In 1847 John Cadbury moved the manufacturing business to a bigger factory in Bridge Street. The new site had its own private canal spur, which linked the factory to the Birmingham Navigation Canal and from there to all the major ports in Britain.
As Cadbury grew bigger, hundreds of tons of raw materials was needed. There were spices from China, timber from Scandinavia, Russia and Canada, oranges from South Africa, coffee and brazil nuts from Brazil, honey from Chile, ribbons from France and many more goods from around the world that went into the making and packaging of Cadbury products.
But that wasn’t all – building materials like bricks, cement, slate and steelwork were needed to extend the factory, then there were engines, boilers, generators and motors, oil, tools, trays, brushes and twine.
Just as importantly, Cadbury finished products needed to get into the hands of their customers. And Cadbury staff needed to get to work. So how was all this achieved?
At the next stage of expansion, Bournville’s excellent transport links were crucial to its being chosen as the site for the next new Cadbury factory in 1878. It was close to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, so barge loads of cocoa from Ghana and Central and South America, and cane sugar from the Caribbean could reach the new factory directly from the Bristol and Liverpool docks.
The canals were an economical means of transport and so were heavily used. Cadbury had their own fleet by 1911, and by 1925 the firm was running a fleet of four motorboats and five barges.
To the east of Bournville was the Birmingham West Suburban Railway, with a goods station a mile away at Lifford. When the factory opened in 1879, a horse-drawn van brought in any raw materials that didn’t come via canal from Lifford, and took back Cadbury finished products for distribution.
On the southern side of the Bournville factor was Oak Lane, a country lane that could easily be improved for road transport. You can still walk down it today – it’s called Bournville Lane.
Transport for the workers
Many workers still lived in Birmingham of course – so how were they going to get to work? They could come by train. Stirchley Street Station served the new factory site (now it’s called Bournville Station). It was a longer journey to work, but the Cadbury Brothers went out of their way to be helpful, negotiating special workers fares on the trains to offset the extra cost.