John Bromhead

George Cadbury lived from 1839-1922. With his brother Richard he is best known for the development of his family business which moved under the brothers' leadership from Bull St. to Bournville. He was also a teacher, a politician, a newspaper proprietor and the founder of the Bournville Village Trust. In fact he was "a national figure" 1

I shall show that throughout his life he was a very keen sportsman and that he had a lot of influence both in the sporting ethos of the Cadbury Firm and in the flowering of sport at Bournville, Rowheath and the Lickeys. His love of sport was within the context of his Christian discipleship and Quaker beliefs. He was once asked by a journalist "What are the two most influential books in your life"? and George replied Thomas à Kempis "The Imitation of Christ" and William Law "A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life".

"He loved games for themselves, but he loved them still more as a physical training necessary to keep one fit for the real business of life"2. In addition to his participation in cricket, golf, football and swimming "he remained a lifelong devotee of outdoor pursuits like walking, cycling and riding" 3.

There are three parts to George Cadbury's contribution to sport. Firstly there is his own play. Secondly there is what he did for sport in providing sports facilities for the Cadbury company's employees and his own participation in this. Thirdly there is what may loosely be described as the sporting legacy left by him and his brother Richard.

Firstly let's consider his own play. George's enthusiasm for sport and games came from his home. "His childhood was spent in a loving and deeply religious, but somewhat Spartan atmosphere...A carriage was considered too luxurious, however two ponies were kept for the boys to ride, but they had to look after them entirely themselves"4.

The Sports Historian, No. 20, 1 (May, 2000), pp. 97-117

PUBLISHED BY THE BRITISH SOCIETY OF SPORTS HISTORY
At a seaside holiday in Blackpool in June 1846 Candia, George's mother, in a letter to Richard, wrote of their father's enjoyment of swimming and diving from a boat5.

Maria, George's sister, has described the many games they had on their square lawn at 51 Calthorpe St. They used to run a mile or a mile and a half with hoops before breakfast. Richard and George played climbing games on the gymnastic poles6.

"When he was 20, George had completed his apprenticeship. He took a long walking tour on the continent with his cousin Richard Cadbury Barrow. Their route was by the Rhine and Lake Constance to the Tyrol, thence into Italy and Venice, and back by the Italian lakes and Switzerland to Chamonix. Much of the journey was made on foot or by post-wagon"7.

The last four paragraphs are quoted from Crosfield's book and he continues _

"George, like his brother Richard, was a keen sportsman. In the summer time he would get up early in the morning and play a game of hockey or football with a group of young Quaker Friends before starting work. He and his brother particularly enjoyed skating on frosty winter mornings. He later recalled:- `We used to rise frequently at five o'clock so as to be on the ice before dawn, and thus have two hour's exercise before going to business at nine in the city. Only those who have done this can understand the exhilaration of skating in the early morning, and watching the light break and the beauty of the sunrise'. For two or three weeks in the Autumn he would stay at the engineer's cottage by Bittel reservoir, commuting to work by train. This gave him the opportunity to enjoy an early morning swim, occasionally even when there was a thin layer of ice"8.

The brothers learned much self-discipline from their home background. Writing of the time when George and Richard were trying to get the business established -1861- George's biographer writes "Tobacco and alcohol he [George] never took, but he added to his abstinences at this time every form of stimulant, even tea and coffee. He loved games, especially cricket and boating, but these, too, had to be largely sacrificed".9

It is clear that both the brothers, Richard and George, were at one in their love of sport. A further quote underlines this shared interest.

"Each" [Richard and George], " in youth and early manhood, had the average healthy young man's fondness for athletics; cricket, hockey, boating and skating, they both enjoyed; Richard, moreover, was a footballer, and a keen mountain-climber when he had the opportunity; George loved swimming and riding... George, it may be added, retained his interest in cricket throughout his life, and, when an old man, admitted that the first thing he turned to in his daily paper was the cricket news."10

In his married life George saw that the homes he established had facilities for sport. He and Mary moved to Woodbrooke in 1881and in a field by Woodbrooke Farm George erected a large tent where he catered for large numbers of Birmingham children, who were brought out from Birmingham schools. In 1894 they moved to the Manor House, Northfield and George extended the facilities of Woodbrooke Farm and built what was called "The Barn... capable of seating 700 people".11..."During the summer the Barn was almost daily the centre of a jolly party...there could not be too many for him and they could not be too young and too noisy". By far the larger proportion of the 25,000 guests who were annually entertained at The Barn were children who" found in the spacious grounds every delight that could appeal to them - swings and cricket, races and games, above all the open air bath... [they] bathed in batches of 50 - the girls before tea, the boys after"12

