A one-man business, opened in 1824 by a young Quaker, John Cadbury (pictured left), in Bull Street Birmingham (pictured below), was to be the foundation of Cadbury Limited, now one of the world's largest chocolate producers.

By 1831 the business had changed from a grocery shop and John Cadbury had become a manufacturer of drinking chocolate and cocoa, the start of the Cadbury manufacturing business as it is known today.

The leader in the UK confectionery market, Cadbury Limited is the confectionery division of Cadbury Schweppes plc, a major force in the confectionery and soft drinks international market.

Quality has been the focus of the Cadbury business from the very beginning, as generations have worked to produce chocolate with the taste, smoothness and snap characteristic of Cadbury chocolate.

This article features the entire history of Cadbury Limited: from humble roots in 1824 to a market leader in the UK confectionery market today.

Follow the progress of the company through the years and find out about the brands, the factory and the history of the Cadbury Family.

Back to top

Cadbury - Social Pioneers
Cadbury is known for the social pioneering of its founders as much as it is for the production of chocolate, and the fascinating history of their social ethos and the way it helped to transform the lot of the working classes in the UK is outlined alongside the success story that is the Cadbury business.

Early history
The history of Cadbury as manufacturers of chocolate products in Birmingham dates back to the early part of the 19th century, when John Cadbury opened a shop in the centre of the city, trading as a coffee and tea dealer.

Soon a new sideline was introduced - cocoa and drinking chocolate, which he prepared himself using a mortar and pestle.

His lifelong involvement with the Temperance Society led him to provide tea, coffee and cocoa as an alternative to alcohol, believed to be one of the causes of so much misery and deprivation amongst working people in Britain at that time.

The Quaker influence
In the 19th century the Cadbury family were members of the Society of Friends or Quakers, one of the many non-conformist groups developed in the 17th century in protest against the formalism of the Established Church.

Quakers held strong beliefs and ideals which carried into 'campaigns for justice, equality and social reform, putting an end to poverty and deprivation'.

As nonconformists, Quakers weren't allowed to enter the Universities, which in the 19th century were closely linked with the Established Church.

So entry into the professions was impossible, and pacifist principles precluded the military as a career.

Their energies and talents were therefore directed towards business, social reform and the transformation of social and industrial society in Victorian Britain.

Many Quaker families have made their mark on the British business scene - in addition to the Cadburys, the Frys of Bristol, Rowntrees and Terrys of York developed the confectionery business; Sampson Lloyd of Birmingham founded Lloyd's Bank; the Hanburys brought tinplate to Wales; and the Darbys of Coalbrooke were the founders of the British iron industry.

Back to top

The Founding Of The Cadbury Business
The founding of the Cadbury business dates back to 1831 when John Cadbury first made cocoa products on a factory scale in an old malthouse in Crooked Lane, Birmingham.

In 1847 the business moved to larger premises in Bridge Street, which had its own private canal spur linking the factory via the Birmingham Navigation Canal to the major ports of Britain.

Business continued at the Bridge Street site for 32 years and by 1878 the workforce had expanded to 200, so more space was needed.

This heralded the move to Bournville and the building of what is now one of the largest chocolate factories in the world.

John Cadbury retired in 1861 handing over the business to his eldest sons Richard and George.

It is to their leadership that the success of the enterprise is owed as the company prospered.

Back to top

The Victorian Industrial Scene
In common with the central areas of most cities and large towns in Victorian times, housing and working conditions for the working classes in Birmingham were very poor.

People existed in slum areas in back-to-back houses.

Most houses had a living-kitchen area of about 130-160 square feet opening directly from the street, with a bedroom above and over that an attic with a low ceiling.

They were built in double rows, each house surrounded on three sides by others, with other blocks at right angles forming courts.

These were often behind shops, with factories and numerous private slaughterhouses crowded amongst them.

The result was poor ventilation and limited daylight; a lack of washing and sanitary facilities; a heavily polluted atmosphere; putrid gutters reeking with the contents of water closets; and crime and other social problems that resulted from the awful conditions.

A Royal Commissioners' report in the 1840s showed that nearly a quarter of Birmingham's population of 220,000 lived in 2,000 un-drained streets, many of which were quagmires.

Most of Birmingham's water came from wells or water carts, and was sold by the gallon: it was often so dirty that it was only fit for washing and scouring.

