Warleigh – Historical Christ Church among "Ceylon Tea" Bushes!
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WANARAJAH is one of the largest Tea Plantations in the Dickoya Tea Planting District of Sri Lanka. A very prominent building on its Warleigh Division is the Church built in 1878 gifted by an Englishman, William Scot, and is known as the Warleigh Church. The place is easily reachable by road, as it lies by the Dickoya/Norwood Road about five kms from Hatton.
Services are conducted every first and third Sundays of the month. A resident caretaker is available at all times to help visitors and worshippers.
The impressive architecture and neatly built tombstones attracted me to this place and I was amazed to see an ancient piano, an arm chair and a Bible printed in the 1860s still being preserved in this historical Church built during the colonial era of Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon.
Going round the cemetery, I found some eye-catching inscriptions which should bring back memories to any of those descendants who must have long lost track of this place:
“WILLIAM REEVE TATHAM – 2nd SON OF THE LATE RALPH TATHAM P.W.D. CEYLON
BORN 25 MARCH 1861
DIED 17 AUGUST 1904
AGED 43”
…apparently someone left the world at the tender age of two years:
“IAN BROOKE ANDERSON
BORN 21 MAY 1896
DIED 7 MARCH 1898”
Whoever they were, MAY THEIR SOULS REST IN PEACE.
There are hundreds of such very impressive monuments around Warleigh Church, some of them very prominent people of that time including the first British Inspector General of Ceylon.
The Church is built at a picturesque location overlooking the Castlereagh Reservoir and beautiful tea plantations.
Tourists, especially from Great Britain may feel free to contact me on +94777530098 should they wish to have more information about this church. ![IMG_5771.JPG] 
