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

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.

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.