George knew that "one day in the country was no serious contribution to the problems that the streets of Birmingham provided. Fresh air and playing fields should not be a rare luxury of childhood, but their daily possession and the provision of recreation grounds in the congested parts of Birmingham was an idea which found in him a constant advocate".13 In his will "George left a large part of his manor house gardens including `the barn' to the City of Birmingham as a park"14With continuing reference to George's physical recreation at home I quote his biographer A.G. Gardiner : "His ordinary exercise at the Manor House was a ride on horseback. Since his childhood, when he and his brother used to scour the country on their ponies, he had never lost his love of riding, and he used to say that he found in the motion not only a physical exercise but a stimulus for thought" 15

In a tribute after his death one of his sons wrote:

"My father was always very keen on exercise and believed it to be the best form of rest from brain fag. When nearly fifty years old he began to play tennis, and laid down a hard court so that he could play it in summer or winter. This must have been the first hard court in the Midlands, if not in the country. He learned to play a steady game, and generally won by consistent play, together with good placing, rather than brilliant strokes. He always served underhand, but managed to get a fairly fast ball, and could always place it where least expected" 16

Finally there was George - the lover of golf. "He had constructed a seven-hole golf links in the fields near the Manor House, and here he played almost daily, until the war led to the course being given up on account of the labour involved. His old enthusiasm for cricket was transferred to the Scottish game, and when one of his sons told him he was taking lessons, resolved to take lessons too".17 This golf course was re-opened after the war and George was playing with his wife as late as the autumn of 1921when he was 82.18

It is clear that George Cadbury passed on his interest in golf as Sir Adrian Cadbury (b.1929), himself an Olympic oarsman and the grandson of George Cadbury, has told me that his "uncles certainly were keen golfers". Moreover his grandfather, George Cadbury "used to take his sons riding early in the morning and either rode or walked to work".19

In 1861 Richard and George took on the cocoa business at Bridge Street. They inherited it from their father John who suffered from crippling arthritis. The business was not thriving and the two brothers had an uphill task ahead of them for which "the stern discipline of their childhood was an admirable preparation... They knew that if they were to succeed they must `eschew delights and live laborious days'" 20

However as the business improved they were soon to find outlets for their love of sport. There was a Works Cricket Team at Bridge St. organised by the brothers. 21Henry Brewin wrote "In 1866 the year my connection with the Firm commenced, there were not more than twenty men and boys employed. It is gratifying to recall that in those days, as now, the happiness and recreation of their employees was one of the chief aims of the Firm. It was customary then, as to-day, for cricket to take a prominent part, and we used to play in Sturge's field near Wheeleys Road". In the same vein Simeon Hall wrote "We played football (Bridge Street rules) and called ourselves `Front versus Back'. This had reference to the office and warehouse which faced Bridge Street and was termed `Front'; the `Back' of course were the men in the Works behind".22 Richard and George joined in this activity. " When business permitted it, the partners would take an afternoon off for a game of cricket or football with their men. In one match the brothers took all eleven wickets between them in addition to making a good score of runs" 23

Another action taken by the brothers indirectly encouraged sport. They changed the factory hours. They closed the factory at mid-day on Saturday and theirs was one of the first factories to do so. Previously the factory hours had been 8 a.m.- 7.30 p.m. six days a week.24

Walking in the country was another healthy outdoor activity promoted by the two brothers. Writing in June 1871 George's sister writes of Richard and George taking the girls from the factory and, in another month, the men, on a ramble over the Lickey Hills25.The Cadburys provided tea.

All new tenants at Bournville were given a book "Rules of Health". "Included in it is [the advice] - Take walking or other exercise in the open air for at least half an hour daily". Sir Adrian Cadbury writes "He" [George, Sir Adrian's grandfather] " was also keen on cold baths, as was my father, a habit which I have not inherited"26.

At the Bridge St. works, before the removal to Bournville in 1879, as well as organising a Works Cricket Team and closing the factory on Saturday afternoons the brothers Richard and George had seen to it that "half a dozen employees would be liberated for one afternoon a week and instructed to go to a local park with a football; and an old employee remembers that when skating could be indulged in, and there was no great pressure of work, the appearance of one of the principals with his skates was a sure sign that the employees would be allowed a half-days skating. The clerks' spring outing and the girls' outing were also annual affairs"27

To those early days belongs another story "George Cadbury once bought the boys a bicycle of the bone-shaker type, which they used to learn to ride in the dinner-hour, those who learnt having the privilege of taking it home in turns" 28

In pursuit of the ideal "A Factory in a Garden" the factory moved from Bridge Street to Bournville in Oct. 1879 and a new chapter opened. They were able to start from scratch and promote two main themes "the efficiency of the business and the welfare of the workers". "When the workpeople arrived they found a cricket and football field for the men and a wide playground for the girls, with swings and other provision for outdoor enjoyment"29