The death rate was twice that of Edgbaston, a suburb a few miles from the city centre.

Through his work with the Adult School Movement, George Cadbury often visited his pupils and their families, and got to know the poorer areas of Birmingham, learning about people's misery, and the poor health and suffering caused by appalling housing conditions.

When the Bridge Street factory became too small and it was time to move, George Cadbury had a new vision of the future, shared by his brother Richard.

"Why should an industrial area be squalid and depressing?" he asked.

"Why should not the industrial worker enjoy country air and occupations without being separated from his work?"

"If the country is a good place to live in, why not to work in?"

Back to top

Moving To Bournville
On 18 June 1878, an ideal site was found: fourteen and a half acres of land between the villages of Stirchley, King's Norton and Selly Oak, about four miles south of the centre of Birmingham.

This Greenfield site was sloping meadowland with a trout stream - the Bourn, and a solitary building - Bournbrook Cottage. This was eventually pulled down but the old pear tree from its garden still stands outside the main Cadbury reception at the Bournville factory.

The site had many advantages:
· The Worcester and Birmingham canal adjoined so that barge loads of cocoa beans could reach the factory directly from Bristol docks

· To the east it was bordered by the Birmingham West Suburban Railway

· On the southern edge was a country lane, Oak Lane, now called Bournville Lane, which could easily be improved for road transport

· Water was in good supply

· There was ample room for expansion and to fulfil the Cadbury brothers' vision for the future.

Originally the factory was to be called Bournbrook, after the cottage and Bournbrook Hall, which stood nearby.

However the name 'Bournville' was chosen - 'Bourn' from the stream of that name and 'ville', the French word for town. All things French were in vogue at that time particularly in the area of confectionery, so a French sounding name was considered to be commercially beneficial.

Plans for the factory were drawn up by a Birmingham architect, George H. Gadd, working closely with George Cadbury.

Production began at the Cadbury Brothers' 'Bournville factory in a garden' in September 1879.

Back to top

Bournville Village
Established by Richard and George Cadbury, two Victorian businessmen with great industrial and social vision, Bournville Village is a story of industrial organisation and community planning covering well over a century.

It embraces the building of a factory in a pleasant 'green' environment (in stark contrast to the oppressive conditions of the Victorian industrial scene), the enhancement of employees' working conditions and overall quality of life and the creation of a village community with a balanced residential mix (both employees and non-employees).

George Cadbury (pictured right) was a housing reformer interested in improving the living conditions of working people in addition to advancing working practices.

Having built some houses for key workers when the Bournville factory was built, in 1895 he bought 120 acres near the works and began to build houses in line with the ideals of the embryonic Garden City movement.

Motivation for building the Bournville Village was two-fold. George Cadbury wanted to provide affordable housing in pleasant surroundings for wage earners. But as the Bournville factory grew, local land increased in value and was ready to fall into the hands of developers. The last thing the brothers wanted was that their 'factory in a garden' would be hemmed in by monotonous streets.

Dame Elizabeth Cadbury was involved in the planning of Bournville with her husband, George. Her memoirs tell us how these plans became reality:

"When I first came to Birmingham and we were living at Woodbrooke, morning after morning I would walk across the fields and farmland between our home and the Works planning how a village could be developed, where the roads should run and the type of cottages and buildings.

Gradually this dream became reality, houses arose and many of the first tenants being men in Mr Cadbury's Adult School Class - which met every Sunday morning at 8.00am in Bristol Street - who had previously lived in the centre of the city and had never had a garden. Also workers in the factory became tenants.

They too enjoyed their homes in the healthy surroundings, cultivating their gardens, rewarded in many instances by splendid crops of apples from the belt of apple trees which each tenant found at the bottom of his garden."

In 1897 Richard Cadbury built the Bournville Almshouses, an attractive quadrangle of cottage-like homes around a central garden, on the southern edge of the village, on the corner of Linden and Mary Vale Roads.

Built mainly, but not exclusively for pensioners of Cadbury Brothers, this group of almshouses still exists today. The Bournville Almshouses Trust was established to administer them, endowed by rents from 35 houses built at the same time.

By 1900, the estate included 330 acres of land with 313 cottages. Although plans had been set out for 'schools, baths and an institute', none had yet been built.

