Cadbury Bournville Chocotoff Dark Chocolate Coated Toffee Bag 250g, 4263142

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My own childhood home two miles away was built at the turn of the last century, and like most of my family I attended the school built by Cadbury so that his workforce could give their children a good education. Once a week we would march through the imposing steel factory gates on our way to the Cadbury swimming pool. When the wind changed direction, the smell of chocolate wafted over the playground. Now that Kraft has upped its offer – and borrowed much of the money to finance it – it is likely that it too will be looking for assets to sell.

Cadbury Bournville Chocotoff Dark Chocolate Coated Toffee 250g

The other thing Bournville is noted for is its beautiful "frozen in time" houses. Originally built for Cadbury workers, they remain more or less intact from when they were built at the end of the 19th Century.

The immediate fear is that the factory will eventually be closed with the loss of about 5,000 jobs, but there is also concern that the social fabric of the area could tear without the focal point the factory seems to provide for its 30,000 or so inhabitants. Club chairperson, Dave Powner, said: "Our members all share the common aim – the desire to run, to improve our performance and enjoy the experience of running," he said. We look to encourage the runner in all of us and to make membership of Bournville Harriers as fulfilling an experience as possible." Read More Related Articles

Exploring Bournville village Selly Manor | Exploring Bournville village

Paul Clarke, a manager at Cadbury for most of his working life until he left in 2004, says he fears political pressure may not be enough to keep the company in Bournville. "How does a community talk to a company that has no roots?" he says. The playing fields host a Mayflower festival ever year, and on Christmas Eve the 48-bell carillon in the school bell tower plays O Come All Ye Faithful as 7,000 people crowd around a huge decorated tree on the green to sing carols. Such community rituals are unusual in a city that has taken a generation to recover from the deindustrialisation of the 1980s. But they are all subject to Bournville Village's strict planning regulations and all have the same frontage. How long before the walls of the "rest house" in the centre of the village green, where mods in parkas used to gather when I was a 10-year-old, is daubed with "Yanks Out" graffiti?

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When I returned to Bournville this week, pulling into the familiar railway station – now painted a Dairy Milk purple – beside the sprawling factory, I found despondent workers and angry locals. The loss is felt more acutely locally because of the rollcall of well-known brands that have already closed or moved away, including Dunlop, HP Sauce and MG Rover, whose Longbridge base was just three miles away. "Many of the people who worked at Rover now work at Cadbury," Clarke says. The area is predominantly white, although the mixed workforce includes Polish workers. The trust, which handles a huge waiting list for its affordable homes where rents are low, hands out a significant number to single mothers and families on low incomes. There is no poverty, but there are few signs of ostentatious wealth in a place that comes close to capturing the essence of that elusive phrase, "middle England". As well as helping less experienced runners achieve their potential, it was also ambitious and helped its members compete at the highest level. The Cadbury family's involvement with the company ended long ago, but the paternalism practised by George Cadbury endured long after his death.