George Cadbury was not your conventional empire-building entrepreneur. As a youth he had wanted to be a doctor and he always had a larger vision of life than just that of the profit-seeking business man. Nevertheless his concern for the welfare and sporting opportunities of his factory's workforce was not wholly altruistic. George "held that it paid his firm...to devote both attention and money to securing the safety, the health and even the pleasures of the workers employed."30 "The entire policy depends upon the supreme economic value of quick, clean work. Behind the athletics, the dentistry, the swimming baths, the doctoring, the arrangements for meals, lies a supreme commercial objective - speed of hand coupled with accuracy of eye. These are the qualities which in the workers make the business pay."31

The use of sporting facilities like the gymnasium not only helped co-ordination of eye and hand but also built up strength. "It was found that certain male workers who had to lift weights became liable to hernia. The men are now carefully selected and trained in the gymnasium with a view to weight-lifting by proper methods. There is a gain in rapidity and a prevention of ill results for the physique"32

"George Cadbury saw in the example of Bournville the real answer to the plea that the physique of the nation can only be conserved by national military service. There are exercises for the body at Bournville - plenty of them - there is physical drill"33

Frequently, as I hinted above, if you try to attach a label to George Cadbury it immediately becomes necessary to qualify it. His biographer, A.G. Gardiner, found this when he wrote George

"was a Puritan, but his Puritanism was not repellent or negative. It was the Puritanism of the Milton of `Comus'34. He enjoyed music and games and athletics and pageants and the dance, indeed all wholesome pleasures, especially those which took men into the open air. His attitude towards these recreations was in sharp contrast with the stricter traditions of nonconformity, but it humanized what may be called his industrial methodism...Facilities for cricket, a game for which George Cadbury had particular affection, were provided on a very extended scale [for the employees]. One ground, ten acres in extent, provided the best cricket pitch in Worcestershire, and on it the firm have built, at a cost of £4,000, a very spacious and handsome pavilion for the use of the players. The pavilion was erected as a memorial of the Coronation of King Edward VII. It contains an elaborately equipped gymnasium, [including hot and cold showers, dressing rooms] baths, luncheon rooms, etc."35

The open-air pool opened in 1898 had covered dressing rooms.

Several well-known cricketers, among them, A.A. Lilley, the famous batsman and wicket-keeper, and E.J. (`Tiger') Smith who like Lilley played for Warwickshire and England `found themselves' on the Bournville ground. "Their early training was obtained after the day's work" 36.

"Another large playground37 of 80 acres is devoted to football, a fishing pool, bowling greens, swimming bath, tennis courts, and a gymnasium, at which attendance in the firm's time of all boys under sixteen for two half-hours a week is compulsory. For the women workers recreation grounds of about fourteen acres are provided. Here are a well-timbered garden, a field for cricket and netball, another for hockey, tennis courts etc. There is also one of the best-equipped covered swimming baths for women in England, together with twenty-four needle38 baths and slipper baths, and every girl is allowed to bathe weekly in the firm's time. Four ladies are employed to teach swimming, games and drill, and the athletic standards of Bournville are probably unequalled in any other industrial community" 39.

It has to be noted that Anstey, the College of Physical Education in the north of Birmingham, had a close association with Cadburys and this association underpinned the high standards of women's sport and recreation at Bournville.

"Throughout the whole year, games are organized during the girls' dinner-hour and on Saturday afternoons. The organized sports during the winter are hockey and net-ball; cricket, tennis and croquet are played during the summer months. Interdepartmental matches are arranged in all these games, and also matches between the Bournville Girls' Athletic Club and the principal ladies' clubs in and around Birmingham. In the 1911-12 season, 98 matches were played by the 5 hockey teams...17 cricket matches were played by the three [cricket] teams, while a number of net-ball contests were fought by the two net-ball teams" 40

The girls also enjoyed dancing, swimming, water-polo and gymnastics. Behind these advanced sporting facilities for women was the pioneering spirit of George Cadbury as Walter Stranz has pointed out. "Playing fields for men were not entirely unknown, but... he extended the whole concept of sporting provision by making it available to both sexes"41

We are considering the sporting facilities which were laid on for the employees at Bournville. For girls and boys joining the firm up to the age of 18 a certain amount of physical education was compulsory. "Two half-hours' compulsory instruction per week for girls are devoted to Swedish drill, swimming and life-saving... This department is conducted on a thoroughly scientific basis, and is under the control of five gymnastic teachers fully qualified in the Swedish system of physical education... In five years upwards of two thousand girls have learnt to swim, and many continue their training in the voluntary classes."42 "During 1911 no fewer than 630 girls and 98 men and boys learned to swim through the compulsory and voluntary classes."43 The girls' swimming is in the covered bath which is reserved one night a week for the men in the winter. "The system [of gymnastics] taught in the classes for boys follows both the German and Swedish methods, the teachers being fully qualified in both. All boys up to sixteen years of age are required to take a two years' course in the gymnasium for two half-hours per week... In the summer, swimming is taken in the men's open-air bath...at the age of 16 they are transferred to the evening classes for another two years"44 There was also some Morris dancing.