The City of Birmingham had not yet pushed its boundaries beyond Edgbaston, four miles away, to the north of Bournville; Selly Oak was developing fast; and to the east and south Stirchley and King's Norton were spreading.

George Cadbury therefore decided to turn his Bournville Building Estate into a Charitable Trust: 'The Bournville Village Trust'. He decided to preserve his works for future generations and protect the rural aspect of the village from speculators, handing over the land and houses to the Bournville Village Trust with the proviso that revenue should be devoted to the extension of the estate and the promotion of housing reform.

The Trust has always been entirely separate from the Cadbury business, although members of the Cadbury family continue to act as Trustees, closely involved with its work at the forefront of improving housing conditions in the UK, which still continues today.

Back to top

Bournville Development
George Cadbury was a housing reformer, dedicated to improving the lives of working men and their families, by providing a community of decent homes.

Bournville Village differed from other communities such as Port Sunlight, built for Lever Bros' employees because it was a mixed community in terms of both class and occupation: a model of good planning open to all comers (rather than containing only 'tied' houses for Cadbury workers).

Housing Designs
By the time the building of Bournville was started, the basic house type built in the Midlands was the 'tunnel-back'. Developed to provide cheap, large-scale housing that complied with the Public Health Acts (that had condemned 'back-to-back' housing), they were built in long rows with entrance to the back through common passages, built over on upper floors. While they raised the standard of accommodation, the resulting landscape was endless rows of dreary monotonous housing.

For Bournville, the housing type chosen by George Cadbury was a rectangular cottage, each one with a large garden.

As a private individual he purchased 140 acres adjoining the factory and in 1895 143 cottages were built. The first houses were built in straight rows with no more than four houses in a terrace but this soon gave way to more interesting layouts.

Back to top

Bournville was developed on 'garden village' lines to these guiding principles:
· Cottages grouped in pairs, threes or sometimes fours

· Groups were set back from tree lined roads, each house with its own front garden and vegetable garden with fruit trees at the back

· All cottages were well built with light airy rooms and good sanitation

· A typical cottage would consist of a parlour, living room and kitchen downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs. Some early houses lacked a bathroom (easily added later)

· Houses should cost at least £150 to build: they were to house 'honest, sober, thrifty workmen, rather than the destitute or very poor'

· Building was restricted on each plot to prevent gardens being overshadowed and to retain the rural aspect

· The first houses were sold on leases of 999 years to control the rural appearance of the district: mortgages were available for would-be purchasers.

Additional land was purchased for building houses for rent. The Bournville Estate developed during the 1890s with cottages of various sizes and types being built to suit different needs. It attracted great interest for housing reformers everywhere (not least from the Garden City Association).

George Cadbury was instrumental in developing the Garden City Movement along with other reformers, including the father of modern town planning, Sir Ebenezer Howard, who founded the Association in 1900. He once said that Bournville had given him the needed impetus for carrying out his ideas.

The first Garden City, Letchworth, was begun in 1902, followed in later years by Hampstead Garden Suburb, New Earlswick and Welwyn Garden City.

There's one important difference between Bournville and the two English garden cities, Letchworth and Welwyn, which are self-contained satellite towns. Bournville became included within the boundary of the city of Birmingham in 1911 as other housing sites were developed around it.

As a 'garden suburb' Bournville approximates more closely in type to Hampstead Garden Suburb in London.

Back to top

The Bournville Village Trust
The Bournville Village Trust's Statement of Purpose is:
"To provide high quality housing developments, distinctive in architecture, landscape and environment, in socially mixed communities, using best management practices to promote ways to improve the quality of life for those living in such communities."

The Trust was the creation of George Cadbury and not the company: its existence is separate from that of Cadbury Limited.

Trustees were originally all members of the Founder's family, and later extended to include participation by the City of Birmingham, the University of Birmingham and the Society of Friends.

When George Cadbury died in 1922, his widow Dame Elizabeth Cadbury succeeded him as Chairman. When she died in 1935 George Cadbury Junior became Chairman.

One of the original trustees, he played a leading role in developing the Trust for 50 years until his younger half-brother Laurence succeeded him in the Chairman's role in 1954.

There is still a strong Cadbury family link with the Trust and several members of the family are trustees.

The creation of a community was foremost in the mind of George Cadbury and the Deed of Foundation provided for both land and buildings for community purposes, covering a wide and specific number and range of activities - not only spiritual welfare but also physical and educational needs. Parks and open spaces were also of prime importance in the Bournville planning scheme.

