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Cadbury's Bournville Factory

Biscuits

Jennyann and Co.
Well of course, where I live now was renouned for Beer, Biscuits and Bulbs.
I will never be a traitor to Cadbury's, my most fondest memories, but the going of Huntley and Palmers here, plus the Brewery, plus the Bulbs has lost the town it's character.
So the quality of todays biscuits? well now. Judging by the Smilie face, that gives the answer.

How many original Cadbury "packagings" are still living today? Choccies and Bikkies.
The Dairy Cadbury Milk Tray Box was always instantly recognizable.
 
In approx 1959 worked at caburys on the night shift but only lasted two weeks it was a case of getting out or ending up in an asylum. It was work that women did in the daytime but at that time women were not allowed to work nights in that short time I had two jobs one on a production line packing chocolates into boxes(Caburys Dairy Box) the chocolates came along on a conveyer belt in lines each line made up a layer in the box you were allowed to eat what you wanted trouble was unless you ate a full row or managed to swop you ended up with all the ones you didnt like.they worked a bonus but I could never make the targets how the women did I do not know perhaps they had more nimble fingers mind you I dont suppose sloping of to the toilet for a accasional fag helped much.the other job I did was packing chocolate buttons into boxes they came along the conveyer belt and arm pushed them down a shoot which fed into a large pair of scales the scales were pretty accurate but you made up any shortage with extra buttons my final night spent there was like something out of the four stooges the arm on the conveyer belt started sending just a few buttons down so we got only a few in the box the next armful doubled up and not being enough room in the box they went everywhere this went on for about ten minutes there was chocolate buttons all over the floor a superviser came down and started having a go at us at that moment the conveyer split right accross and the chocolate buttons just kept tumbling of the belt onto the floor by the time they managed to switch off the machinery we were up to our knees in chocolate buttons.One thing about Caburys they looked after the workers they had a great canteen and also a cinema and snooker room.
Just a page out of my working life.:)
 
Sounds like you had a great time tgille working at Cadbury`s. Long ago many of us wanted to work at Cadbury`s for obvious reasons. ...plus the fact that when it was hot in the summer they sent you home. Hopefully, the workers were paid when that happened. It certainly was a marker for the temperature if they read out on the news that the workers at Cadbury`s were sent home and then we would run around saying that self same thing so everyone knew it was very hot that day!

The Cadbury`s have left an incredible legacy with Bournville and it`s
amenities. Thanks for posting your story.
 
Working at Cabury's

I worked at Cadbury’s from 1953 -55 as a trolley man. This meant that we operated the internal transport system of the factory using trolleys or lift trucks. We would haul printed boxes from the print shop to the production line to be filled with chocolates. We would haul out the garbage and transport the finished product to heat treatment and storage. This was good fun for us young guys with limited freedom to wander around and all the chocolate we could eat. For most, the novelty wore off after a couple of weeks and although we saw chocolates every day, did not indulge much. To make our job easier, most of the floors were of steel plates which meant we could do all sorts of tricks with the lift trucks, sliding them about. The exception to the steel plated floor was the long main corridor called the ‘Crush Hall’. On one end was the print shop area and the other was the reception area and the dressing rooms. At knocking off time a great stream of people would head down the ‘Crush Hall’ to go home. There were many narrow corridors off the ‘Crush Hall’ leading to the manufacturing area and the production lines - a real labyrinth. We boys knew the factory like the back of our hand and found many places to hide and avoid the charge hands who chased us from morning to night - if they could find us! Starting time was 7.42 in the morning, knocking off at 5.06 pm. With an hour for lunch this made exactly a 42 hour week. You had to get through the gate at 7.42 and 3 minutes was allowed to get to your work place where you clocked in. if you arrived at 7.43 you had to wait for 5 minutes and was officially late. An excuse had to be entered in the late book - ‘missed bus’, ‘the dog ate my shoes’ - all sorts of lies to avoid losing pay. The most creative was the guy who stated that ‘instead of drinking my usual cup of ‘Bourn Vita’ (a Cadbury drink supposed to help you sleep), I drank two - and overslept’. I think they gave him marks for originality and waived his late start.
Those were the days.
I wonder if there are any ex-trolley men out there?
 
re: addition to cadbury thread

My grandfather worked at Cadbury's for 40 years as a chocolate grinder. I think he met my Nan there - they lived in a trust house in Bourneville. They had a little green card which entitled them to buy misshapes - I can remember going with my Nan to get them. We were very lucky because we also had them during the war. My mum used to swop tea for drinking chocolate. Also the same card was used to enter the Lido - we had to go on three buses to Bourneville - the No 9 from Quinton to Bearwood then the No 11 outer circle? to B/ville - we always knew we were there because of the smell of the chocolate - then another bus to Mulberry Road.
 
