Cadbury Railway & (Waterside) Wharf

1884 - 1976

Construction began on the Cadbury chocolate factory at Bournville in 1879 at a time when the business had outgrown its premises in Bridge Street in Birmingham City Centre and George and Richard Cadbury had identified a greenfield site in south Birmingham as a prime site for development. The site was in a then semi-rural setting and had considerable advantages in meeting the philanthropic and business aims of the Quaker Cadburys:

• Ready supply of clean water from the Bournebrook
• Close proximity of the Worcester - Birmingham canal
• Clean air and pleasant surroundings for housing their workers
• The Birmingham West Suburban line (and the then-Stirchley Street station) bordering the proposed factory site.

Initially, the factory exported/imported produce/supplies by means of horse and cart that conveyed the goods across the factory and along Bournville Lane up to a small canal wharf or along Pershore Road to the railway goods facilities at Lifford. However, with the factory expanding rapidly, a scheme of greater capacity was required and a single line was built from the factory to an exchange siding along the Midland line opening in 1884 and operated by a single locomotive.

Continuing expansion led to a corresponding expansion in the railway system at the factory. Six miles of standard gauge track were eventually built and in 1925 a dierct link between the factory and its Waterside Wharf (seen at the top of the page) was completed by way of a bridge spanning both the Midland's Birmingham West Suburban line and the Worcester - Birmingham canal just north of Bournville station (Stirchley Street station being renamed Bournville in 1904 after several combinations of the two names). Above-left we are standing on Bournville Lane looking at the site of the engine shed (SP074814). During the course of the railway's time in operation at the factory, 15 locos were owned by Cadbury's (numbers 11 - 14 being diesel shunters, the first of which being delivered in 1958), with the first loco being unnumbered and simply named 'Cadbury'. Above-right we have the shed to our left and are looking along the 'trackbed' towards (but distantly out of shot) the point where it inclines and crosses the railway immediately to the right and canal beyond it to loop back on itself and serve the wharf facilities.

In the shot above-left the railway ran from left-to right along where the truck trailers are parked in the foreground. Additionally, immediately to the right of the building carrying the 'Bournville' monicker came a double-track from the other side of the factory that linked with the aforementioned line to head-off to the right on its way to its sidings with the Midland main line and Waterside Wharf. Above-right again we have the track approaching from left to right and track approaching between the group of white truck trailers and the car park to its right. Both photographs were taken from the towpath of the Worcester - Birmingham canal with the wharf to our rear and the Midland line in between ourselves and the factory: Cadburys are notorious for being heavily anti-photography due to a strong concern regarding industrial espionage so zoomed shots from the canal are as good as it gets unfortunately!

Above-left beyond the Midland line we would have seen the tracks of the factory running alongside beginning its incline to meet the Midland line and beyond it to take a the steep curved gradient to gain sufficient height to cross the Midland line a short distance away. Interestingly, to the immediate right of the cabling gantry in this shot you can make-out a trackside 'telegraph pole' - one of the few remaining signs of the railway not now removed. Above-right we see the site of the sidings and connection with the Midland line.

Above-left is the most significant and impressive (and sadly only remaining) structure dating from the railway - the large-span bridge over the Midland line and Worcester - Birmingham canal (and beyond it you can just make-out the bridge carrying Raddlebarn Road). Above-right we are directly under the bridge as I thought the structure of the bridge bed was of significant interest being constructed of brick arches running cross-ways to the iron-framed structure. The bridge appear in remarkably good condition and I assume it will be standing for many years to come as it is not in dangerous disrepair and would cost a small fortune to remove requiring the closure of the Cross-City line and the enormous disruption to not only local, but national, traffic this would cause: the canal too would need to be closed for such and undertaking. The view we see is from the canal towpath looking to the point the bridge reached the bank of the wharf.