Most use of the grounds, the gymnasium and the swimming pools was voluntary. In 1903 the first professional cricket coach was appointed and a second joined in 1904. Interdepartmental cricket matches took place and most of the football teams took part in the various league competitions of Birmingham and district 45. There was also a successful Fishing section with a membership of about 200 men.

The Youths' Club was founded in 1900 with a membership of 107 - at the end of 1911 it had increased to 34046. Indoor games played included bagatelle, ping-pong, draughts and chess and outdoor pursuits included football, cricket, cycling and rambling. In 1911 there were three cricket teams and eight football teams, 50 cricket and 243 football matches being played 47. At the Club's Annual summer camp the recreations would include rambles, boating excursions, sea-bathing and cricket against local clubs48.

Some Bournville sportsmen became very skilled. In 1912 H. Dickason of the Bournville A.C. was a member of the British Gymnastics team at the Stockholm Olympic Games. Later starting in 1919 the Bournville Games flourished and Paavo Nurmi is rumoured to have competed there, but I cannot pin-point when. B. MacDonald won a Silver medal in the 3000m Team event at the 1924 Paris Olympics. Sydney Wooderson competed in 1938 and 1939 and A.G.K. Brown regularly in the second half of the thirties.

The first part of this paper was about George's own sporting activities. The second part was about sporting provision for the employees in the Bridge St. and Bournville Factories. The third part is both a continuation and a follow-on from the second part in that it concerns the sporting provision for employees at the Bournville factory, it does however become a slightly different category because it includes the sporting legacy from George and his brother Richard and the flowering of sport at Bournville and Rowheath after George's death in 192249. It is also concerned with the legacy of the Cadbury brothers for the provision of sport and recreation for a wider community than just the employees of their factory.

To quote "To the two [Richard and George] was due the revival of the firm's fortunes and its development along the lines it has followed since the move to Bournville. They were the makers of the firm as it is to-day".50

"In 1913 a much larger sports ground was purchased at Rowheath"51."It has been shown that recreation at Bournville has grown steadily from early and small beginnings. When, however, the firm added the extensive Rowheath playing fields to the existing Men's and Girls' Recreation Grounds a great impetus was given to games and the Athletic Clubs were able to extend their activities considerably.

The figures quoted above do not include the hundreds of `casual' tennis players, nor the large numbers taking part in games between `pick-up' sides. Angling, rambling, cycling and cross-country running, and the number of linesmen, umpires and referees, must also be taken into account in any estimate of the extent of the activities52.

"The Works Model Yacht Club used the ornamental waters and a shallow pool was provided for the children to sail their boats. Rowheath provided round the year sports facilities"53.

On the south side of the City the Cadbury family have given much land to the City. The Beacon Hill and the Lickey Hills Park are the main proof today of that generosity.

"In 1904 George bought 840 acres of the Old Chadwich Estate and gave them to the City of Birmingham and they are now owned by the National Trust, which manages them in co-operation with the Birmingham Parks Department. In 1907 Beacon Hill was bought by Edward, George and Henry Cadbury and added to the benefaction" 54

In 1919 George and Edward bought and donated the Old Rose and Crown Estate. "Finally in 1921 the Cadburys bought more land round the Old Rose and Crown, with the intention of having it developed into what we should now call a leisure centre, with an open-air theatre, swimming pool, bowling and croquet greens, tennis courts and golf course. The theatre and the swimming pool never materialised but the other amenities were soon available"55

It is not infrequently claimed that the Rose Hill Golf Course, built on land given by the Cadburys was the first Municipal Golf Course, but this is mistaken as that distinction belongs to the Meyrick Park course in Bournemouth which was founded in 1894. However this in no way detracts from the immensity of the amenities given by the Cadburys to the people of Birmingham and it should be remembered that "the parks were an essential part of the whole philosophy of the Cadbury ideal".56

In the provision of recreational and sporting facilities for their employees the Cadburys were leaders in the field. The fuller story of employer liability in these matters, particularly, say, in Britain between 1850 and 1940 has yet to be researched and written up. Relevant to that research is the contribution of Sir Titus Salt (1803-1876), who was mayor of Bradford in 1848 and who built the `model' manufacturing town of Saltaire. Its main mill was opened in 1853.

