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.