THE BOURNVILLE VILLAGE.
Although many articles have already appeared from time to time in newspaper and periodical respecting the Bournville Village, the following account of its founding and development will doubtless be of interest to the reader:—
In 1879 Messrs. Cadbury Brothers removed their works from Birmingham to the present site at Bournville, and twenty-four cottages were erected there for their workmen. This really formed the nucleus out of which in recent years the village has developed. It was in 1895 that Mr. George Cadbury, the senior member of the present firm, commenced the work of building a model village. One of the objects of the scheme was that of “alleviating the evils which arise from the insanitary and insufficient housing accommodation supplied to large numbers of the working classes, and of securing to workers in factories some of the advantages of outdoor village life, with opportunities for the natural and healthful occupation of cultivating the soil.” A simple and interesting statement of the motive behind the experiment was made by Mr. Cadbury himself at the Garden City Conference, held at Bournville in 1901. An intimate knowledge of the lives of Birmingham working-men, gained by an experience of some forty years, had shown him that the greatest drawback to their moral and physical progress was the lack of any healthful occupation for their leisure. Although many men took up carpentry and other crafts, such hobbies, he said, had proved insufficiently recreative, and in most cases the men soon tired of them. Realising this, he began to think of new means. His conclusion was that the only practical thing was to bring the factory worker out on to the land, that he might pursue the most natural and healthful of all recreations, that of gardening. It was impossible for working men to be healthy and have healthy children, when after being confined all day in factories they spent their evenings in an institute, club room, or public house. If it were necessary for their health, as it undoubtedly was, that they should get fresh air, it was equally to the advantage of their moral life that they should be brought into contact with Nature. There was an advantage, too, in bringing the working-man on to the land, for, instead of his losing money in the amusements usually sought in the towns, he saved it in his garden produce—a great consideration where the poorer class of workman was concerned. The average yield per garden in the 1901 tests at Bournville, after making allowance for all outgoings, proved to be 1s. 11d. each per week. Mr. Cadbury also thought that the increased consumption of fresh vegetable food, instead of animal food, was further desirable. It was touching, he thought, to see the interest and pleasure taken by town families when on coming into the country they saw seeds germinate and vegetables grown for the first time. Nor was the advantage of leaving the town for the country restricted to the workmen. Mr. Cadbury showed that the greater facilities there for obtaining land were also of advantage to the manufacturer whose business was increasing.
The Bournville idea was at first regarded as an impracticable one, even apart from the economic side of the question, but the realisation of the scheme has proved otherwise. The average garden space allotted to the Bournville cottages is 600 square yards, this being as much as most men can conveniently cultivate, and, almost without exception, the Bournville tenants are the most enthusiastic gardeners—a statement no one surely will traverse who has paid a visit to the village in the summer.
PLATE III.
SHOPS,
BOURNVILLE.
PLATE IV.
LINDEN ROAD,
BOURNVILLE.
PLATE V.
THE OLD FARM
INN, BOURNVILLE.
While it was the first aim of the founder to provide dwellings for the factory worker which should have adequate accommodation and large gardens, it was not intended that at Bournville provision should be made alone for the poorer working class. It might be pointed out that one of the most prominent ideals in the scheme of the Garden Suburb Trust, already referred to, is “that all classes may live in kindly neighbourliness,” and the amalgamation of the factory-worker and the brain-worker in the same district is catered for as being expressly desirable. At Bournville there has always been a demand for houses both on the part of the skilled artisan and others, and this demand has been provided for from the first. Rents in the village range from 4s. 6d. a week, rates not included, to 12s. a week; and there are also a few houses of a still larger class at higher rentals. Nor are the houses let to Messrs. Cadbury’s own workpeople exclusively, as the following figures will show—figures based on a private census taken during 1901, and here quoted from a booklet issued by the Village Trust:—
| Proportion of Householders working in— | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bournville | 41·2 | per cent. |
| Villages within a mile of Bournville | 18·6 | „ |
| Birmingham | 40·2 | „ |
| Occupations of Householders— | ||
|---|---|---|
| Employed at indoor work in factories | 50·7 | per cent. |
| Clerks and travellers | 13·3 | „ |
| Mechanics, carpenters, bricklayers, and various occupations not admitting of exact classification | 36·0 | „ |
The village is four miles from Birmingham, and is easily accessible by cycle, rail, or electric car. The last come within easy distance of the village, workmen’s fares being 2d. return.
