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Cadbury's Bournville Factory

I just watched the Great Railways episode - brilliant, thanks for the link Richie. For those who don't get an opportunity to watch it, here are a few screenshots. When I lived in Bournville, the station wasn't painted Cadbury Purple but was painted in cream and brown. Viv.

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Interesting story about Miss Felicity Loudon, the great grandaughter of the founder of Cadbury's. Miss Loudon is planning on starting her own chocolate company using the capital obtained from the sale of her home in the Cotswold's which sold for 30 million pounds according to this article. I am off for a break for a few days. Hope the weather will be nice and sunny. https://www.birminghammail.net/news...n-gets-sweet-revenge-on-kraft-66331-30908388/
 
Re: Cadbury's Bournville

Personally the Cadbury factory drove me insane as a young teen and a chocoholic ... I went to school at Bournville Technical Grammar School on Griffinsbrook Lane ... and if the wind was blowing in the right direction all you could smell all day long was chocolate ... it was hell trying to concentrate on lessons !!!!

My mother worked there on the nightshift for most of my childhood ... and told me that the staff were permitted to eat as much chocolate on the premises as they wanted ... the Roses and Milk Tray assortments (and even easter eggs) would be piled high on trolleys in all the corridors waiting for packing. The assumption was you would quickly get sick of eating the stuff and stop ... but she never did and piled on the pounds over the years.

All the staff were allowed to buy two very cheap 2lb bags of mis-shapes each Friday from the staff shop ... our favourites were Skippy bars or Tiffin and you would get around 20 of them in a 2lb brown paper bag ... or we might have 2lbs of chocolate hazel whirls out of the Dairy Box selection. The chocolate tasted so much better back then and my brain can still remember the taste ... the milk was unpasteurised back in the 1950s and the recipe tasted somewhat different when the milk changed in the early 60s .... in 1988 I was responsible for scrapping thousands of Army compo ration packs from 1955 that were time expired. Packed in sealed tins were bars of Tiffin, Turkish Delight and regular Dairy Milk bars ... and they tasted exactly as I remembered from my childhood ... the salvaged chocolate bars fed my family for nearly two years of utter heaven.

My parents were avid ballroom dancers and every Saturday evening was spent at the upstairs dinner dance at Rowheath Pavilion, walzing and foxtrotting to a three piece dance band (piano, drums and saxophone) ... one of the few venues in Bournville where you could be served alcohol (my dad would slip a little beer into my pint glass of lemonade to make a weak shandy, when mum wasn't looking). Sundays were often spent at the Valley Pool sailing my toy boat. Hot summer days were spent lazing on the sloping grassy banks at the Rowheath Lido (eating ice creams and drinking bottles of 7-Up lemonade from the Lido cafe).

Afterwards we would walk up to the Cadbury cricket ground (the photograph of which used to appear on Milk Tray lids and in newspaper adverts) and watch the factory cricket team playing ... sometimes sitting at the outdoor tables on the patio and eating ice creams and pots of tea from the factory canteen. My school cricket team also played games there and our annual sports day was held on the running track that circled the cricket pitch. I also remember the annual Christmas pantomimes in the Cadbury Theatre (also the venue for the school's annual prizegiving ceremonies) and the family Christmas parties in the canteen ... complete with the most genuine looking Father Christmas on a sleigh, giving presents to all us children.

We lived in a Bournville Trust 3-bed house on Heath Road South and I loved walking to school in the early summer when the trees and ground were covered in pink cherry blossom like a coloured snow. Looking back it was an idylic, safe and very pleasant childhood. I was quite sad when my father was transferred by the Civil Service to South Wales and I had to leave Bournville at the age of 15. I have been back occasionally over the years, took my children to Cadbury World several times and generally enjoyed visiting the little changed area where I grew up.
 
Re: Cadbury's Bournville

What a delightful read Adrian, thank you for that. Lovely memories. My aunt also worked at Carbury's for a short while, so I did know that the staff could eat anything at any time. I don't know if I would have got sick and tired of it, I loved their Turkish Delight. The Trust houses are also fantastic in their designs, but sadly these days they are let to almost anyone and some of the people living there are not the best sort. I know someone who lives in Beech Road - and drugs have made an appearance in Bournville.
 
Re: Cadbury's Bourneville

Hi Adrian,our paths may have crossed at Rowheath!! Every summer we would spend the afternoons there,with fishing nets and jam-jars etc. We lived on Kingsley Rd in the fifties which was a Trust house,but neither of my parents ever worked for Cadbury's,though many of our neighbours did. My nan and grandad lived across the road (they moved there in 1922 and neither ever worked for Cadbury's!)
My sister and I used to take part in the Maypole dancing at the Village Festival every June,held where the cricket pitch is.
I also remember the pantomimes and coachloads of factory tour visitors who would end up at Rowheath for the afternoon teas.
 
