The Windmill

The Windmill pub (1853-1905) was on the High Street (then called Church Lane) next to the church. It was closed on 30 June 1905, along with the King’s Head and the Plough and Harrow, as part of the 1905 reduction of licences. At that time the tenants were Frank and Eliza Savage, and the owner was Mrs Anne Peck, who also owned the Windmill pub in Upper High Street Cottenham. Reporting on the principal meeting of the Cambridgeshire Licensing Authority at which the licenses of fourteen pubs including the Windmill were ordered to be abolished, the Cambridge Chronicle recorded the following with regard to the Windmill:

The owner, Mrs Anne Peck, for whom Mr Papworth appeared, and the tenant, Frank Savidge, asked for the renewal of the beer on license.
In reply to Mr Raikes, Supt. Webb said that the house was not required.
Mr Papworth pleaded that it was hard that Mrs Peck who was 83 years of age owned only four houses, should lose two of them.  The Committee were dealing not with a firm of brewers, but with a widow woman.
The Rev J. C. Rust: You assume that the compensation is not sufficient?
Mr Papworth replied that the owner would not by this means obtain interest equal to the revenue which she also derived in the form of rent.  She could not place out money and get a return of more than 24 per cent.

Nevertheless, the licence was not renewed, and the pub closed. Today the building is a private house.