HISTORY OF MOUNT VERNON

Mount Vernon Estate, which consists of 05 divisions with a total extent of 641.93 Hectares out of which 390.87 under tea is situated in the Dimbula Valley and the largest tea estate in the kotagala region. At present Mount Vernon estate is the highest yielding tea estate in the entire upcountry region in the central Province. Also Mount Vernon Estate harvests 25% of the crop in the kotagala Region.

Before the nationalization of estates Mount Vernon was managed by Messrs. Anglo Ceylon Ltd., and taken over by JEDB before the privatization of estates in 1992. Since 1992 upto 1997 was managed by Messrs. George Steuarts (Pvt) Ltd., and subsequently for 6 months by Mr Nathan Iyadurai. And later by the present management M/s Lankem Tea & Rubber Planations (Pvt) Ltd., Dimbula Estate was amalgamated with Mount Vernon in 1995.The elevation of the estate varies from 1000 to 1200 meters and the factory is located at an elevation of 1188 meters above sea level. As per available records, the factory had been constructed in the year 1864.

Mount Vernon has the potential to construct a 2.5 MW hydro power plant and another 800 to 1000 KVA at Dimbula Division. Also the Dimbula estate factory is now being renovated for Refuse Tea Processing Centre for the region. The Mount Vernon factory is a CTC manufacture and has a capacity to manufacture 25000 kgs. Green leaf per day.