Cattle Breeding at Kampong Coronation

I think not many people and especially current residents of Coronation Road would believe me that  Coronation Road used to have cattle breeding farms or what the villagers of Kampong Coronation simply called in Malay ‘kandang lembu’ or literally meant cow shed. 

 

According to my father and my elder siblings, the cattle breeding started immediately after the WW2 when several Indian families moved into Kampong Coronation and they brought their cattle with them. There were four clusters of villagers who bred cattle solely for its milk. Two clusters located facing each other and smack along Coronation Road West. One of them located on the land belonging to wealthy businessman and race horse owner, Mr Sayna Abdul Kader and the other opposite it towards the direction of Bukit Timah Road. As for the second family, I am not sure whose land it belongs to but the leader of the family is simply known to the other villagers as ‘Pirate’! I think the poor fellow got his nickname because of his useless eye which I could not recall either the left or right eye.

Two more clusters of the cattle breeding villagers located slightly about 50 metres off Coronation Road West, on the right side if one is heading towards Holland Road. Exactly opposite a provision shop the villagers called ‘Kedai Chu Toh’ or Chu Toh shop, there was a pathway leading to a big ‘longkang’ or drain. The pathway runs parallel with the drain which snaked up to about 200 metres in different width until it met with another lane which was reconstructed into an asphalt road and given the name Jalan Haji Alias. I recalled sometime around 1965 or 1966 the pathway parallel to the drain was constructed into a red pebbles road and given the name Jalan Siantan. My family’s house as well as the cattle breeding families’s house and their cow shed is located across the drain. I think in 1966 after the National Registration exercise, my family’s home address is no longer 375 Coronation Road West but changed to 25-B Jalan Siantan (S’pore 10). Today, only part of Jalan Siantan still remains forming the junction of Jalan Haji Alias. The rest of the road is converted into a walkway parallel to the drain which was re-constructed sometime in 1986-87 into a canal as part of flood management in that area. Part of my family’s land was acquired by the government for the canal construction. I will write some other time about the land acquisition as it has a very significant impact on the villagers’ life.

The cattle breeding families, together with the rest of the other families across the drain, have to build their own bridge or ‘jambatan’ in order to get across to the red pebbles lane. I recalled there are about 11 bridges of different sizes  across the drain from each of my neighbour’s land. I recalled my family’s ‘jambatan’ was made of two wooden beams about 50 feet across the drain. Two sheets of iron retrieve by my father from unknown source were placed on the beams. It was quite wide about 6 feet. Sometime in late 70’s my father reconstructed the bridge and this time two iron bars were placed across the drain and two iron sheets about 5 feet wide placed on top of each other on the iron beam. The width and length of each bridge depends on the width of the drain. The majority of the bridges are made of wood and planks and very few with iron but none at all build with concrete and cement.There are no fanciful railings and if you are not careful, you could easily fall into the drain. I had a frightful experience myself when I fell into the drain cycling over my neighbour’s bridge but in 1981 when I got my motorcycle licence , I rode my scooter across the bridge with ease after learning the trick of balancing .  .

Going back to the two clusters of cattle breeding families along Coronation Road West (Jalan Siantan), the nearest one located just next to my immediate neighbours’ land of houses no 20-23B belonging to , Encik Juki and his siblings, Encik Rostam (Kuchit), Ramsin (Kamsin) and Ngarip ( Wak Ngarip ).

I recall that when I was about 6 or 7 years old, I used to walk across my neighbour’s land to the ‘kandang lembu’ just to watch the cattle feeding, defecating and mating. Sometime I watch the leader of the cattle breeders’ family known only as ‘John’ or his wife , Pangemah milking the cows Every morning, ‘John’ will herd the cattle across the bridge to its grazing area along Coronation Road West. The sight of cattle crossing the bridge and grazing on the road side of Coronation Road is something which I think is hard to imagine today.

There are many funny stories about the villagers’ encounter with the cattle or shall I say, encounter with ‘part’ of the cattle! Well, being animal with daily activity of eating it is only natural for them to defecate and unlike a pet dog or cat which can be toilet trained, the cattle would just defecate at the same time as they are eating. When the cattle were herded back to its shed by John, they will leave a long trail of messy cow dung along Coronation Road. Villagers who are not careful walking along this road and especially at night will be in for a surprise and by the time they recover from the shock, the smell of cow dung and the mess their footwear is in will be too much for them to take. Out come all the expletives and on the next few days, the cattle are target to so much abuse by the ‘victims’.  

Like all cattle breeding farms found in many places in Singapore prior to the 70s’ the cattle breeding families at Kampong Coronation also produce fresh milk and never beef as all of them are Hindus. In fact prior to the early 70’s, I think Singapore is self-sufficient for fresh milk consumption as there is a large scale and hygienic cattle breeding and milk production site at Dairy Farm Road. Magnolia Fresh Milk and ice cream were actually produced in Singapore from its Upper Bukit Timah Road 8 miles stone factory.

Cattle breeding by individual cow keepers for milk were slowly phase out and become illegal in Singapore during the late 60s due to its unhygienic and unsanitary conditions. Many residents wrote to the press to complaint to the authorities on cattle seen roaming the streets in area such as Dunearn Road, Katong and Sennet Estate.

Kampong Coronation is unique not only because of the villagers from different ethnic background lives together in harmony but there are many more things which I will share in this blog. Look for my next posting on Traders of Kampong Coronation.