In the early nineteenth century cocoa was a drink, often a nasty one. Much cheap cocoa was bulked out with starch, flour and other fillers to soak up the fatty cocoa butter. John Cadbury, a Quaker grocer in Bull Street, began making his own cocoa and drinking chocolate with a pestle and mortar, and in 1847 he moved production to Bridge Street.
Pure cocoa
The breakthrough came from the Netherlands. A press of the kind used by Van Houten squeezed much of the cocoa butter out of the beans, so no fillers were needed. Richard and George Cadbury bought one and in 1866 launched Cocoa Essence, “Absolutely pure”. After the Adulteration of Food Act of 1872 they dropped cheap cocoa altogether, and purity became the firm’s selling point.
Bournville
In 1879 the brothers moved to Bournville, beside the canal that brought cocoa beans from the docks at Bristol. The works grew from about 300 workers to more than 6,000 by 1911. Milk Tray followed in 1916, and Bournville became the centre of the British chocolate industry.
The cost of cocoa
Cocoa was a tropical crop, and some of it was grown by forced labour. From 1901 Cadbury knew that cocoa from the Portuguese islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, then a large part of its supply, was grown by Angolans held as virtual slaves. The firm lobbied for years before stopping its purchases in 1909. When it sued the Standard newspaper for libel that year, the jury found for Cadbury but awarded it a farthing. The story is a reminder that Birmingham’s best-known welfare employer also depended on coerced labour overseas.
On the map
4 places connected with Chocolate and cocoa. Tap a number for directions — some sites are private homes or gardens, so each place’s page says what you can see from the street.
- John Cadbury’s shop, 93 Bull Street (site) — Lost, Site redeveloped · Directions to John Cadbury’s shop, 93 Bull Street (site) (opens Google Maps)
- Bournville village — Surviving · Directions to Bournville village (opens Google Maps)
- Bournville works (Cadbury) — Surviving, Surviving but altered · Directions to Bournville works (Cadbury) (opens Google Maps)
- Cadbury’s Bridge Street works — Lost, Site redeveloped
Key dates
- 1824 — John Cadbury opens his shop in Bull StreetJohn Cadbury, a 23-year-old Quaker, opens as a tea and coffee dealer at 93 Bull Street. He also sells cocoa and drinking chocolate he grinds himself: the beginning of the Cadbury business.
- c. 1831 or about 1835 — Cadbury starts making cocoa in Crooked LaneJohn Cadbury rents a warehouse in Crooked Lane and begins making cocoa and chocolate with a pestle and mortar, turning a shop sideline into manufacturing. Sources differ between 1831 and about 1835.
- 1847 — Cadbury moves to Bridge StreetAfter the Great Western Railway takes his Crooked Lane premises, John Cadbury moves his cocoa and chocolate manufacture to Bridge Street, off Broad Street. The firm becomes Cadbury Brothers when his brother Benjamin joins him.
- 1861 — Richard and George Cadbury take overJohn Cadbury retires and hands the failing Bridge Street cocoa works, with about a dozen employees, to his sons Richard (25) and George (22). They put in about £10,000 of family money and nearly fail by 1863.
- 1866 — Cadbury’s Cocoa Essence goes on saleUsing a Dutch press to remove cocoa butter, Richard and George Cadbury launch Cocoa Essence, sold as “Absolutely pure”, at a time when most cheap cocoa was bulked out with starch and other fillers.
- 1879 — Cadbury moves to BournvilleRichard and George Cadbury build a new factory on the Bournbrook estate, four miles south of Birmingham, with playing fields and sixteen foremen’s houses. Bridge Street closes and the works moves in the autumn.
- 1893 — George Cadbury buys land for a model villageGeorge Cadbury buys about 120 acres near the Bournville works to stop speculative building and to plan a village of cottages with gardens. Building begins in 1895.
- 1900 — Bournville Village Trust foundedGeorge Cadbury gives the Bournville estate, then hundreds of houses on about 500 acres, to a charitable trust, with rents to be spent on the estate and on housing reform.
- 1909 — Cadbury wins a farthing over slave-grown cocoaEight years after learning that its São Tomé cocoa was grown by forced labour, Cadbury stops buying it in March 1909. Later that year it sues the Standard for libel; the jury finds for Cadbury but awards one farthing.
- 1990 — Cadbury World opens at BournvilleCadbury opens Cadbury World, a visitor attraction about chocolate and the firm’s history, on the Bournville factory site. More than 18 million people had visited by 2025.
Sources and further reading
- Life of George Cadbury — A. G. Gardiner, Cassell, 1923
- The Cadbury Story — Cadbury UK
- Economic and Social History: Industry and Trade, 1500–1880, in A History of the County of Warwick, vol. 7, pp. 81–139 — W. B. Stephens (ed.), Victoria County History, 1964
- Background paper on the origins of the endowment of the Barrow Cadbury Trust and the São Tomé and Príncipe slave trade — Barrow Cadbury Trust, Barrow Cadbury Trust, 2024
- Cadbury Brothers — Grace's Guide
- Experiments in Industrial Organization — Edward Cadbury, Longmans, Green, 1912
