A whole industry is devoted to wellbeing in the 21st century.
But two forward-thinking brothers brought in the notion of wellbeing to the small town of Bournville way back in the 1860s.
They were, of course, George and Richard Cadbury, and their vision lives on there today.
Special guided walks are taking place from Cadbury World around Bournville this weekend, giving visitors a rare insight into the rich history of the area.
“For most of their working life, Richard and George had been teachers of illiterate men from the inner wards of Birmingham,” says social historian Colin Pitt.
“The adult school they taught at was located in Severn Street, Birmingham, with the brothers voluntarily teaching there each Sunday morning.
“As a consequence of their altruistic work, several of their adult students invited the brothers back to their family homes for light refreshments.
“It was there that Richard and George witnessed first-hand the difficulties and poverty many people living in back-to-back houses had to endure.
“Furthermore, their factory located in Bridge Street, was virtually overlooking Gas Street Basin, which in the 1860s would have been a darkened underworld of deprivation, and crime.
“Without doubt, these visual experiences touched their devout Quaker beliefs and they embarked on a lifelong campaign of alleviating poverty in the region.”
In 1866 Cadbury launched their unadulterated cocoa Essence, which for virtually 40 years remained market leader, affording the brothers the opportunity to fulfil one of their personal ambitions to build a “factory in a garden”.
“In 1878 the brothers started their search for a new site, and the Bournville factory was purposely built on a green field site,” adds Colin, who is education and heritage centre manager at Cadbury World.
“Rather than take a factory in the recognised industrial quarter of Birmingham, they decided to go to the country. They said ‘if the country is a good place to live in and play in, why not to work in?’” explains Colin.
“As Richard and George required the permanent presence of 16 of their highly skilled artisan workers to be housed adjacent to the Bournville factory, they employed a young architect called William Alexander Harvey.
“Each house was detached, built from high quality materials, laid out with gardens, running water and a lavatory.
“The design of these houses was specifically dissimilar to the more typical back-to-back houses that would have been found in the city centre.”
Having built some houses for key workers, in 1895 George bought 120 acres near the works and began to build Bournville village ultimately founding Bournville Village Trust (BVT).
“George Cadbury was a housing reformer interested in improving the living conditions of working people in addition to advancing working practises,” says Colin.
“His motivation was two-fold. First, he wanted to provide affordable housing in pleasant surroundings for wage earners.
“The second reason was that as the Bournville factory grew, local land increased in value and was ready to fall into hands of developers.
“The last thing that the Cadbury brothers wanted was for their ‘factory in a garden’ to be hemmed in by monotonous streets.
“The community was designed to be mixed in terms of both class and occupation and not just a village for Cadbury workers.”
In 1900, George Cadbury handed over the land and houses to the BVT with the proviso that revenue should be devoted to the extension of the estate and the promotion of housing reform.
The Trust has always been entirely separate from the Cadbury business, although members of the Cadbury family continue to act as trustees, closely involved with the work.
From then on, Bournville developed into a lively community with its own shops, schools, places of worship, children’s playgrounds, allotments, village hall, colleges and various recreational areas.
To George Cadbury’s delight, improvements in living conditions massively enhanced public health.
Figures published in 1915 show that the general death rate and infant mortality for Bournville was significantly lower than that for Birmingham as a whole, compared over a five-year period.
But sadly, the war was to have a profound effect upon life in Bournville.
A new visual display exploring the sacrifices and stories of men and women linked to the Cadbury factory during the First World War was unveiled at Cadbury World in September.
It explores the many ways the Cadbury family and their workers helped the war effort, while trying to stay true to the peaceful Quaker ideals the company was built on.
“All the directors of the firm were members of the Society of Friends, but they placed no obstacle in the way of any man who wished to join one of the fighting forces,” says Colin.
“Quakers opposed to fighting often joined the Friends’ Ambulance Unit (FAU) and Friends’
War Victims’ Relief Committee (FWVRC).
“Laurence, the eldest son of George and Elizabeth Cadbury, was largely responsible for forming the FAUs which served with the French Army.
“Laurence was awarded the Officer of the Order of the British Empire and Croix de Guerre.”
George Cadbury handed over two company-owned buildings – The Beeches and Fircroft – for use as hospitals.
Colin says: “The management of both hospitals earned the War Office’s highest award.
“One nurse, Matron Rose, was also decorated by the King with the Royal Red Cross.
“Factory girls, dubbed ‘The Cadbury Angels’, volunteered to do the laundry of injured soldiers recovering in these hospitals. They also knitted woollen scarves for the crews of two of the Royal Navy’s Torpedo Boats.”
As consequence of their Quaker beliefs and the Deeds of Foundation, George and Richard’s legacy remains today.
The BVT continue to endorse and encourage a healthy lifestyle in Bournville and, as a result, there are no public houses, fast food outlets such as burger bars, pizza parlours, or fish and chip shops in Bournville.
* Visitors to Cadbury World’s Heritage Weekend today and tomorrow (November 15 and 16) are invited to take part in a guided walk into the historic Bournville village, discovering places of interest and learning about the rich history of the area. For more information, visit www.cadburyworld.co.uk .