In June 1885, Arthur Charles Wilkin established the Britannia Fruit Preserving Co. Ltd., renamed Wilkin and Sons Ltd in 1905, on its present site at Trewlands Farm. In 1904 the company began building cottages for their employees, which by design were to be a better standard than that provided for equivalent factory or farm workers. By 1914 each house cost £176 to build and were let at 3/6p (18p) per week. Cherry Chase houses all had gardens planted with cherry trees, while those in Damson Gardens were planted with damson trees. Of the 100 cottages apparently built by the company, 34 have been identified by this survey.Cherry Chase consists of nine pairs of semi-detached houses. All are brick built, in a light multi-coloured brick, although nos. 7 - 18 have been pebble-dashed over. They all appear to have been re-roofed using modern tiles. Windows were probably originally sashes but these have been replaced as have the original part-glazed wooden front doors and in some cases their tiled canopies. In Mulberry Walk there is a pair of semi-detached cottages, built in the same style as Cherry Chase, but they retain their slate roofs.Damson Gardens is a terrace of ten cottages built to the same plain style. Although the roofs have been re-covered in modern tiles, the original sash windows and part-glazed wooden doors remain. Trewlands Cottages are two pairs of semi-detached cottages with a bay window to the ground floor and an extra small window above the front door. These retain their slate roofs, but nos. 3 and 4 have been rendered and have painted walls. <1>