To George Cadbury's delight, improvements in living conditions did enhance public health, much. Figures published in 1915 show that the general death rate and infant mortality for Bournville was significantly lower than that for Birmingham as a whole compared over a five-year period.

Back to top

The Trust Today
Development has continued, with research into new building methods and amenities being carried out.

Special needs housing for the elderly, single people, unsupported mothers, children in care and the mentally handicapped is included in the planning mix.

Today there are 12 different types of special needs schemes on the Estate, from bungalows for the elderly to sheltered housing schemes, and from a hostel for people with learning difficulties to ninety shared ownership homes for first time buyers and self-contained flats for single people.

Self-build co-partnerships - where practically all the work is done by the membership under the direction of an experienced foreman - have successfully built 400 homes.

Over a hundred years since the first house in the Bournville Village Estate was built, the Bournville Village Trust continues to keep faith with the aims of its founder George Cadbury.

The mission statement promises to:

· Promote social housing of good quality which enhances the environment

· Manage all their housing and estates to the highest standards for all residents

· Encourage residents to share in decisions affecting their communities.

Today the Bournville Estate covers 1,000 acres, and of its 7,600 dwellings 3,861 are secure or assured tenancies; 50 are co-ownership dwellings; 2,234 leasehold properties; and 1,466 freehold homes. The Trust also manages 400 houses and flats in Telford, Shropshire, and has been involved in many other housing, planning and environmentally related projects, all aimed at improving housing conditions in this country.

The Bournville Village Trust is a dynamic organisation making a positive contribution to the housing needs of the 21st century, building on the ideals of its founder, George Cadbury (1839-1922).

Back to top

Welfare Of Employees
When the site was enlarged in 1895 with the purchase of the Bournbrook Estate, recreational facilities were also enlarged.

A swimming pool was built, young employees were encouraged to play games, and works outings to the country were organised.

Medical and dental departments were established and in 1906 the pension fund was launched, with a capital gift from the company.

The Cadbury brothers were pioneers in industrial relations and employee welfare, setting standards other enlightened employers followed.

As the company prospered, new work practice ideas were implemented and additional facilities were provided for the workforce.

A piecework system was related to output and small rewards were given for punctuality.

Cadbury was the first firm to introduce the Saturday half-day holiday (five and a half day working week) and were pioneers in adopting the custom of closing the factory on Bank Holidays.

Back to top

Worker Education Schemes
Young employees were encouraged to attend 'night school' and were allowed to leave work an hour early twice a week.

The company pioneered the idea of workers continuing their education while working at Bournville.

The Day Continuation School was first set up for workers to carry on studying subjects such as arithmetic and geography.

Attendance was compulsory for Bournville workers and there was even a 'uniform' for pupils.

Some workers thought the programme too much like school, so subjects like woodwork, modelling, surveying and household repairs were introduced.

Back to top

Facilities
When the new factory was built at Bournville it had many facilities unknown in Victorian times - properly heated dressing rooms; kitchens for heating food; separate gardens for women and men plus extensive sports fields.

Special workers' fares were negotiated with the railway company and 16 houses were built for senior employees.

Keen sportsmen, Richard and George Cadbury encouraged sports and other recreational activity, often playing cricket themselves.

Sports facilities included football, hockey and cricket pitches, tennis and squash racquet courts and a bowling green.

Women's and men's swimming pools were built and every young boy and girl joining the company was encouraged to become a good swimmer.

Works outings to the country were organised together with summer camps for the young boys.

Morning prayers and daily bible readings, first started in 1866, helped to preserve the family atmosphere.

They were not abandoned until 50 years later, when the size of the workforce was too large for such an assembly.

The Cadbury industrial and social reforms have become the model for modern industrial relations.

Back to top

Employee Participation
The company was a family business in the widest sense.

Trade unions were encouraged but had limited appeal because of the excellent working conditions at Bournville.

As the business grew, a more formal management structure was introduced and a works committee was established to discuss all matters.

By 1918 democratically elected Works Councils were set up - one for men and another for women - with the role of discussing working conditions, health, safety, education, training and the social life of the factory.

These were set up with equal numbers of management and worker representatives elected by secret ballot on a departmental basis. They remained unchanged for over half a century until 1965 when the men's and women's Councils merged.