My first look at the Cadbury thread.

What a good thread, always skipped past it before.

My Mother worked as a cashier in the factory for 20 odd years. We had the green card for the shop and more important for me the card for the Lido.

As a schoolboy I was taught to scuba dive with the 'C Urchins' and as a student I worked nights at the factory. The main theatre used to screen feature films for our 'nightime lunch hour'. The system was ingenious. The same film was run for the five nights but the start date was slowly moved back. This meant that if you went in for the same half hour each night you saw it in installments.
 
English made Cadbury's chocolate is one of the best.

Our school in Weoley Castle used to go to some type of sports day held on the Cadbury grounds. I am a chocoholic so it always surprised me that as we neared the factory the smell of the chocoate was overpowering and made me feel a little sick.

I also met my husband at the Bournville disco in abt 1975, I think it was at a church hall on the green. We used to walk through quite a few parks from Weoley Castle to get to Bournville, I think it was a bit of a green belt. One of them we called the Yachting Pool. Is that still there? There was a stream that went through all the parks and we used to hunt for newts in the big drainage pipes that went under the roads from park to park.

My dad worked there for a while and several neighbours and I loved the bags of misshapes (a khaki green/brown coloured bag stamped as rejects, if I remember correctly). I still think that Cadbury's chocolate made in England is one of the nicest in the world, however, the Cadbury's chocolate made for the Canadian market does not taste as nice, it seems to be waxy not creamy. I'd love a big bar of English Cadbury wholenut about now. I also loved those little animal chocolate bars and have been known to steal my grandchildrens chocolate buttons. One year my dad came over from England and was very naughty he brought a whole suitcase full of chocolate from Cadburys and just a few pairs of trousers and undies for a three month stay.I think I ate most of it, didn't want my children to harm their teeth, being a caring mom!! I have no will power at all with English Cadbury's chocolate and of course absence makes the heart grow fonder.

My brother was over from England this year and he mentioned that the Cadbury Factory may be moving from Bournville to Europe. Not sure how true this is but it just won't seem the same if that is the case.

I may have to switch to Galaxy!!!
 
Hi tydavnet:
I live in the Vancouver area and I can buy Cadbury's chocolate made in Birmingham from several places. It's obviously more expensive but if you
know the difference between the Canadian Cadbury's and the Brum Cadbury's
then it's worth the price. Hopefully, you live somewhere that you can find some "real" Cadbury chocolate.:)
 
Hi Jennyann,

yes there are a few specialty stores in our small town that sell the "real" thing, not much variety, but still a nice treat.

Happy Easter
 
Cadbury's

My Gran lived in a trust house up at Alcester Lane's end and some of the family worked down at Bourneville.My Mum was a Sunday School Teacher with Dorothy Cadbury and I've still got the Bible she was given.I can still remember standing in Gran's garden and smelling the chocolate on the wind from the factory.
Sleepybarb
 
re: cadbury memories

Nice to read other people's memories of Bourneville. I have my grandparents Bible that they were given by Cadbury's when they got married in 1908. My father went to school in the one opposite the green - don't know it's name but I'm sure some of you will.
Are they really thinking of closing the factory after all the years of being there. Bournville won't be the same.
 
Sheri - below is a photo of Bournville Junior School, which is opposite the Green. My husband went there as his family lived just up the road, on Linden Road.
Tydavnet - The other photo is me with one of the local policemen just going to Bournville School to talk to the children. They get younger or is me getting older? Don't answer that Alf!
Behind us you will see the old house at the Yachting Pool which is behind the trees, it hasn't changed very much. The other photo is the stream running through Bournville Park. These were taken in 2005. I worked in Sales Marketing at Cadbury's for a few years, it really has changed since we moved.
View attachment 12154View attachment 12155View attachment 12156
We got a large bar of Cadbury's Milk Chocolate at the British Show in Toronto a couple of weeks ago. It was so much nicer than the chocolate we get.
Jenny - There were 1.2 kg tins of Cadbury's biscuits in Sears and Walmart at Christmas, the largest I have seen here. We have a Britiish Shop in town if we want anything.
 
