out to HK as babies after the war on the Empress of Australia in '46.  We lived in three places as I recall.  The top peak tram station which had only three flats the middle of which was ours then Hillcrest near the new peak school which my folks were turfed out of for noisy parties!  then the irreplaceable Thorpe Manor which I clearly do not have to describe to you.  My folks occupied the ground floor left as you enter - was that yours!  I can easily visualise it inside.  If ever you find interiors please let us have one or two. 

Thank you so much for clarifying the history of its demise.  You clearly got out just by a whisker! 

In the early 90s I took Kanchana as a baby and my husband to HK and I described to him what to expect on the train to the new territories!  I told him about the pig farms, the paddy fields, the duck farms and the water buffalo - what we saw was Sha Tin with its race course and a population exceeding that of Scotland's capital city!  Sha Tin in my memory was not much more than a village!  The top of the Peak and Sheko were the two places which it seemed to me had not changed.  Now I cannot remember whether Peak Mansions was still there then.  The new peak school however was familiar.

Thanks to Kanchana's efforts we have received a photo of Thorpe Manor which we of course treasure and I am going to get it framed for myself and my twin sister.

Thank you so much for your responses, memories and further contact with Teen Cheong.  I treasure them.

Sincerely     Marion (Reynolds)

PS If you send us your actual email address we would love to send you the photo.

I am sure a lot of us would like to see a picture of Thorpe Manor posted on the site.  Marion or Michael, could one of your pictures to this site?

This house in featured in the 1997 published book, Private Hong Kong-Where East Meets West, in a chapter titled Jungle Hideaway. The text says that it was built in 1925, and at some time not stated was an English school for 20 years. There are several pictures of the inside as decorated by the owners around the time the book was produced. The text says it took the movers two weeks to shift eveything up there and that the postman only delivers every other day. I believe these same owners used electric golf buggies for access as I remember them always being parked haphazardly around the entrance. In more recent years these have disappeared. When I walked passed the house last December and took a number of pictures, it appeared to be occupied, but by the owners or caretakers who knows.

IDJ