Note.—The cost is given of all cottages where the accommodation, materials, &c., are fully described, with the exception of one or two cases in which the cottages are owned privately. As most of the examples given have been built by the Bournville Village Trust, it should be noted that the figures stated include an addition to the net cost of 3¾ per cent. as builder’s profit.
PLATE II.
THE TRIANGLE.
BOURNVILLE.
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.
