Kingswood Junction to Bournville

On Monday 1 June we June we continued north on the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal, ascended the Lapworth flight of locks and moored overnight at Earlswood, Solihull. The next morning we turned onto the Worcester & Birmingham Canal and cruised to Bournville the home of Cadbury World, where we moored overnight on Tuesday 2 June.

After an overnight stay on the Grand Union Canal at Kingswood we returned onto the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal

We pass under the lift bridge above Lapworth Locks

We moored overnight on the Monday 1 May at the Blue Bell Cider House Pub.
The beer I recommend above is exclusively brewed in a micro brewery nearby.

We approach Shirley Drawbridge

We passed through Brandwood Tunnel

We approach King's Norton Stop Lock

We turn onto the Worcester & Birmingham Canal

We moored at Bournville and visited Cadbury World

This building is known as No. 1 Lodge and is one of a number of entrances into the factory.
It was built in 1899 as part of a suite of offices for the then newly formed Cadbury Brothers Limited Company.

Born in 1902, Charlie Atkins soon became a legend in his own lifetime.
As he steered the narrowboat 'Mendip' laden with chocolate crumb from Knighton to Bournville for over a decade,
he soon became known as 'Chocolate Charlie'

In 1879 George Cadbury, and his brother Richard, made the decision to move their successful chocolate manufacturing business from Birmingham’s back streets to a fourteen and a half-acre site in open Warwickshire countryside.

As the factory flourished, it gave the brothers the finance to realise some of their social objectives. In George’s case, having witnessed the dreadful conditions in the slums of Birmingham, it was the creation of the world’s first planned and balanced community.

At Bournville, in 1895, he began building good quality housing in a natural, green environment. His vision: to provide the local community with quality homes in ‘surroundings of light, fresh air and space’.

In 1900 George Cadbury founded Bournville Village Trust, a charitable organisation set up to ensure the planned development and maintenance of the Estate and to preserve it for future generations.

The founding of the Trust signalled a change from merely a building estate into a complete village community. Shops, places of worship, open spaces, sports facilities, community buildings and schools were included to form the hub of a new model village: everything a community might want, apart from a pub.

The idea was to create a traditional English country village, with its communal buildings grouped around a village green. The green is part of the Bournville Village Conservation Area, which was originally designated in 1971 and is now internationally recognised.

Selly Manor, Bournville