"From a sanitary point of view the new works were much superior to the average factory then in existence. Especial provision was made for light, warmth and ventilation. Eight hundred model dwelling-houses, with a public dining-hall, were provided for the workpeople, and during the next twenty years the great industrial establishment was methodically developed. A congregational church was completed in 1859; factory schools and public baths and washhouse in 1868; almshouses, an infirmary, and club and institute were added in 1868-9, and the work completed by the presentation of a public park in 1871".57

Sports historians will especially note that among the employees' facilities was a gymnasium and that cricket was played in the public park. The previous sections of this paper show what the Cadburys did for their employees, but when comparing Sir Titus Salt and George Cadbury mention should also be made of the Bournville Village Trust58, the land given for the Stirchley Public baths and for the Birmingham park on the Lickey Hills - all given by the Cadburys.

The whole question needs to be debated against the wider backdrop of government provision for sport. A.G. Gardiner has something to offer when he describes - in the broad picture - what George Cadbury was trying to achieve: "he could not change the face of society. He could not make the whole desert blossom as a rose; but he could redeem from that desert an oasis, partial it may be and laboriously defended from encroachments, but still an oasis - a rock of comparative safety in a land of weariness"59. On the question of how far they can influence and improve the facilities for sport employers can be compared to amateur and professional sports clubs - both employers and sports clubs can only create oases. Many would argue that governments have to take some responsibility if the whole desert is to blossom and this must raise questions about the funding of sport in schools, universities and the adult community. Many people believe that if sport is to flourish in Britain a crusade needs to be fought in favour of participation as against spectating and tele-watching.

In my view, for which I claim no originality, there is a natural tendency to inertia and idleness, and from my West Country roots I know that there can be positive benefits from this. However activity in general and the desire to participate in sport in particular needs to be carefully fostered. Perhaps for these reasons there should be some reconsideration. Perhaps it was not so wise after all so to use paternalism as a dirty word as to discourage firms from providing for the sporting and recreational needs of their employees.

While on this subject I would like to add as a postscript that Dellheim has seriously dented if not demolished the commonly held view that categorises Cadburys as a paternalistic firm.60 "The Cadburys practised benevolence without autocracy and pursued efficiency without turning workers into living tools"."Outdoorsmen and sportsmen, they [Richard and George] enjoyed playing games with their `workpeople'"61. Support for Dellheim's view comes from reading Dave Roberts' book "Paternalism in Early Victorian England". Roberts wrote "Paternalism is conservative and backward looking and it produces in every age the politics of nostalgia". In contrast to this George Cadbury was definitely forward-looking. Again Roberts wrote "A hatred of the power of money was an attitude that had strong affinity to the paternalist outlook"62. This generalisation again excludes George Cadbury, who enjoyed making money and spending money and spending money to influence affairs - as in his buying of the Daily News. However this contribution is not primarily about paternalism as my thesis is that George Cadbury contributed hugely to the development and flowering of sport and set new standards for the provision of sporting facilities for employees, which have effectively `moved the goal posts' in the debate.

There is of course a national and global context within which George Cadbury's contribution to sport is but a part. Phil Mosely has written authoritatively on the provision of sporting and recreation facilities provided by Corporations in Australia and he set his findings within the global context - "By the turn of the century the United States and Britain led the field with companies like Ford, Goodyear, Cadbury, Rowntree and Lever Brothers"63. A further elaboration of the contributions made by those companies to the sporting opportunities of their employees is beyond the scope of this paper, however one quote must be made. "The munificence of some of the Quaker industrialists was legendary; and none was more bountiful than Joseph Rowntree who presented a swimming pool to the City of York, and later a public park"64. With reference to the global perspective it would be interesting to know what sporting facilities were provided at "the model factories of Lowell, Massachusetts"65.

Back here in Britain the Victorian entrepreneurs such as the Lever brothers, Sir Titus Salt and Samuel Greg - to name but four - have not really received appreciation for the provision for sport and recreation which they laid on for their workers. Moreover further clarification needs to be done (even if only to discount them) on the contributions of "the Quaker Ashworths, the Unitarian Gregs and Ashtons and the Presbyterian Buchanans, Dales and Finlays"66. Again more research is required on other British firms like Boots (Nottingham), Lucas and G.E.C., I.M.I at Witton and Mitchells & Butlers which fielded a cricket team from about 1879 and were founder members of the World's first cricket League - the Birmingham & District Cricket League - in 1888. Salters - a "firm located between Smethwick and West Bromwich making steel springs"67 may also have provided sporting facilities for their employees because Salters C.C. were also founder members of the said Birmingham & District Cricket League. While still discussing facilities in the West Midlands, Birmingham Municipal (at Yardley) had playing fields as did the Co-Op, Dunlop and Britannic Assurance; and the West Midlands Passenger Transport Board still provide facilities.