Re: Cadbury's Bourneville

I remember Kingsley Road well ... a lifelong friend of my grandmother lived there and we used to visit her for tea and cake at the weekends. Her name was Mrs Blanchard and before she retired she was owner/headmistress of Woodlands Park Private Preparatory School (that I attended from 1954 - 1960) in the trust village hall on Woodlands Park Road. Mrs Blanchard lived in the little crescent of pensioners' cottages just inside Kingsley Road (the first one on the right as you stand looking at the crescent). Her living room was tiny and almost completely filled by a baby grand piano that she refused to get rid of.

I remember watching the maypole dancing several times, so may have seen you dancing. I also remember walking round Rowheath duckpond on chilly Autumn days ... all done up in a winter coat, scarf and gloves ... feeding bread to the swans and Canada geese and kicking up clouds of fallen leaves on the path. I did all of my fishing with nets and jamjars at the large lake in open fields between Heath Road and Heath Road South (where Hole Farm used to be on Hole Lane) ... now reduced to a tiny pond a fraction its original size and marooned in the middle of a 1980s housing estate.

When we moved to Heath Road South in 1953 our first milkman used to come on a horse drawn cart and we had to trot up the driveway with our quart jug that he would fill with farm fresh unpasteurised milk using a ladle from large steel churns. Within less than a year he was replaced by a milkman on an electric powered float who would deliver the milk and orange juice in REAL glass bottles. I also remember door to door deliveries by the Corona pop man and the 'Beer at home means Davenports' chap that delivered wooden crates of bottled dark stout for my father ... also the weekly mobile butcher's shop van on Friday mornings, delivery boys on their ancient black bikes dropping off cardboard boxes full of telephone-ordered groceries from the general stores in Northfield, the ice cream lads on their trikes with huge wooden cool boxes on the front and the rag and bone man that would sharpen all your knives, scissors and garden shears with a foot-treddled grinding wheel. Oh, and who remembers the local 'beat bobby' police sergeant that would cycle past the house every day around 3pm (with his uniformed trousers held in by cycle clips) and knew everybody, including the kids, by name.
 
Re: Cadbury's Bourneville

what a lovely story Adrian, I too have some small memories of Bournville and Cadburys, went there with school a couple of times and the Rowheath Lido, I also remember the blossomed trees around the Estate.
paul
 
Re: Cadbury's Bourneville

Thanks for the nice interesting stories. My only visit to Cadbury's Bournville was with a school group. We were fascinated by their manufacturing processes. At the end of our visit they gave each of us a tin box full of chocolates. I still have it, a bit battered after years in the garage, here it is.
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Re: Cadbury's Bourneville

Thanks for that ... the Dairy Milk tin lid exactly as I remember it. That is the factory's cricket ground ... period baroque towered clubhouse/changing rooms on the far right .... the ground floor staff canteen behind it, with the patio lawn and outdoor tables just in front and behind a low hedge... and the main factory admin building at the background left.

I do hope the chocolates are not still in the tin .... they would be a little on the ripe side by now.
 
Re: Cadbury's Bourneville

Thanks for sharing your memories, Adrian - beautifully written, if I may say so. And one aspect of them which is an object lesson to us all - you quote dates! Highly relevant to a history forum but often neglected.

Chris
 
Re: Cadbury's Bourneville

My friends Dad worked at Cadburys also. I can remember going round to her house and the drawers seemed full of chocolate misshapes! I thought it must have been bliss to be able to have so much chocolate but I don't think the family bothered too much about them. I went on a school trip around Cadburys and remember going into the little theatre to be shown a film about how chocolate came about from the cocoa bean down to the bars of chocolate. Then we were taken around the factory to see the process of the Milk Tray etc. being made, and the sickly sweet smell put me off chocolate for months afterwards and I love chocolate!
 
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I NEVER got fed up of the chocolate supplies Jayell, ... bearing in mind we had the best part of 2 kilos of chocolate bars coming into the house each Friday for nearly ten years ... you would have thought we would be the size of small houses with all those calories ... but we spent all our time outdoors running and cycling everywhere, so we must have burned it all off ... but never do I remember even the slightest inkling of getting bored or fed up with eating chocolate ... well ... until recently ... I don't know what they have done to the recipe but this past twelve months or so it tastes different and very bland. I bought a box of Milk Tray last Christmas, all the 'different' flavours tasted samey and the chocolate had a texture like plastic ... revolting, and I will never buy another box.
 
