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The history of Holm Farm begins right from
the beginning when the Britishers into a beautiful Cantonment town were
developing Ranikhet.Old myths say that Ranikhet got its name from a tale
which says that ones a katyuri Queen named Padmavati camped some where in
the vicinity of Ranikhet is a flat place (fields) and thus came The name
"queens field" or Ranikhet.
In 17th Century the area of Kumaon and Gharwal
was ruled by the gorkhas.In the Kumaon hills there base was Kumpoor and
present Ranikhet.Their atrocities reached to a limit and the localiers were
forced to invite the Britishers to free them from their cruelities.The
contingent ,which came for the invasion,had a young British officer by the
name of Norman Troupe who fell in love with the serenity and tranquality of
Ranikhet and dicided to settle here after his retirement.When lord Mayo
became the governer general of India he made his house in Chaubattia and
dicided to shift his summer capital from Shimla to Ranikhet and sent Major
Long of 28 Fusiliars Meerut to get some land to establish Cantonment.On
reaching this area Major Long met Norman Troupe and asked him to get some
land for the British army to establish Cantonment. Norman Troupe bought land
from the villagers of Sarna, Kotli and Tana and sold 5000 acres of land to
Britishers retaining 250 acres for himselves at Kumpoor which he called
Troupe Hill lateron. When the construction of town was started Norman Troupe
was asked to vacate the Troupe Hill which he refused but was asked to choose
any other site for him. On this Norman Troupe decided on a part east of
Ranikhet and requested the authorities to take his present cottage at Troupe
Hill only when his house comes into existance. After complition of his
bunglow he called it the Holmes estate the present Holm Farm and shifted
from Troupe Hill to his bunglow. Holm Farm which was given to him in
exchange of theTroupe Hill this started development of Ranikhet town and it
was the year 1869 Holm Farm became the first bunglow to be built in
Ranikhet. After Norman Troupe`s death in 1890, this bunglow was sold to Mohd.
Amin, then to Mr. F.C. Banyon from Mr. Catherine Abbot wife of Col. Abbot
and since independence in 1947 this property is being owned by
Madan Mohan
Upadhyaya who was a veterin freedom fighter and a very close associate of
the Nehru Family. During his life time many celebrated personalities like
Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, Smt. Indira Gandhi,Lady and Lord Mountbatten,Achary
Narendra Dev, Govind Ballabh Pant, Narayan Dutt Tewari,Shri C.B.Gupta,
dignitaries of many embassies and many many more celebrities and film
personalities came and appreciated the
beauty of this place.
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