Robert Booth
18 Jan 2016
Richard Cadbury arrived in Birmingham in 1794 and established a draper’s shop. By 1824 his son John (1801-1889) had premises in Bath Street where he sold tea, coffee, and cocoa – as a health product. He ground cocoa bean with a pestle and mortar and by 1849, with a shop in Bridge Street, he sold 16 sorts of drinking chocolate and 11 sorts of cocoa powder. In 1854 he was granted a Royal Warrant and in 1861 handed over the business to his two sons, Richard (1835-1899) and George (1839 – 1922). They bought 4 acres of agricultural land in Worcestershire around Bournbrook Hall in 1876, alongside the canal and railway. Construction of their works, and a few houses for key workers, began in 1879. One of the latter still stands, the rest were demolished in 1923 for factory expansion. The site had 300 workers in 1880, 1,000 in 1889 and 2685 in 1899. Many were girls, some as young as 13 – one of whom in 1904 wrote her reminiscences – who were accommodated in Bournbrook Hall, which was not demolished until 1907. The Girls’ Bath was built in 1902-4 (architect G.H.Lewin) where they were taught to swim. The main business competitors at this time were Rowntrees, Frys (with whom Cadbury amalgamated in 1918) and Van Houten in Holland, which George Cadbury visited to see their cocoa grinding machines.
George Cadbury bought 120 acres adjoining his factory in 1893 and appointed W.Alexander Harvey as his architect to create a model village for his workers. The Bournville Village Trust (totally separate from the company) was set up in 1900, by which time 313 houses had been built. Cadbury stipulated that 10% of the land should be open space and that each house had adequate accommodation (including a bath), a pleasing exterior appearance whether detached or semi-detached, and a garden: trees, hedges and flowers are still a distinctive feature of the estate. It was the forerunner of Hampstead Garden Suburb founded in 1906. Further land was acquired over the years so that the estate (split by the Bristol Road and three streams) now covers 1,000 acres, with 8,000 dwellings – half of which are tenanted and none reserved for Cadbury employees (in contrast to Port Sunlight, for example). The main developments since the original village have been the Bournville Tenants estate (1907), Weoley Hill (begun 1914, but mainly dating from the 1920/30s and now containing some very recent new houses with striking designs), the Works Housing Society (1919), Woodlands (1923) and Shenley Manor (1952).
The old farmhouses in the area still survive (one is now a hotel), as do the original stores (1898 by W.A.Harvey) in Maryvale Road. The current shopping centre by The Green was built in 1905-8 (architect H.Bedford Taylor). Other notable buildings are the Bath House (1895 W.A.Harvey) which had six baths for workers to use at the cost of 1d; the Estate Office (1895 W.A.Harvey); Almshouses (1897 Ewen Harper); Ruskin Hall (1905 W.A.Harvey), the village’s cultural centre suggested by J.H.Whitehouse, a friend of Ruskin; the Friends’ Meeting House (1905 W.A.Harvey), unusually containing an organ as George Cadbury wished Anglicans and Methodists to use it as well as Quakers; the Continuation College (1925 S.A.Wilmot) where Under 18s spent a day per week extending their education; St Francis of Assisi Church (1925 W.A.Harvey, who also designed the Robin Hood crematorium in the same style); and the Rest House (1914 W.A.Harvey) built to mark George & Elizabeth Cadbury’s Silver Wedding and modelled on the 16th century yarn market at Dunster (Somerset).
George Cadbury won his battle against the Education Authority that classrooms should hold no more than 40 (as opposed to 60), and the Junior School by W.A.Harvey was erected in 1902-5. At its SE corner is the Carillion, now with 48 bells; a recital is given each Saturday morning. The Maypole is the largest in England (enabling 250 dancers) and is close to The Pavilion (1902 H.B.Taylor). The War Memorial is unusual as it incorporates photographs of each WWI soldier who is named. The statue by William Bloye (1890-1975) on The Green who lived from 1956 in Dovehouse Lane, Solihull; he also carved the 56ins high statue of St Alphege in 1959, now in the Oliver Bird Hall. The Serbian Church (1967) contains no seats. There are three Blue Plaques on buildings on the estate, including one to John Henry Barlow (1855-1924) the first Secretary/General Manager of the Trust and one of the first members of the Friends’ Ambulance Unit.
None of the houses where members of the Cadbury family lived survive in their original state. The Manor was demolished after a fire; Fircroft was completely altered to become a college; Sellywood House is now the new Queen Mother’s Court; Westholme was used by Polish refugees in the 1950/60s; and the 18th century Woodbrooke, George Cadbury’s house where Josiah Mason had lived previously, has had many piecemeal alteration and additions.
The speaker was born on the estate, the son of a company fireman whose 1925 house contained an alarm for call-outs. Robert was a silversmith before becoming an industrial illustrator and a lecturer at Wolverhampton University; he now designs products on a computer. He became Chairman of the Bournville Village Trust in 2011, and was much involved in the production of its Centenary Booklet published in September 2013. Its 220 illustrations contained many never seen before. One was of the bomb damage caused to the canal during WWII when millions of gallons of water were lost as there is no lock for four miles between Edgbaston and Kings Norton. Although the Cadburys were pacifists, they did allow Bournville Utilities to be formed which made gas masks during the war. The Booklet also had reproductions of some of Frank Newbould’s posters – eg his charming view of the factory in 1925 surrounded by greenery - as well as other artists like Michael Reilly and Ernest Wallcountis who worked for the Company.