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My husband got a tin many years ago and we still have it, probably on a trip with his school as he lived on Linden Road. All his family worked for Cadbury's and I worked in Sale Marketing after we were married and moved to Northfield from my parents home in Handsworth. Cadbury chocolate is nice over here but not as nice as Cadbury choc bought in the UK, the fat content is different due to the high temperatures here. Loved the huge boxes of chocolates we used to be able buy over there, I guess they don't make them any more now. Mo
 
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Adrian,my grandparents initially lived at 22 (on the crescent) then moved over the road to 11,where their backgarden backed onto the drive by Woodlands Park school. We too had the Corona popman and the Tascos milkman with the orange juice in glass bottles and Wrenson's and Mason's delivery boys on their bikes,Hawleys bakery van with the cakes on the shelves inside,the mobile butcher and wet fish man. The Maypole used to be the highlight of the year.......we'd practice twice a week from March till June!!!
 
I've taken the liberty of adding this drawing to complement David's 5th photo in post # 1, as I think it's an interesting inside view of Cadbury's Bridge Street Works around 1847. Viv.

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And I like this 1859 advert from the Graphic because of the puns : "The two great cups" ( the Americas and the English) and how Cadbury's cocoa "promotes bouyant health". Clever piece of 19th century advertising. Viv.


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This is a nice pc. It has cut-out Cadbury trains with their own little stands. Little boys must have been overjoyed to have received this in the post. Viv.

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It is well known that Cadburys didn't employ married women, was it possible that they would have employed widows?
 
They may not have employed married women at one time, but did later. I do not know exactly when this changed, but in at least one of the older parts of the factory in the 1970s (it was either the old cocoa or chocolate blocks) in one place there remained close together rooms (probably originally toilets/washrooms) where one was marked permanently into the wall "Girls" and the other "Women". This was because it was not thought proper at the time for married women to share facilities with unmarried less they discuss things young girls should not hear. IObviously this did not apply in 1970s, but the wording was set permanently into the wall so it remained.
 
i maybe able to help with this one..far as my memory goes my auntie june worked for cadburys in the 60s and was certainly married...she went on to work for them for the best part of 40 years i think so when i get time i will phone her up and ask what it was like to work there and confirm the years

lyn
 
As I said above in post 22, there were married women at bournvill pre-war (the the buildings concerned had been built in the 1920s-30s. However "The Cadbury story" by Carl Chinn, states that practices changed during WW2, and that marrieds women were employed full time from then. so presumably previous to that they had been employed aprt time, though I do not know for how long that had gone on
 
hi anvilman;
my dear old friend whom died many years back in the eightys
whomretired for age worked there all his life he was a trade man and he was the carpenter there from his younger days and all up to his retirement
he died at the late seventys after retireing his name was joe harriss if any body recalls him really nice and sincere guy he was one of th orinional trades man of yester years he never took short short corners a genuine craftman in his occupation
he lived in selly park birmingham best wishes Astonian;;
 
Re: re Cadbury's

Hi Sheri,

My wife was born at 67 Mulberry Road (lived there 1948 to 1969) and knew Mrs Blackham who lived at No 73, next to Mr & Mrs Nicholls at 71 and Mr & Mrs Bunce at 75.
Brian
 
Re: re Cadbury's

Thank you Brian - I remember Mr & Mrs Nicholls and Mr and Mrs Bunce well as neighbours to my Nan at 73. Your wife would only be 2/3 houses up - I don't remember ever playing with other children when I went there - maybe she is much younger than me.
Sheri
 
Re: re Cadbury's

Hi Sheri, she was Pam Wood then (as I said, born in 1948 so 65 now) and had a sister Sheila who was 13 years older (but died in 1992 from breast cancer); her parents were Lil and Len Wood.
 
Re: Cadbury's Bourneville

My wife Pauline (Brown) worked in u block wrapping Roses chocolates from 1961 until just after we married in 1966. When we were married she had to go to Adrian Cadbury's office to be presented with a signed bible (Which she still has) and an envelope with £5.00 in it. I remember going to collect her from work on the Thursday night prior to the wedding to help her carry her wedding presents only to be chased up Bournville Lane by a gang of her work mates.
 
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You were lucky they did not catch you. They might have dressed you up for the occasion. I still have my bible somewhere. There was the alternative of the holy book of any faith. Also, if you had not been married while in service with the company, then you would get one on retirement. I jokingly told one lady thst she should ask for something different as she already had a bible. She asked for the Quaran. I got accused by her boss of inducing her to do it .
 
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