44 Sidney Street, Post Office

History of 44 Sidney Street

1833

This became the new post office 18th January 1833.

Circa 1850 the post office moved to no. 4 St Andrew’s Street on the site of the Brazen George.

1861

Edward Gage, 38, print seller, b London

Martha, 18, wife, b Cambridge

Leura Ball, 14, servant, b Harston

1875 -1913

George Dewberry, boot and shoemaker. previously at 20 Bridge Street. He was a Liberal Party chairman and itinerant preacher for many years. (Cambs Ind April 1913)

1913

G Dewberry and Son, bootmakers

Walter Campbell, assistant overseer for the Parish of Cambridge

Reginald Walter Campbell

George Dewberry died aged 84 in 1913 and the business was continued by his son Horace.

CC wrote to us in 2024 about two pairs of boots he had acquired made by G Dewberry and sent these pictures and information about the Dewberry business.

G Dewberry riding boots, 44 Sidney Street (copyright C Collis)

G Dewberry riding boots, 44 Sidney Street (copyright C Collis)

G Dewberry riding boots, 44 Sidney Street (copyright C Collis)

1916

Advertisement in the Cambridge Daily News 25.10.1916: Wanted at once. Two first class makers for best work. G Dewberry and Son, 44 Sidney Street, Cambridge.

1918

20.9.1918 item in Cambridge Independent Press stating a Thomas James Radford (50) of Castle Row, Castle Street is employed as a boot repairer, doing mainly military work at G Dewberry and Son, military bootmaker.

1925

Cambridge Daily News 11.7.1925: Part of a boot supplied by a Cambridge firm has led to the identity of an officer who fell in the first year of the war. During the work of exhumation and reburial recently carried out in France there was discovered part of a boot stamped with the name of Messrs G. Dewberry & Son of Sidney Street. An examination of their books showed it belonged to a pair supplied to Lieut. R. Walmesley, late of Magdalene College, whose family lived in Huntingdon.’ (Mike Petty Cambridge Scrapbook) Richard Walmesley was killed at Ypres 21.10.1914.

Yorkshire Regiment, October 1914. Richard Walmesley is second from the right back row.

Yorkshire Regiment web site entry.

1932

6.8.1932 Horace Dewberry died aged 69. Business was acquired by local bootmakers Thrussell and Son Ltd of 28 Sidney Street. They kept the G Dewberry and Son name and the 44 Sidney Street premises.

44 Sidney Street, 1936 (Cam Magazine)

1939

17.1.1939: advert in Cambridge Daily News offering “Sale of men’s Shoes” (oddments, samples, misfits at very much reduced prices) G Dewberry and Son 44 Sidney Street

1954

G Dewberry ceased trading on 24th June. The business here moved to the Thrussell premises at 28 Sidney Street.

1962

El Patio, coffee bar

(44a) T F Morris & ptnrs

(44a) C W Craske, architect

(44a) C H Field, architect

2018

J Sainsbury