Sporting League handbooks are a fruitful source of information for researchers seeking to widen the field of enquiry and to pin down which commercial firms have promoted (or are promoting) sport. For example, a spot check in the Bromsgrove and District Table Tennis Association Handbook (the Association was founded in 1950) reveals that the following firms and organisations have at some time sported table tennis teams: Austins (Longbridge), Garringtons (Bromsgrove), Harris Brush Works (Bromsgrove), East Worcestershire Water Works (Bromsgrove), Nu-Way (Droitwich), Mattesons (Redditch), the B.B.C. (Wychbold), British Aluminium, (Redditch), Matroc (Kidderminster) and Entaco (Studley). Undoubtedly a study of other Table Tennis League Handbooks and the handbooks of other sports would produce similar statistics.

"Blackstones Sports & Social Club has provided football, bowls and netball facilities at Stamford, Lincs, for the past 90 years, as well as a thriving social section and indoor sports such as darts, dominoes, cribbage and pool. Each of the sports puts out several teams and 50 youngsters get special skills training each week. It was set up originally by Blackstones as a recreational facility for their own workers, but in 1993 they leased it out as a community club which now has 500 members from the Stamford area. Blackstones have since been sold to BTR Evensis, who have agreed to sell the freehold to a housing developer"68. What started off well for the Blackstones employees, and seemed set to continue well for the people of Stamford now looks like being really bad news - and this is as the millennium approaches!

It has to be emphasised that the national and international firms mentioned are very, very far from being a comprehensive tally of companies that provided or do provide sporting facilities for their employees. The full list must be very long indeed. This paper is mainly concerned with one Birmingham firm and as far as I know the wider aspects have yet to be studied.

Anyway it has been indicated that there was a movement globally towards the provision of recreational and sporting facilities for employees by enlightened firms and organisations. However this paper will end as it began, focussing on one particular philanthropist - George Cadbury. An estimated 16,000 mourners attended the Memorial Service to George Cadbury on the Bournville Village Green in 1922. Many of them would have been personally grateful for George Cadbury's enthusiasm for sport. Very many also wrote letters of condolence to George's widow - I select one quote from a Mr. A. James, Head Teacher of the Secondary School Kings Norton, who wrote "The improvement in the physique of the boys during their school career (which is very noticeable) is largely due to the splendid facilities with which he [George Cadbury] provided them" 69.

I would like to make a brief conclusion. As a lover of sport one is right to be hugely impressed by the Cadbury achievement. The widespread use in a pejorative sense of the label `paternalism' has done more harm than good and highlights the fact that there is likely to be a distinction between the judgments made by a political and social commentator and a sports historian. Though it is not denied that the work of the one does and should influence the work of the other. To sports historians it is the sports perspective that matters. One continually meets ex-sportsmen in the West Midlands who remember what a thrill and honour it was to play football at Bournville or to compete there on the athletics track. New standards for sports facilities were set by the Cadburys in general and by George Cadbury in particular. In theory, if not in practice, it is not so difficult to point to a way ahead Without being too depressing one has to say that if sport is to flourish in Britain70 and Britain is to flourish in sport there has to be a mobilisation of all resources. Individual Sports Bodies, private citizens, amateur and professional clubs, commercial organisations as providers and sponsors, Local, Municipal and State hierarchies, Akademe and the Media must all play their parts. Whether a Minister for Sport and a U.K. Sports Council are together an adequate umbrella to co-ordinate such activities is another question. Indeed `umbrella' and `coordination' may themselves be unhelpful terms and counter-productive in conjuring up a non-stimulating image, we may need a more energising vision such as the metaphor from chemistry of `catalyst' or from engineering of `dynamo'.

Notes

1 Williams, 1931, p.243

2 Gardiner, 1923, p.116

3 Stranz,1973, p.9

4 Crosfield vol.2, 1985, p.435

5 Ibid., p.307

6 Ibid., pp.304-305

7 Ibid., p.437

8 Ibid., p.437. A further example of George's participation in water sports concerns his rowing. During the engagement in the summer of 1871 George took his bride-to-be boating and for " a row on the broad river" at Southend.

