Photo by Simon Middleton 2022

68 (34 & 36) (17 & 18 & 19) Mill Road, Cambridge

Meadowsweet Dairy, Peppercorns, Damasbridge and others

Census Info and Timeline

1861: (17 – 19)
(17) William Branon [sic], 43, printer, b London
(18) Benjamin Rivers, 39, G E R guard, b Suffolk
(19) Henry Pilgrim, 37, blacksmith, b Norfolk

1871: (17 – 19)
(17) William Brannan, 53, printer compositor, b London
(18) Henry Pilgrim, 49, blacksmith, b Norfolk
(19) Sarah Pilgrim, wife, 46, b Bottisham

1881: (17 – 19)
(17) William Hawkes Brannan, 63, printer reader, b Middlesex
(18) Henry Pilgrim, 58, blacksmith to builder, b Norfolk
(19) Benjamin Reeve, master carpenter and joiner, b Norfolk

1891: (34 & 36)
32, 34 and 36 were all occupied by the same family
Ethel Warnes, 14, daughter, scholar, b Cambs

1901: (68)
Frank Bates, 34, grocer’s manager, b Bucks

1913
Meadowsweet Dairy Co.
Goodwin Foster Brown Ltd, proprietors
Frank Bates, manager

1962
Meadowsweet Dairy, grocers
Alfred Wilkinson

The Wilkinson family took over the Meadowsweet in 1916. Alfred came as a manager from Yorkshire in 1916. Alfred finally bought the business in 1930.

1982

Meadow Sweet Dairy Co. Ltd

Meadowsweet Dairy

Courtesy of the Wilkinson family

Three men in white shop coats stand outside the corner shop of G.F.B. Ltd, with Meadowsweet Dairy Co. signage on the windows.

Courtesy of the Wilkinson family

An older man in a light coat stands behind a shop counter, flanked by weighing scales and shelves filled with food products.

Courtesy of the Wilkinson family

Alfred Wilkinson was manager of the Meadowsweet Dairy from 1919 to 1972. He was also secretary of the Gladstone Liberal Club from 1923 to 1939 (see the Sturton Town Hall building report).

A smiling couple stands behind a shop counter filled with grocery products and advertisements, with a May 1946 calendar visible.

Courtesy of the Wilkinson family

1995. Out to Lunch

A brick corner shop at 68 Mill Road with blue-painted woodwork and Out to Lunch signage, viewed from the pavement.

Photo by Tessa MacDermott

1998. The Sandwich Gallery

A street view of The Sandwich Gallery and Trattoria Pasta Fresca with a pedestrian and a woman with a dog on the pavement.

Courtesy of Ann Horn and the Suzy Oakes Collection

Peppercorns

Courtesy of Ann Horn and the Suzy Oakes Collection

2014: Café de Paris

Cafe de Paris storefront with a bay window above, dark brown wood trim, and metal cafe chairs on the pavement outside.

68 Mill Road (2014 David Betts)

2019: Café Remy

A man rides a bicycle past the blue-fronted Cafe Remy and a red-fronted Chinese restaurant on a street in Cambridge.

Remy’s, June 2019. Photo by Pam Wesson.

2020: Damasbridge

A corner restaurant storefront with green trim, a Damasbridge sign, and a parked bicycle on a brick sidewalk in Mill Road.

Damasbridge, September 2020. Photo by Mary Naylor.

Two men stand behind a refrigerated display counter filled with pastries and drinks inside a cafe with wooden furniture.

Damasbridge, summer 2020. Photo by Pam Wesson.

A horizontal canvas on a brick wall depicts a silhouette of the Cambridge skyline over the word DAMASBRIDGE in white letters.

Damasbridge Interior 2020, photo by Kate Collins

The name of their café, Damasbridge, was chosen by the two bothers who run it to stress the links between Damascus, where they lived before and Cambridge. The large painting on the café wall, painted by Mouna Alrayes, shows The Al Omani mosque in Damascus linked by the Bridge of Sighs to Kings College Chapel and other churches in the city. The painting below it, of a similar theme, was done by a young relative.

2022: Mr Taco

Photo by Simon Middleton 2022

Projects

Mill Road

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