In 1969, with the move towards 100 per cent unionism amongst employees, the Council was unionized, and Trade Union leaders played a major role in the work of the Council until its dissolution in the late 1970s.

Today there is still full participation in the field of labour relations and negotiations.

Back to top

Planning And Layout
Bournville has been a model for other community developments and experience gained in its planning and construction helped to form the guidelines for Britain's new towns.

Parks and open spaces are still an integral part of the overall plan. Main open spaces are linked together by parkways, two of which cross the Estate. These parkways bring the countryside almost to the front door of the houses.

Trees have been preserved and many new trees and shrubs planted; planning and planting of flower beds and borders all over the village has always been important. At least one tenth of the estate is reserved for public open space.

Most of the early community projects were concentrated around the triangular village green. This included the re-erection and preservation of two black and white timber frame buildings: Selly Manor - dating back to the 14th century and purchased by George Cadbury - was dismantled and re-erected in Bournville between 1912 and 1916. Minworth Greaves dates from the 13th and 14th centuries and was acquired in 1911 and re-erected between 1929 and 1932. Selly Manor is now a popular museum and the Minworth Greaves Gallery regularly plays host to high quality exhibitions.

The meeting house of the Society of Friends was also situated on the village green - the centre of Bournville community life.

From 1900-1914 there was major activity, with Bournville developing into a lively community with its own shops, schools, places of worship, children's playgrounds, allotments, village hall, the Selly Oak colleges and various recreational areas.

The Estate area has enlarged to include developments in Weoley Hill, Northfields and Shenley Field. From 1935 onwards the Trustees devoted attention to securing the 'greenbelt' on the south-west side of Birmingham, in co-operation with the City of Birmingham, the National Trust and other bodies.

The area known as the Lickey Hills, an attractive rural area to the south west of Birmingham, had been secured by Birmingham Corporation in the early 1920s. In the 1930s The Bournville Village Trust purchased 3,000 acres of agricultural land close to the Lickey Hills for preservation.

Back to top

The Factory In A Garden
Workers arriving at Bournville found many new welcome innovations: a field adjoining the factory where the men were encouraged to play cricket and football; a garden and playground for girls; and a kitchen where workers could heat up their dinners - a forerunner to the staff dining rooms.

Conscious of the need to transport workers from their homes in the centre of Birmingham to the new Bournville factory, the Cadbury brothers negotiated special workmen's fares to the Stirchley Station. Sixteen houses were built on the site for foremen and senior employees. These were mostly semi-detached and spaced out with ample gardens.

The factory was a mile from the nearest goods station so raw materials not delivered by canal barge or narrow boat and Cadbury products had to be transported by horse and cart to Lifford Station.

Before long Bournville's own railway sidings were built to transport the ever-increasing output from the factory.
Within 10 years of the move to Bournville, the number of employees had risen from 230 to 1,200: by 1899 the number was 2,700 and it had risen to 7,500 by 1919.

Every element of cocoa and chocolate production - from the roasting of the beans to the design, printing and production of packaging materials - took place at the Bournville factory. The new site could be said to be 'many factories within a large factory.'

When milk chocolate became the best selling product with the launch of Cadburys Dairy Milk, milk condensing plants were established in dairy farming country in Shropshire and Gloucestershire, to prevent milk going sour before it reached Bournville.

By 1889 the original area of the factory buildings had doubled and then trebled by 1899. While the Cadbury business prospered, the advances in working conditions and social benefits for its workforce were what made the company famous.

Back to top

John Cadbury's Reforms
The Cadbury family has played an active and important role in the public life of Birmingham for generations.

National social reform was a concern for John Cadbury when he led the campaign to outlaw the use of climbing boys to sweep chimneys, and when he set up the 'Animals Friend Society', one of the forerunners of the RSPCA.

Educational equality was a guiding principle of the Society of Friends.

The Adult School Movement made a tremendous contribution to transforming the lives of the working population through Sunday morning classes.

Members of the Cadbury family, in particular George Cadbury and his son George Cadbury Junior, were actively involved in this movement, both as teachers on a Sunday and in the opening of their former homes in Bournville and its environs as colleges.

Known as the Selly Oak Colleges, they are still active today.

Provision of schools and other educational resources was of prime concern in the development of the Bournville community.