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Cadbury''s

I retired from Cadburys about 8yrs ago I worked on the milk tray belt for about 15 yrs when it went on to automation, I worked on various packing belts before that. At the end of 2008 I have heard the milk tray line is moving to Poland, some of the workers are taking redundancy others are moving to another room, with so much machinery in there now they dont need so many staff so I would imagine some of the jobs are quite lonely, when I was there there was always people to chat and have a laugh with especialy when you were on the packing end of the belt and we always got our number out at the end of the day, but like all factories now they are reducing staff so the happy atmosphere will go and things will never be the same again I am glad I was there when we all enjoyed going to work.
 
Cadbury centre.

:) My lads used to train at the Cadbury centre [Swimming] with Orion swimming club. Is the pool still there?. After teaching all day at Wyndley I would nearly always get roped in to coach one of the lanes. Could never have worked at cadbury' as the smell of chocolate makes me feel ill. TTFN. Jean. :sick:
 
Loved your photos Mo, Bournville always looks magical.

I wish choccy made me feel sick Jean, I'd be a size or two smaller:rolleyes:
 
re: photos Bournville

Thanks to Sakura for posting the photos. It's interesting to see everybodies memories - mine go back many years when my grandparents lived there.
Sheri
 
Sheri - As I think I said earlier in this thread, my husbands family all worked at Cadbury's or for the Cadbury family. Your grand parents might well have known them, they were the Farmers' and the Higgitts'.
Here are three more of building in 2005. :)Mo
3 Linden Road, Farmers House. Bournville Carillon. Bournville College.
View attachment 12178 View attachment 12179 View attachment 12180
 
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re: cadbury's

Hi Sukura,
Thanks for your message and the new photos. I didn't know your names. My grandfather died in 1947 a year after he retired and I was a very little girl. They lived in Mulberry Road. I think the single decker bus ran along Linden Rd. Was the middle photo of the school opposite the village green? I thi nk it would have been the secondary school?
 
Anyone see "The Way We Were" tonight (Monday) @ 8pm ITV? All about Cadburys, it looked an idyllic place to work in the early days, very self-contained. The film showing them hand decorating the chocolates was amazing, how things have changed.
 
Hi Charlie yes I love this series great nostalgia. I have a client in her 90's who worked in the Cadbury's canteen she makes me laugh with her stories!
 
Charlie - My late mother-in-law made choc boxes. She would have started in the 1920's I think. Her sister was a wages clerk at the same time and until she retired as she never married.:)Mo
 
Sakura, they were making chocolate boxes in the film. They were beautiful hand painted and finished with a lovely hand tied ribbon in a bow. I think it was around the 1930's wouldn't it be wonderful if your Mom was in the film!
 
Both my father and mother were chocolate decorators at Cadbury's. My father worked the night shift, he used a hand held tool, made of alloy, it had a slender handle and a cup on the end that picked up the wet chocolate. I recall as a kid, getting up 8in the morning to go to school and the first thing I did was to check dads breast pocket on his jacket, where he always put these tools after a shift. There was always chocolate in them, yummy!!
 
BBC 1 last night.

:) Brilliant programme last night. The only thing the sight and smell of chocolate makes me go queesy. What a wonderful company to work for. My sons motorbike friend works there and they donated 30 eggs for their charity ride on Sunday. The children and staff were very grateful. TTFN. Jean. :)
 
Thanks Wendy - I wish we could have seen the film. I believe the boxes she made she put bows on them. I think she would have been there until about September 1939, maybe she was on the film. I wonder whether John's brother who lives in England saw the program. Was it just on a local TV station or a National one as they don't live in Birmingham now? Sometimes you can get videos of the program, if you hear there is one available please let me know.:)Mo
 
Sakura,the programme is a local one done by Central television. It features among others Carl Chinn doing some of the history side. I wonder if anyone recorded it?
 
Somewhere on this forum there are some pictures of old Chocolate boxes, but for the life of me I can't find them!! Anyway a few interesting facts:
1879...employed 230 workers
1889...employed 1,193 workers
1899..employed 2,689 workers
1909...employed 4,923 workers
1919...employed 7,500 workers
1931...employed 8,381 workers
Taken from the book "A century of Progress...Cadbury Bournville" 1831-1931
That is what you call a thriving buisness, in 50 years the company employed over 8,000 extra people :) :)
 
I watched "The Way we Were" last night, it really was a wonderful film, and I think the people who were lucky enough to work for the Cadburys were very privilged, they had good working conditions, and every possible leisure interest was provided on site for them. No surprise that many worked their whole lives there. Compared with the conditions in heavy industry their working conditions were idyllic. Indeed a Factory in a Garden.
 
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