9 Gardiner, 1923, p.24

10 Williams, 1931, pp. 32-33

11 Ibid., p.128

12 Ibid., pp. 129-130

13 Ibid., p.130

14 Stranz, 1973, p.44

15 Gardiner, opcit., p.252

16 Bournville Works Magazine George Cadbury Memorial Number, 1922, p.51

17 Gardiner, 1923, pp. 253-254

18 Bournville Works Magazine, opcit., p.51

19 Interview with Sir Adrian Cadbury

20 Gardiner, opcit., p.24

21 Williams, opcit., p.33

22 Bournville Works Magazine, 1909, p.336

23 Crosfield, opcit., p.439

24 This information comes from Iolo Williams quoting a 1913 speech of George Cadbury (Williams, 1931, p.35). The date of the change in factory hours is not specified, but was probably after the August Bank Holiday Monday was instituted on the first Monday in August in 1871. They made the change in spite of a warning that it would bring ruin and the reason was presumably to give the employees more leisure. An advertisement was placed in the Birmingham Post to say the factory would be closed.

25 Crosfield, opcit., p.441

26 Letter from Sir Adrian Cadbury to the author 11/11/1998

27 Cadbury, 1912, p.221

28 Williams, opcit., p.47

29 Gardiner, opcit., p. 36

30 Ibid., pp.98-99

31 Ibid., p.102

32 Ibid., p.105

33 Ibid., p.155

34 By this I take it that the writer inferred that although Milton was not given to levity, neither was he a kill-joy and that these positive attributes were exemplified in his musical masque `Comus'.

35 Gardiner, opcit., p.107

36 Cadbury Bros., 1935, p.8

37 The following list of dates should help to clarify the more general description of progress given in the text:

1879 Move of Factory from Bridge St. to Bournville. Football, Cricket and playgrounds already available

1887 A.A. Lilley (b. 1866) playing cricket with Bournville Cricket Team

1896 Opening of Men's' and Girls Recreation Grounds adjoining the Works

1896 Bournville Athletic Club founded - about 430 men members (1912 about 1300 members)

1897 1st Children's Playground opened - half grass, half asphalt. It had 3 baths and was controlled by a caretaker and his wife

1897 A.A.Lilley (Warwickshire & England) - named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year

1898 Opening of Men's Open-air Baths

1899 Bournville Girls Athletic Club founded with a membership of 113 (later to be 600)

Morris dancing two evenings a week

1900 Bournville Village Trust founded

No Public Houses on the Estate

1902 Pavilion opened as a memorial to the Coronation of Edward VII

1904 Club & Girls' Baths at Bournville erected. (Girls' Baths opened 1905)

1911-1914 E.J.(`Tiger') Smith (born 1886), formerly of Bournville, plays cricket for England

1911 28 Bournville Teams competed in 7 sports. Over 600 matches were played at Bournville

1912 H. Dickason competes for Britain as a gymnast at the Stockholm Olympic Games

1920's Bournville Games flourished

1924 Opening of Rowheath Grounds and Pavilion

1924 B.H. MacDonald won a Silver medal in the 3000m (Team) event at the Paris Olympics

1925 The Harriers' Section included 3 internationals

1937 Completion of the Bournville Lido

38 "a needle bath (water sprayed from the sides at different levels without an overhead spray)" (Davis and Harrison, 1988, p.48). In other words a sort of non-penetrating acu-puncture using water and not needles. A slipper bath is a bath you lie down in.

39 Gardiner, opcit., pp.107-108

40 Cadbury, opcit., p.225

41 Stranz, opcit., p.44

42 Edward Cadbury, 1912, pp.27-31

43 Ibid, p. 226

44 Ibid, p.31

45 Ibid., p.223

46 Ibid., p.227

47 Ibid., p.229

48 The main sport in the Clerks' Social club and in the Foremen's Club was billiards. (Cadbury, 1912, p.231).

49 The main sport in the Clerks' Social club and in the Foremen's Club was billiards. (Cadbury, 1912, p.231).

50 Williams, opcit., p.30

51 Crosfield, opcit., p.487

52 Cadbury Bros., 1924, p.17

53 Brannan, 1992, p.40

54 Mabey, 1993, p.17

55 Ibid., p.17

56 Brannan, 1992, p.36

57 Dictionary of National Biography vol.xvii, 1917, pp.701-702

58 The Trust provided an estate of houses - mostly for employees, but employment in the Cadbury factory was not and is not a condition for living in Trust property.

59 Gardiner, 1923, p.113

60 Dellheim, 1985, pp.41-42

61 Ibid., pp.14-16

62 Roberts, 1979, p.6

63 Moseley, 1985, p.26

64 Barclay, 1995, p.54

65 Roberts, opcit., p.177

66 Ibid., p.177

67 Davis, 1988, p.197 and vii

68 Trelford, 1999, p.36

69 Cadbury Family Papers, MS 466/153, 1922, p.24

70 Apart from the good for sportspeople themselves there are many benefits and spin-offs for society as a whole from a healthy and successful sporting culture.

