Background
John Cadbury was born in Birmingham to Richard Tapper Cadbury, who was from a wealthy Quaker family that moved to the area from the west of England.
John Cadbury was born in Birmingham to Richard Tapper Cadbury, who was from a wealthy Quaker family that moved to the area from the west of England.
John Cadbury developed an emulsification process to make solid chocolate - creating the modern chocolate Barometer As a Quaker in the early 19th century, he was not allowed to enter a university, so could not pursue a profession such as medicine or law. Two years later, in 1850, the Cadbury brothers pulled out of the retail business, leaving it in the hands of John"s son, Richard Barrow Cadbury.
(Barrow"s remained a leading Birmingham store until the 1960s)
Cadbury married twice.
In 1879 they relocated to an area of what was then north Worcestershire, on the borders of the parishes of Northfield and King"s Norton centred on the Georgian-built Bournbrook Hall, where they developed the garden village of Bournville. Now a major suburb of Birmingham.
The family developed the Cadbury"s factory, which remains the main United Kingdom manufacturing site of the business. The district around the factory has been "dry" for over 100 years, with no alcohol being sold in pubs, bars or shops.
Residents have fought to maintain this, winning a court battle in March 2007 with Britain"s biggest supermarket chain Tesco, to prevent it selling alcohol in its local outlet.
