Mmmm...chocolate!

Snap decision! As we were coming up the flight of locks from Stratford the more locks we did, the better the idea of taking a train from Wilmcote to Bournville sounded.

The trip to Bournville was an after thought, well sought of. We had discussed going to Cadbury's and I knew we were heading towards Birmingham but I hadn't realised how close it was to Birmingham or we would have called in on the way down. Halfway up a flight of sixteen locks, a six day return trip and thirty-six locks in total wasn't sounding terribly appealing. So that's what we did, a thirty minute train ride to Birmingham Moor Street Station, a five minute walk around to Birmingham New Street Station and an eight minute train ride to Bournville Station. Note how close the moorings are from the station.

A short walk from the station to the front doors of Cadbury's.

 

The visitor's entrance was quite a bit further, in fact we seem to walk half way around the outside of the factory, but it was a pleasant walk. These days they don't let you get too close to the manufacturing process with viewing from behind glass windows. We did get our share of chocolate but not as much as I remember in earlier visits. Several of the attractions told the story of the founder and how the company was run, George Cadbury was quite innovative for his time providing compulsory education, shorter working weeks and caring for employee's families as well. It was a full day out and all quite interesting, mainly geared to the family with rides and simulated streets of the beginnings.

The village of Bournville was also interesting, specifically built for the employees of Cadbury's and creating a balanced community. Providing housing, schools, places of worship in a healthy green environment. Selly Manor is a beautiful old building dating back to 1327, complete with Tudor gardens, it hasn't been lived in since George Cadbury had it moved to Bournville in the early 1900's to open it to the public.

We spent an additional day in Wilmcote and strolled down to Mary Arden's Farm. It was less than ten minutes stroll from the canal, we were after a few shots of the main house which sits at the front of the property. Not too many straight pieces of wood in the building but not bad for over 700 years.

As always, there was a nice old pub just a few minutes walk further on, in this case The Masons Arms.