Under the founder’s first scheme the land was let upon leases of 999 years, subject to a ground rent varying from ½d. to 1d. per yard (600 square yards at ½d. and 1d. = £1 5s. and £2 10s. respectively). Arrangements were made to find capital on mortgages granted at the rate of Three per cent. to those who paid less than half the cost of the house and Two and a-half per cent. to those who paid more. Although a stipulation was made that no one person should be allowed to build more than four houses, it was found necessary to revise the arrangement in order to prevent speculation. In 1900, therefore, the estate was handed over to a Trust on behalf of the nation, the whole income to be directed to solving the housing problem. The houses now built are let to tenants at moderate weekly rentals, which include the annual ground rent, equal to about 1d. per yard (according to its value), and which should yield Four per cent. net. The revenue of house and ground rents is employed, after provision has been made for the maintenance and repair of present property, in the development of the village itself, and in the laying out and development of other villages elsewhere, the Trust being empowered under the deed of foundation to acquire land in any part of Great Britain. Subsequently to the formation of the Trust, additional land adjacent to Bournville has been added to the founder’s gift, and included in the village, which now extends over 458 acres. Already upwards of 100 acres of land have been laid out for building. There are now about 450 houses in the hands of the Trust, which number, added to the 143 sold under the first scheme, makes a total of nearly 600. With the income of the Trust, building is being steadily proceeded with, and there is a continual demand for houses.
PLATE VI.
SYCAMORE ROAD,
BOURNVILLE.
PLATE VII.
THE SCHOOLS,
BOURNVILLE
SEE PAGE [13].
PLATE VIII.
CARVED STONE PANELS
FOR SCHOOLS.
The Trustees have power to make arrangements with railways and other companies for cheap means of transit. They may lease, underlet, or sell land, or develop it and prepare it for building, give land, or erect buildings for places of worship, hospitals, schools, technical institutes, libraries, gymnasiums, laundries, baths, &c. Occupying a central position in the village are already the Bournville Meeting House (see Plates [x.] and [xi.]), the Ruskin Hall, an institute founded in 1903, and including library, reading-room, lecture hall, class rooms (see Plate [ix.]), and the schools described later. Ample open spaces have been reserved in various parts of the village. These include the Village Green; The Triangle (a plot of land with lawn, flower beds, and shrubbery, intersected by public paths—see Plate [ii.]); Camp Wood (an undulating woodland, thick with old forest-trees); children’s playgrounds and lawns, with swings, bars, &c.; allotment gardens; youths’ and girls’ gardens (consisting of a number of small plots rented and cultivated by boys and girls, in connection with which gardening classes are held), &c. A large area of land, through which flows the Bourn stream, has also been reserved for laying out as a public park. Adjacent to the Estate, though not part of it, are two extensive and well-wooded recreation grounds belonging to Messrs. Cadbury, which are put at the disposal of their men and women employees; those for the former including open-air swimming baths, which may be used during stipulated hours by the tenants of the Estate houses. These recreation grounds separate the works buildings from the village itself, and in the event of the factory ceasing to exist, the Trust deed provides that they be handed over to the District Council for use as a public park. Nearly all the old trees and woodland on the Estate have been preserved, and new trees planted in many parts.
The schools (see Plate [vii.]) are the gift to the village of Mr. and Mrs. George Cadbury. They accommodate 540 children (270 boys and 270 girls), and are constructed on the central-hall plan. There are six class-rooms for fifty children each, and six for forty each, and the dimensions of the large hall are 84 ft. by 32 ft. The land falls from North to South, and advantage has been taken of the basement afforded to provide for accommodation for classes in cookery, laundry, manual instruction, and various branches of handicraft. The buildings stand in grounds two and a-half acres in extent, adjoining which is the Park, the children thus having access in all to about ten acres. The tower rises to a height of about 60 ft., and has been utilised for a library, laboratory, &c. An extensive view of the surrounding country is obtained from the top, and a map, incised in stone, with compass and locating apparatus, is provided for instructing the children in local geography. Everything is being done in the designing of details—carved and painted panels, &c.—to make the building itself a permanent means of educating the children; the subjects chosen include historical scenes, truthfully depicted as regards dress, customs, architecture, &c., while in the bosses and voussoirs are represented English flowers and foliage, conventionally treated. The carving is executed by Mr. Benjamin Creswick, of Birmingham.
In the designing of the building every effort has been made to embody the latest improvements and the result of the most broad-minded and enlightened study of education.
Gardens are provided for the instruction of the children in gardening, vegetable growing, &c.
The low death-rate at Bournville during 1904 of 6·9 per thousand, compared with 19 per thousand in Birmingham, is some indication of the healthiness of the village. The figures are taken from the report of the district medical officer of health.
PLATE IX.
RUSKIN HALL,
BOURNVILLE.
PLATE X.
MEETING HOUSE,
BOURNVILLE.
PLATE XI.
MEETING HOUSE,
BOURNVILLE.
It is not proposed to deal here with the economics of model village or garden city schemes generally. Though the movement is still very young, it is already advancing from the problematical stage. Its progress is being watched with the keenest interest by many who realise that of all courses the most impracticable in the long run is that which allows the slum-suburb to spring up unchecked.
If it be asked, with regard to the problem of the housing of the people, what is Bournville’s contribution towards its solution, it would be stating its claims at the lowest to say that it stands as an example of what the village of the future may be, a village of healthy homes amid pleasant surroundings, where fresh air is abundant and beauty present, and where are secured to its people by an administration co-operative in nature numerous benefits which under present conditions are denied them elsewhere.