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In 1879 George and Richard Cadbury, makers of cocoa and chocolate, moved their factory from the cramped confines of Birmingham’s back streets to the open countryside of north Worcestershire.  They chose the Bournbrook Estate, a fourteen and a half acre site with easy access to a local railway and close to a source of clean water in the nearby River Bourn.

Whilst the factory was being built, George Cadbury appointed, amongst others, a young architect - W Alexander Harvey to help design housing on the Bournville Building Estate (1895).  George Cadbury’s objective was to provide decent quality homes, at prices within the reach of industrial workers.  All the houses were to consist of large and airy rooms and to have good sanitation.  Each house was to occupy no more than a quarter of its building plot and each garden was “not less than one-sixth of an acre” with at least six fruit trees.  Communal land was equally valued with parks and playing fields offering space for recreation and leisure.

In 1900 he founded The Bournville Village Trust (BVT), a charitable organisation set up to ensure the continued development and maintenance of the Estate for the benefit of the residents.  This organisation pioneered the Garden City Movement envisaged by Ebenezer Howard and prompted many interested visitors.

In the following years the BVT promoted a range of housing developments: self-build projects, ‘sunshine’ homes and, latterly, solar villages, and equally important was the establishment of community associations to encourage residents to take an active part in their own neighbourhood.  The provision of housing to meet a variety of needs has remained a constant objective from George Cadbury’s early vision of a mixed community to the present day.  Houses are for sale or rent; for single people, families and the elderly.

The familiar ‘tree’ identified the Bournville Village Trust for many years, succeeded in recent times by the line drawing of the Rest House at Bournville Green.

Category: People , Place , Paper

Institute: Birmingham Libraries Central Library