Bibliography

À Kempis, Thomas, The Imitation of Christ, (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1952)

Alexander, Helen, Richard Cadbury, (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1906)

Barclay, Alan, The Rise and Fall of the Friends, Management Today, (Feb. 1995), p.54

Bournville Athletic Club, 1896 and All That 50 Years of the Bournville Athletic Club 18961946, (Bournville: Bournville Athletic Club, 1946)

Bournville Works Magazine [passim]

Brannan, Joe, F.Brannan, A Postcard from Bournville, (Studley: Brewin Books , 1992)

Bromsgrove and District Table Tennis Association Handbook [passim]

Cadbury Bros. Factory & Recreation [1st ed., Bournville, ca 1924]

" " " [2nd ed., " , ca 1935]

Cadbury Family Archives at Birmingham Reference Library

Cadbury, Edward, Experiments in Industrial Organization ( London: Longmans, 1912)

Cranden, Colin, A History of Anstey College of Physical Education 18971972 (Birming ham: Anstey College of Physical Education, 1974)

Crosfield, John, A History of the Cadbury Family. 3 vols. ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press ,1985)

Davis, Alex, First in the Field, (Studley: Brewin Books, 1988)

Davis, Bridget, R.A. Harrison, Hydrotherapy in Practice (Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1988)

Dellheim , Charles, The creation of a Company Culture: Cadburys 18611931,. American Historical Review, 2, 92, (1985), pp.4142

Dictionary of National Biography vol. XVII, (London: Oxford University Press, 1917)

Gardiner, A.G., The Life of George Cadbury ( London: Cassell, 1923)

Henslowe, Philip, 90 Years On an Account of the Bournville Village Trust) Bournville: Bournville Village Trust, 1985)

Law, William, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (London: Dent, 1967)

Jeremy, David, Capitalists and Christians (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990)

Mabey, Margaret, A Little History of the Lickey Hills (Lickey Hills Society, 1993)

Mosely, Phil, Factory football: paternalism and profits, Sporting Traditions, 2.1, November, 1985, pp.2536

Roberts, Dave, Paternalism in Early Victorian England (London: Croom Helm, 1979)

Stranz, Walter, George Cadbury, an Illustrated Life (Aylesbury: Shire Publications Ltd., 1973)

Trelford, Donald, No let up in destruction of sports fields, Daily Telegraph, 13th July 1999, p.36

Watman, Melvyn, The Encyclopaedia of Athletics ( London: Hale, 1964)

Williams, Iolo, The Firm of Cadbury 18311931 (London: Constable & Co. Ltd., 1931)

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack [passim]

Acknowledgements

The staff of the following Libraries were most helpful: The British Library, The Birmingham Reference Library, Bromsgrove Library, Cadburys Ltd. Library, Cadburys Ltd. Museum and the University of Birmingham Library.

I would also like especially to acknowledge valuable help received from colleagues of the British Society of Sports History, Miss Elisabeth Bolton and from Sarah Foden, The Librarian of Cadbury Ltd. at Bournville.

OUTDOOR SPORT AT BOURNVILLE IN 1911

(From: Edward Cadbury, 1912, p.223)

ADULT SPORT NO. OF TEAMS MATCHES PLAYED IN 1911

Association Football 5 120

Rugby Football 2 45

Hockey 2 35

Cricket 3 54

Bowling 2 40

Water Polo 2 12

Tennis 1 4

17 310

YOUTHS' SPORT NO. OF TEAMS MATCHES PLAYED IN 1911

Association Football 8 243

Cricket 3 50

11 293

OUTDOOR SPORT AT BOURNVILLE & ROWHEATH

(Statistics accumulated from the sources listed)

TYPE OF SPORT NO. OF TEAMS NO. OF PLAYING PITCHES

1924 1935

Association and

Rugby Football 40 51 15

Hockey 3 26 10

Cricket 34 26 13

Tennis 37 37 53

Bowls 26 26 5

Netball 21 23 4

161 189 100

There were also a Croquet Lawn and 2 Putting Greens

In 1921 at Rowheath alone 453 Cricket matches were played

In 1922 at Rowheath alone 5,647 hours of tennis were played

During a typical summer season about 90 organized men's, girls and youths teams involving 650 players are engaged on a Saturday afternoon

In winter there are nearly 100 teams involving about 1,000 players.

ALLOTMENT OF PITCHES, COURTS ETC. AT ROWHEATH IN 1935

(From: Cadbury Bros., 1935, p.38)

Men's A.C. Girls' A.C. Youths' Club General Use Total

Ass. Football 2 9 11

Rugby 2 1 3

Cricket 2 3 6 11

Hockey 1 5 2 8

Tennis 10 13 9 9 41

Bowls 3 3

Croquet 1 1

Putting 1 1 1