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Cadbury's Bournville Factory

paul stacey said:
Yes so very true Viv, without the Americans in put of literally trillions in today's money and the UK Commonwealth donations, you would never have had the Euro union of today, a fact lost on modern politicians and society in general throughout Europe.
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The 'Marshall Plan' was one of the biggest American ideas to get western Europe back on its feet - untold amount of dollars involved apparently.
 
I have my doubts as to whether they were actually entering the works. It looks mor eto me as if they were in the Girl's grounds on the opposite side of the road. Could be wrong though
 
From the Illustrated London News 6/10/1906. These ladies must have been only too well aware of how fortunate they were to have been working for a considerate employer. Viv.

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I do remember Bournville in the mid late 50's, as being a wonderful , peaceful place, and looked very middle class, with wonderful aroma sometimes!!!
 
Great to see this thread on Cadburys. My grandfather Percy Davis had a job as an electrician in the factory, and was also a trade union official (ETU). After he was widowed in 1935, he became engaged to a colleague Rosa Davies, but he himself died in 1939 before they could marry.
His daughters (my aunts) Ida Davis and Dorothy Davis both worked there and Dorothy later married Colin Nuttall. I believe he may have worked at Cadburys also, but later went on to a very senior role at Mars and earned VERY well.

I am still in touch with their children, Mark and Anthea. They now live in Australia & New Zealand respectively.
 
Rod said:
Ahh Di.......... I too am a fan of Cadbury's choccy. I dont think you can beat it. My wife Brenda likes galaxy and while I will eat it, as I will any chocolate, I think Cadburys is by far the best.
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Manderlay have changed some of the ingredient in some chocolate...all down to profit Unfortunately Cadburys are not what they where They sold their name to the this American company
 
colinwilliams1 said:
mmmmmmmm chocolate

My mum was a supervisor on one the production lines in the early 1960,s and would bring us home bags of mishapes .

She now lives in the road behind Dominic Cadbury the one time chairman.

Bourneville is still a nice village and the cadbury family being of quaker origin I believe there are no pubs on the trust area.

Off subject a bit I think the calthorpe,s land was the same that is the area around HAGLEY road whcih at one point i think had no pubs on .. Bt there are loads now
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Can anyone help with a Cadbury’s employee query.
A family member David Robertson Kyle worked at Cadbury’s as a horticulturist and was apparently bitten by a tropical spider and died. This was in 1959 and he was aged 39.
I’m wondering if anyone has heard or come across this story.


His Father also named David Robertson Kyle worked at Cadbury’s as well,
he was an engineer. Thank You.
 
Davenport said:
Can anyone help with a Cadbury’s employee query.
A family member David Robertson Kyle worked at Cadbury’s as a horticulturist and was apparently bitten by a tropical spider and died. This was in 1959 and he was aged 39.
I’m wondering if anyone has heard or come across this story.


His Father also named David Robertson Kyle worked at Cadbury’s as well,
he was an engineer. Thank You.
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Roughly a third were female and a sprinkling of young people. I’m guessing there was a strict hierarchy and time served played a big part in their careers. Wondered if some in the photo were overseas sales reps ? The Export Office employed a lot of staff. Viv.
 
I always loved Cadburys' chocolate, I don´t eat much now, recently I wa bought some by my grandson, I think it has changed, dos´t taste as it did, may be me, wonder if anyone else has the same feeling.
 
paul stacey said:
I always loved Cadburys' chocolate, I don´t eat much now, recently I wa bought some by my grandson, I think it has changed, dos´t taste as it did, may be me, wonder if anyone else has the same feeling.
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Paul,The house I grew up in backed onto Cadbury’s, often the railway workers would pass me and my sister bags of Cadbury waste through our garden railings, it was delicious. But I agree with you, the taste has definitely changed but not for the better.
 
Living now in the USA we got a couple of bars of Cadburys milk Choc. What a shock it was bloody awful, I assume now that they are owned by Hersey's of the US is it now that bad in England? Nothing like I used to remember when living in Brum
 
The situation is complicated. As I understand it the USA product is "manufactured" (perhaps thrown together might be a better term) under licence by Hershey, and is different to the UK's. The flavour has changed over the years, unfortunately, partly due to different manufacturing processes, and indeed the UK-made chocolate did often taste different to that made abroad. Talking about Cadburys Dairy milk (CDM), at the time that I worked there (including about 2 years when I routinely tasted the daily production sample at Bournville) the cho colate sold in the UK came from two sources, the majority from chocolate crumb produced at factories (Marlbrook, Frampton) in the UK using a continuous process, and some from Ireland, who used crumb from the Irish crumb factory, which had a batch process. To my mind (and many others) the Irish product was much nicer . the Irish factory mainly concentrated on certain products. As an aside, pre around the late 1970s (th date is a bit of a guess) a few lines used miklk powder chocolate (and was never claimed to be Dairy milk), as I remember mostly for some coated cheaper lines and all manufactured at Somerdale and the product was not as good - similar to the not very nice product from Rowntrees. But then it was decided that all their chocolate should be of CDM quality and the recipes were changed. At around the time of the takeover by the artificial cheese makers it was decided that for a limited number of coated lines an outside supplier should provide the chocolate . To be honest, I am doubtful FOR COATED LINES WITH A STRONG FLAVOURED CENTRE whether more than about 1% of the consumers would notice the difference, so can understand why this was done as CDM is appreciably more expensive to produce. The outside firm supplying the chocolate freely admitted ( at that time) that, though they thought they could match the flavour any other milk chocolate on the market, they were unable to copy CDM. Since then I gather the Americans have lntroduced non-CDM chocolate into some other lines . I Have no knowledge of changes since the takeover. they may have removed the flavouring oils (which are included with vanilla flavouring as "Flavouring") and may have changed other processes. Some emulsifiers have a distinct flavour (the Cadbur one in the uk at the time I have discussed was flavourless , but had the misfortune to be "artificial"). One should ignore the purist's comments about "palm oil" . Anyone under 55 years old is unlikely to have tasted CDM with no added substitute unless they have tasted chocolate produced specifically for export to places where cocoa butter substitutes (CBE)are not allowed. A good CBE at low levels is not deleterious. Far more deleterious to the eating quality of the chocolate is the reduction in size of bars - a thick chunk has a better texture, mouthfeel and eating quality than some of th ethin efforts now being produced.
Should add finally that I agree that CDM does not taste as good as it once did, though do not know the reason
 
mikejee said:
The situation is complicated. As I understand it the USA product is "manufactured" (perhaps thrown together might be a better term) under licence by Hershey, and is different to the UK's. The flavour has changed over the years, unfortunately, partly due to different manufacturing processes, and indeed the UK-made chocolate did often taste different to that made abroad. Talking about Cadburys Dairy milk (CDM), at the time that I worked there (including about 2 years when I routinely tasted the daily production sample at Bournville) the cho colate sold in the UK came from two sources, the majority from chocolate crumb produced at factories (Marlbrook, Frampton) in the UK using a continuous process, and some from Ireland, who used crumb from the Irish crumb factory, which had a batch process. To my mind (and many others) the Irish product was much nicer . the Irish factory mainly concentrated on certain products. As an aside, pre around the late 1970s (th date is a bit of a guess) a few lines used miklk powder chocolate (and was never claimed to be Dairy milk), as I remember mostly for some coated cheaper lines and all manufactured at Somerdale and the product was not as good - similar to the not very nice product from Rowntrees. But then it was decided that all their chocolate should be of CDM quality and the recipes were changed. At around the time of the takeover by the artificial cheese makers it was decided that for a limited number of coated lines an outside supplier should provide the chocolate . To be honest, I am doubtful FOR COATED LINES WITH A STRONG FLAVOURED CENTRE whether more than about 1% of the consumers would notice the difference, so can understand why this was done as CDM is appreciably more expensive to produce. The outside firm supplying the chocolate freely admitted ( at that time) that, though they thought they could match the flavour any other milk chocolate on the market, they were unable to copy CDM. Since then I gather the Americans have lntroduced non-CDM chocolate into some other lines . I Have no knowledge of changes since the takeover. they may have removed the flavouring oils (which are included with vanilla flavouring as "Flavouring") and may have changed other processes. Some emulsifiers have a distinct flavour (the Cadbur one in the uk at the time I have discussed was flavourless , but had the misfortune to be "artificial"). One should ignore the purist's comments about "palm oil" . Anyone under 55 years old is unlikely to have tasted CDM with no added substitute unless they have tasted chocolate produced specifically for export to places where cocoa butter substitutes (CBE)are not allowed. A good CBE at low levels is not deleterious. Far more deleterious to the eating quality of the chocolate is the reduction in size of bars - a thick chunk has a better texture, mouthfeel and eating quality than some of th ethin efforts now being produced.
Should add finally that I agree that CDM does not taste as good as it once did, though do not know the reason
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Actually the Cadbury “brand” is produced by two or three different companies. Its not the same as it was!
 
Short history of Cadbury’s production
 

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oldbrit said:
Thanks for the info I had not had a Cadburys for years I just surprised that it did not have the same flavour
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Your previous comment about the taste has reminded me that someone I worked with had relatives in Canada who always asked her family to bring them Cadbury's chocolate from the UK as it was much better than what they could buy there!
 
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